A POLISH fire-fighter from Scotland is one of the faces of a new UK-wide campaign aiming to tackle negative attitudes to immigrants.
Nearly 1000 posters are being displayed across the UK at train stations and on giant billboards as part of a project to highlight the contribution immigrants are making to society.
One of those who volunteered to take part was Lukas Belina, 28, a fire-fighter from Dundee, who came to Scotland from Poland in 2007 after hearing "lots of stories of how beautiful Scotland is".
The poster featuring his story reads: "For seven years I have been saving lives and your life could be saved next."
Belina said: "I am an immigrant and proud to be part of a campaign to celebrate immigrants as part of the fabric of multicultural Britain and for making a massive contribution to society.
"It is a fantastic idea to let people know how much we immigrants are contributing to Britain's economy, culture and society."
Belina said he had never personally experienced any discrimination while living in Scotland, but felt the subject of immigration in the run-up to the general election had turned into a "toxic and dangerous debate".
"Immigrants are tired of being blamed for all the ills of this country," he said. "We are constantly under attack from politicians and the media.
"Sometimes I feel that politicians are using us as a tool in their political games - but we are human beings.
"People in this campaign are from all corners of the world and have one thing in common - living and working in Britain."
He added: "I love it here; Scotland is such a beautiful country and people in general are nice and respectful towards me.
"I do plan to stay in Scotland permanently, I can't imagine living anywhere else."
The "I am an Immigrant" campaign highlights the contributions of 15 immigrants, with the poster images taken by Vogue photographer Philip Volkers.
Among those featured are a postman from Greece, a bus driver from Kashmir, a mental health nurse from Trinidad and Tobago, and a female England rugby player from Malaysia.
The campaign, which is being run by the Movement Against Xenophobia (MAX) network, was financed through crowdfunding, with just over £54,000 raised in three weeks.
Saira Grant, legal and policy director at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), which organises MAX, said: "Posters have only generally been afforded by big political parties in the run-up to the general election, as they cost so much to put up in advertising spaces.
"We just thought it was about time - given the negative political rhetoric and constant scapegoating of migrants over the last few years - that we needed to put a positive message forward.
"However we have been very clear that this is not party political. Most parties are guilty of scapegoating immigrants."
The posters are being displayed in the run up to the general election on May 7. A website has also been created - iamanimmigrant.net - where people can upload photos and share their own stories.
Grant said the idea was also to extend the campaign globally, with the International Organisation for Migration backing the initiative.
She added: "We do not want the campaign to stop, we want it to last beyond the general election and we want every migrant to contribute and join the campaign.
"The idea where the campaign came from is that when you know people, when there is a human face, it is a very different story in terms of the reaction.
"When an immigrant is in a 'dehumanised' category then they get blamed for all the ills of society - but if it is your children's teacher or your dentist or whatever, then it's a completely different attitude.
"The idea was to humanise the debate. Immigrants are not some category to be vilified - these are real people."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article