Where is ‘home for you’? Tell us a bit about what makes it home!
For me, home is where you feel safe, where you have built your life, where you have built friendships, relationships, and made memories. Perhaps where you've built a career or where you see yourself living in the foreseeable future. For me, the UK is my home, because I have done all of those things.
What does being an ‘EU/European citizen’ mean to you?
Being an EU citizen means I have the freedom to work, travel, and establish myself in any other EU country as I want, and knowing that my rights will be protected in that country regardless of my citizenship.
What do you do for a living?
I am a student at the moment, having just finished my second year of university.
How many languages do you speak?
I can speak two languages fluently, Romanian and English, and I can carry myself in a conversation in French.
How long have you been a YEN volunteer for?
I have been involved with YEN since March this year, when I became aware of their work around voting rights for EU citizens in local elections.
Is Pluto a planet?
No. I will not elaborate further.
What do you do in the Young Europeans Network?
As part of the Young Europeans Network, I have been part of some initiatives on the ground in my hometown, helping to bring awareness to fellow Europeans in the town of their rights. This often meant going into shops and talking to the local Romanian diaspora, and putting up leaflets in likely hotspots for European people. Other than that, I have also translated some media into Romanian, from leaflets and posters to video subtitles.
If you could ask the Home Office to change 3 things about UK immigration policy, what would these be?
Firstly, I would ask the Home Office to end its hostile environment policy, which does nothing to achieve its goals of deterring illegal migration. This policy has not only caused harm to non-EU communities for years, but will now be extended to EU communities as well. Secondly, I would reduce the cost of gaining citizenship, to a more reasonable figure which reflects the actual cost of processing a citizenship application; the current high cost of citizenship is a ruthless and disproportionate instrument which excludes low-income migrants from achieving citizenship. Finally, I would ask the Home Office to begin producing physical documents for those who have gained settled and pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme. The government's online immigration infrastructure is unfit for use, as we saw last month when
gov.uk was taken offline, and when people had to wait for more than an hour just to use an online portal to apply for settled status.
What can politicians in the UK do to increase the representation and participation of young people in decision-making?
In my opinion, politicians could increase the representation and participation of young people in decision making by reaching out and contacting organisations such as ours which involve young people. There are signs this is happening, as we were invited by the Home Office to discuss what issues we had with the EU Settlement Scheme and general immigration concerns, but this needs to be on a larger scale and revolve around all issues relevant to young people, such as high knife crime, lack of affordable housing, and general economic and ecologic uncertainty.