Living in Sheffield: Our journeys as migrant women

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“Living in Sheffield: our journeys as migrant women” is my first book, and it features the stories of eight female migrants who have made Sheffield their home. They come from a wide range of backgrounds, covering different ages, races, and beliefs. They were born in places as distinct and varied as Angola, Brazil, Japan, Italy, Mexico, Slovakia, Somaliland and Ukraine. Through hearing their stories, as told by them, we find out what is unique about each of them, and also what unites them as migrant women. Although these women have all chosen to lay down roots in the same UK city, many of the experiences they share and the challenges that they have had to overcome will be familiar to female migrants in many other parts of the world. One thing that they all have in common is that they are all special people who are contributing to their communities and adding so much diversity to Sheffield and the UK.

Alongside the women who share their stories, this book is also being created in collaboration with other talented female migrants, including the illustrator Susana Viñolo, the graphic designer Thais Bircak and the photographer Daniella Sasaki.

I have always loved connecting people. This book, in some way, is an eternal connection between myself, the interviewed women, the professionals involved and the readers in Sheffield and everywhere else.

About the author

I am a Brazilian journalist who is passionate about culture and diversity, and I have been living in the UK for 6 years. When I moved to the UK I encountered many challenges, including in finding work in the field of communication, which requires a high level of English. This was very frustrating, but I never gave up on being a communicator. It is a strong part of my identity, and I am a professional with a lot of creative and inclusive ideas. This was the motivation behind creating the Instagram account called @livinginsheffield, where I promote the city that welcomed me so well. I use the space to spread the word about interesting events across the city, promote great independent businesses, and share about the tours and workshops that I organise. This has strengthened my personal connection with Sheffield.

Inspiration for this book

I have never found any books about female migrants that were written by migrant women in Sheffield. The aim of this book is to inspire and empower other female migrants, and to help the wider community to understand the difficulties that come with building a life in a new country. By sharing these stories, I also aim to show the positive impact that migrants can have.

In 2020, when we had our first lockdown in the UK, I felt completely lost. I was unemployed and reflecting a lot on what I wanted to do. I started to look through some emails that I had sent to myself a year earlier with some project ideas. They became the first sketches for this book – I had had the idea to write a book about my own experience as a female migrant in the UK, but I didn’t have the courage to execute it at that time. As I started to think about the idea for the book again, I also began thinking about the other female migrants that I had met on my journey in Sheffield. I started to make contact with them and asked if they would agree to reply to a questionnaire with some initial questions and if, afterwards, they would be happy for me to interview them (via Zoom) for the book. Based on these interviews I have been writing the stories of these inspirational women, highlighting the challenges that they have faced and the things that they have achieved.

This is a book made by female migrants, about female migrants. However, the content inside should be read by anyone who appreciates diversity and wants to know more about how migration is an important matter in this country.

Now I am ready for the manuscript to be published. It is just expensive to self-publish it as the process include paying for the professionals’ services, the company that will print it, the proofreading, the ISBN number (every book an author wants to sell, needs to have this code) and delivery costs.

I know the resilience that is needed to adapt to life in a new country/culture and learn a new language as an adult, and I can say that completing this book will be my dream becoming a printed reality. And you all will also be part of it by supporting me to reach this important achievement!