(Transcript from World News Radio)
British immigrants, tired of what they see as a negative portrayal in the media, have launched a campaign to respond to what they call racial vilification ahead of May's elections.
Thousands of people have donated money to fund a series of billboards reading, "I am an immigrant."
The billboards have appeared around London in a bid to counter the xenophobia and negative attitudes the immigrants say they encounter regularly.
Will Mumford reports.
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When traindriver Mary Sithole moved to Britain from Zimbabwe 20 years ago, she never imagined she would end up as a face of British immigration.
Now, she is one of several faces of a new campaign aimed at combating the racism and xenophobia immigrants in Britain say they live with.
By being part of the campaign in the lead-up to May's general elections, Ms Sithole says she is standing up to those attitudes.
"At the moment, the political climate isn't really being positive about immigrants, and I just want to make the atmosphere more positive."
Immigration is a key political battleground in Britain.
The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants says xenophobia is on the rise in the country.
The council has started a campaign called The Movement Against Xenophobia to combat racist stereotypes.
As part of that, it is placing posters around the country that read, "I am an immigrant," featuring photos of various British immigrants and describing what they have achieved.
The legal and policy director at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, Saira Grant, says immigrants regularly face false and misleading accusations.
"Immigrants are blamed for a lot of things -- for taking jobs, for low-paid wages, for taking houses."
The campaign has been funded entirely by donations, with a-thousand-and-500 strangers crowdfunding more than 100-thousand dollars in little over two weeks.
Ms Grant says that result shows Britons are sick of racist attitudes.
"Xenophobia doesn't sit comfortably with the British public. People are sick and tired of listening to the scapegoating of immigrants, because, let's not forget, immigrants are friends, are colleagues, are lovers. And we just hope, by giving a face to this category of immigrants, we will humanise the debate a little bit."
Mental-health nurse Rosemarie Ramkissoon was also photographed for the campaign.
She says a lot of the popular narratives about immigrants are not based on fact.
"People will say, 'I don't mind you, because you're from the Caribbean, it's exotic, but it's the people who come from Africa, or the people who come and pretend that they've got war where they are because it's an easy place to get benefits' -- which is so untrue for the people who I know. I don't know a lot of people who don't work who are immigrants."
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