‘Our voices are rarely in the conversation’: apathy rife among UK voters with immigrant roots

With less than a week to go before polling day, many voters with immigrant backgrounds feel apathy towards both Labour and the Conservatives .

Lara Parizotto, executive director of the Migrant Democracy Project, which campaigns to ensure migrants in the UK have equal access to voting, said they felt underrepresented and ignored by politicians.

"Our active voices are rarely in the conversations," she said. "We call the UK our home, and things happen without our existence. We're used as bargaining chips by politicians."

Parizotto said that migrants are rarely asked which policies they want to see or how policies would affect their lives. "It's always passive rather than active, and I wish the media would look at migrants as everyday residents."

She added: "At the end of the day, migrants are people and they're interested and concerned about the state of housing policies, the NHS, the economy [and] their rights as workers."

According to the Migrant Democracy Project, more than 5 million UK residents will be unable to vote in this general election. Only British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens are allowed to vote in UK general elections, so migrants who have settled status and have lived in the UK, even for decades, may still be excluded.

"They're not going to be able to vote in this election, but they're residents – they live here, work and pay taxes," said Parizotto. Out of the main parties, only the Liberal Democrats and the Greens have included extending the right to vote to all UK residents in their manifestos.

Among second-generation immigrants, too, there is disillusionment and pessimism. Neither of the main candidates have won over young ethnic minority voters. They will be trying to choose "the better out of a bad bunch", said Zayn Hassan, a 22-year-old working at a private equity company in London.

Hassan grew up in a working-class household but attended a private school on a bursary. "It was presupposed that I should be supporting Labour , because that was the party that represented the interests of the working class," he said. But he is planning to vote Conservative, as he fears that Labour will tax him more heavily.

He supports Tory immigration policies, citing "population density, overcrowding hospitals and schools", although he is concerned about Islamophobia within the party and Rishi Sunak's continued support for Israel's campaign in Gaza.

However, he said: "They [Tory and Labour] probably believe the same thing: that I'm someone to be feared. And to be honest, the fabric of this country is Islamophobic and there's not much I can do about that."

In Kent, 20-year-old Jamaican-British Sinead Parker is planning to tactically vote Labour to oust the Conservative party. Although Parker said her true political affiliations are with the Greens, she feels "[the] Greens may not have enough seats to make much of a difference". A vote for Labour, she hopes, will fix 14 years of Tory incompetency.

She said the Windrush scandal had left a stain on the Conservative government and mistrust among migrants from Caribbean nations, who had not received "proper thanks or recognition".

Despite opposing voting intentions, Hassan and Parker shared the same sentiment of feeling trapped in the UK's two-party system. "I'm choosing to vote for hopefully the lesser of the two evils," Parker added.

She felt people of colour were underrepresented in the media and by MPs. "I don't think we have had our voices represented – usually, when it comes to the media, we're the last people to be heard from.

"My vote still matters even if I'm underrepresented. It may not be right now, [but] maybe my vote could affect the future in which more people like me ... can join parliament."

Sanjeedah Ahmed, a 20-year-old university student, was once a Labour supporter but has since revoked her allegiance because of the party's handling of the war in Gaza. "I feel very strongly let down by both the Conservative and Labour party with their lack of support for Palestine," she said. She will be voting Green.

Ahmed also felt that people of colour were underrepresented in parliament. "[Sunak] and other [ethnic minority] MPs in the Tory party [are] so removed from the mindset of your average person of colour in this country, so they aren't representative or relatable to us in any way."