Interview with Glenda Caesar
- Title
- Interview with Glenda Caesar
- Description
- Glenda Caesar was born in Dominica but moved to the UK at 3 months old in 1961. Like her, many victims of the Windrush scandal lost their job. This was the result of being unable to produce a current British passport following the introduction of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 or prove their right to British citizenship.
- Associated dates
- 1961
- 2009
- interviewee
- Glenda Caesar
- Location
- Dominica
- Collection
- Restricting the Right to ‘Britishness’
- Provenance
- This oral history excerpt has been drawn from the scoping project ‘Nationality, Identity and Belonging: An Oral History of the ‘Windrush Generation’ and their Relationship to the British State, 1948-2018'.
- Rights
- This material, including photograph, cannot be reproduced without permission.
Transcript:
-
"He wanted something to say that I had the right to work in England, so I said, well, I’ve got the right to work in England because I’ve been working all my life, you know, and I said I’ve just sort of like semi-retired and taken this job on. No – that isn’t good enough, we’re going to get fined, we’ll get this and we’ll get that. So I said ok, phone the Home Office, I’ll wait right here for them to come and get me. And he did. He contacted the Home Office, and they said, is she in the position? He said yes, and they said ok, but he wasn’t happy with that, and it was getting to me because it was like a continuous thing. Every, every day he would be going on, he’d be going on, and then on the 6th of November 2009 he dismissed me from my job for gross misconduct. He actually stated in the letter the grounds upon which you’ve been dismissed are gross misconduct, namely any breach of a statute which directly affects your ability to carry out your duties or the characteristics of your position. This relates to your refusal or inability to produce a valid passport with a valid work permit, which is required under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality 2006 Act."
"He wanted something to say that I had the right to work in England, so I said, well, I’ve got the right to work in England because I’ve been working all my life, you know, and I said I’ve just sort of like semi-retired and taken this job on. No – that isn’t good enough, we’re going to get fined, we’ll get this and we’ll get that. So I said ok, phone the Home Office, I’ll wait right here for them to come and get me. And he did. He contacted the Home Office, and they said, is she in the position? He said yes, and they said ok, but he wasn’t happy with that, and it was getting to me because it was like a continuous thing. Every, every day he would be going on, he’d be going on, and then on the 6th of November 2009 he dismissed me from my job for gross misconduct. He actually stated in the letter the grounds upon which you’ve been dismissed are gross misconduct, namely any breach of a statute which directly affects your ability to carry out your duties or the characteristics of your position. This relates to your refusal or inability to produce a valid passport with a valid work permit, which is required under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality 2006 Act."