Meet Muhammad.
A young Kurd from North London.
Muhammad’s Story
Muhammad was born in London and grew up on an estate in North London. His family is originally from Elazığ, a Kurdish majority city in Turkey’s Eastern Anatolia. Like many other Kurds, Muhammad’s family moved from Turkey to the UK in the late 1980s.
With neither of his parents around much, Muhammad grew up having to take care of himself. After his parents’ separation, he started getting into trouble at school and hanging out with the wrong crowd, often finding himself excluded or expelled.
By the time Muhammad was a teenager, he was no stranger to confrontation with the police. He laughs as he recalls a time when used a kebab knife to defend his house, which led to a police armed response unit arresting him on the spot. However, at eighteen years old, he reached a turning point in his life after spending time in prison. When he was released on conditional bail, he had nowhere to go. His only option was to stay at his local hostel, the YMCA.
Life was tough there – violence and drugs were part of daily life. Looking back at his time, he reflects: “The lifestyle in the YMCA was pretty messed up. I mean where have you ever seen that the whole block smokes? The whole block literally smokes weed. You go into the building, the smell of weed is everywhere - every floor, even downstairs in the reception, around the building. So yeah, it’s pretty easy for someone who’s a good person, to come in there fresh with ambition, and literally fuck up.” During his year there, his mental health took a turn for the worse and he started struggling with chronic depression. Eventually, he was evicted due to not paying rent, finding himself homeless.
“Being homeless was hard. It means you have nowhere to stay. You haven’t got a home.”
Muhammad spent many nights sleeping from sofa to sofa at friends’ and extended family’s houses. He painfully remembers how lonely he felt during this time, and how easy it would have been to give up. While Muhammad was eventually able to move back into a council flat, he still feels strongly about the issue of homelessness. When he can afford to do so, he spends his time handing out food and warm drinks to people sleeping rough in Chingford. He understands more than anyone else what it feels like.
“When you’re at the bottom, there’s nowhere else you can go but up. The reason why I’m still here today is because I’m a strong-willed person. Never, ever give up. Never. The moment you give up, you’ve lost everything.”
For Muhammad, as well as for many young Kurds in London, keeping in touch with his identity is important. He has only been to Turkey a few times in his life but still stays firmly connected to his roots. He loves to blast Kurdish folk music down the high street and teach his non-Kurdish friends how to dance the halay. While his Kurdish is limited, he tends to speak in Turkish with his friends and family. Muhammad tells me that he has never felt accepted anywhere. In the UK, he often feels like a stranger in the country he was born in, and in Turkey, he doesn’t feel ‘Kurdish’ enough.
Over the last few years, Muhammad has tried to turn his life around. Now in his mid-twenties, he has decided to go back to college and study to become a mechanic. He works between construction jobs and night shifts at his uncle’s kebab shop. Working hours are long, often finishing at 3am. However, he is proud of himself for leaving behind his past of crime and violence. With Islam now playing a role in his life, he has decided he wants to make a halal living – even if it means earning less money.
“I might not wear the full ‘thing’ but that doesn’t mean I’m not religious. At the end of the day, I’ve got faith. Faith is called iman. That’s something that you have inside of you that makes you strong.”
One day, when he is financially stable enough, Muhammad dreams of leaving London to make a quiet life for himself in Elazığ, the rural province his family left behind over forty years ago.
Muhammad’s story echoes those of many other young people across London - especially within the Turkish, Kurdish and Turkish Cypriot communities. His story highlights experiences of gang violence, mental health struggles, poverty and homelessness. They shed light on the reality of many estates around the city, leaving children exposed to a world that is often violent, hostile and unforgiving. As Muhammad has pointed out, many children feel as though they have been let down by the education system, and in turn, have been sucked into a world that promises them more.
While Muhammad has tried to leave the past behind them, his wounds have not yet healed. He worries that his past will catch up on him one day. The violence that has been engrained in his world from a young age has left deep marks. Without the necessary support, he has found it difficult to move forward. And yet, despite his struggles, he has courageously tried to negotiate a new life for himself.
His story also highlights the plight of many immigrants, in particular of an older generation who speak little English but work long, hard hours to give their children a better life - never imagining their sons ending up behind bars one day. The tears of countless mothers and fathers are a bitter reminder of this reality. They are left wondering where they went wrong, and how different life might have been if they had not left their home country.
However, Muhammad’s story has highlighted the strength that comes from his identity: he is proud of who he is and where he comes from. Despite growing up in London, most of what he lives is Kurdish: the music he listens to, the food he eats, the slang he speaks – even the dreams he carries, yearning to move back to his homeland one day. And yet, his experiences within a larger Turkish diaspora are complex and nuanced. As a Kurd, there is a level of resistance to mainstream Turkish culture and society. However, there is also a closeness and intimacy with Turkey, a country that feels like a familiar yet faraway home from his estate in North London.
The Turkish population in the UK is estimated to be around 500,000. Three distinct groups make up this community: Turks, Turkish Cypriots and Kurds from Turkey. Each group has its own distinct culture, language, religious practices and migration histories. According to the Home Affairs Committee, there are over 300,000 Turkish Cypriots in the UK, making up the largest group within the Turkish diaspora. However, since the late 1980s, there has been a significant rise in the migration of Kurds due to conflict in Turkey - many of whom are refugees. Kurds, despite making up a significant proportion of London’s Turkish population, are often said to constitute an ‘invisible’ minority.