Guardian feature on Latin Americans in London, one year on from launch of Trust research
The Guardian examines how one of London's most invisible communities, Latin Americans, are demanding greater official recognition to help them integrate further into mainstream society. It highlights a number of the issues raised in the research commissioned by Trust for London and the Latin American Women's Rights Service.
Produced by Queen Mary, University of London the report established the first robust estimate of the size of the community and explores a number of key economic and social features of the Latin American community in London. The article looks at what progress has been made since the launch of the research.
Claudio Chipana from the Latin American Recognition Campaign was asked for his views in the article: "Maybe the most important thing about the report is what it has done to the community," he says. " It's helped us to open a window on to ourselves so we can get to know who we are a bit better. It's also - in a relatively short space of time - given us a Latin American forum in which to co-ordinate our actions."
Earlier this year, the Trust for London agreed a grant of £90,000 to fund the forum to take forward a number of the recommendations which came out of the report. The groups involved in this aim to achieve official recognition of Latin Americans as an ethnic group, to improve enforcement of employment rights and to increase access to public services. Read the full article.