This is now our home, for now we are resisting, but we don’t know how long it will be possible.” Sister Erika Perini is a volcano, the last of the Worker Sisters, remaining to reside regularly in the city of Peterborough, 50 minutes by train from Cambridge, where families of mixed ethnicity are now the majority. The fast speech of someone who always has a lot of things to do, the contagious and reassuring smile, Sister Erika arrived in this former industrial city in 2018, but the presence of her congregation dates back to the 1960s, when a group of sisters came here together with the first Italians who migrated to the United Kingdom to work in local industries, mostly employed in the construction and railway construction sectors. For decades the congregation has provided educational support to the children of these workers, immigrants in a country they did not know, with all the ensuing difficulties, creating a point of reference for the new community that was forming. They have been essential in transmitting values and keeping Italian cultural and religious traditions alive, while promoting communication with the local population.
Many of the older residents have fond memories of them: they attended the kindergarten they founded, growing up between home and parish, taking part in the activities around which the life of the Italian community at the time revolved. After Brexit, however, the situation is changing and even the nuns risk being swept away by the rules for residence permits which have become much more restrictive. “Like everyone, we must be able to demonstrate that we have a paid job to remain in the country” says Sister Erika. «The last sisters arrived here with a tourist visa and after a while they have to leave. The problem is that we are not workers with the high professional qualifications required by the Brexit law: you find us in factories, in small companies. And we don’t have a salary, as the religious of other communities have, for example the Anglicans.”
Being Catholic nuns, they cannot even lead a parish and therefore to remain in England they must demonstrate that they have a sponsor, but in the last year the search has been really difficult. The last two found nothing and had to return to Italy, the Brazilian one who is now here has a tourist visa which does not allow her to stay for long. But there is also another problem: to pay the bills of the house where they live, the nuns had to switch to full-time work, neglecting what was the second part of their mission: the support and care for the most needy, brought always moving forward in collaboration with the other local parishes, in a continuous and profitable way.
«The most beautiful thing is to be part of the real process of integration of the various migratory realities» explains Sister Erika «because if there is one thing in which the United Kingdom has set a precedent it is this. Problems exist, as they do everywhere where people from different countries meet and live together, but here we have always moved forward together. Consider that my first part-time job was in a Pakistani laundry, where mainly Muslims work. Now, in the area where we are and where the Italian community once lived, there is the Asian community. We find ourselves between two mosques, but we continue to have our pastoral meetings together, we think about the same values. But I don’t know how long this will be possible. Brexit has called everything into question.”
The diocese of East Anglia, on which the worker nuns depend, is trying to help them by pursuing the only possible path, that of religious visas, but here too it is an uphill road. We need to find an ad hoc project, find the funds for the visas and it’s not easy. «We must operate in full legality, but we also don’t want to be a burden for the diocese. With the religious visa, my other sisters could not work as we always have, but at least we could rebuild a real congregation. Also because people’s needs not only exist, but are constantly increasing.” In fact, as everywhere, social problems have spread and religious representatives increasingly make up for and supplement the deficiencies of an insufficient healthcare network. “We have always been migrants among migrants” concludes Sister Erika. «We once shared logistical, educational and relationship problems. Now we are witnessing the great suffering of those who are waiting for a permit that risks never arriving.” The Lord will provide, says those who have faith. But who knows, maybe someone, even a little less high up, won’t be able to provide it first…
