Started work in the London law centre movement way back in the 1970s and threw myself into the work of providing legal advice services for migrants and refugees.

In 1989 I moved in the direction of policy analysis and public education and began 15 years of fascinating advocacy work with the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.

Even that wasn’t enough and in 2006 I helped found the Migrants’ Rights Network. MRN aimed to work with migrant rights projects across the UK and help strength their voices in the public debate about immigration policy.

I passed on responsibility to keeping that work going to a team of brilliant colleagues at the end of 2016 and since then I’ve set myself up as an all-purpose commentator on anything that touches migration.