Vacancier is my first adult book produced in a completely different way to my usual picture books. I created this as a silent book and it is currently part of the Silent Book Awards 2021. Vacancier is about the daily struggles immigrants face while making the journey to safer lands. I produced this book after seeing these two definitions.

An Expatriate is a person residing in a country other than their native country, often temporarily but sometimes permanently.

An Immigrant is a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence.

An article in the BBC states: ‘Often the former (an expat) is used to describe educated, rich professionals working abroad, while those in less privileged positions — for example, a maid in the Gulf states or a construction worker in Asia — are deemed foreign workers or migrant workers.’ So it comes down to the simple fact of race, wealth and position. Truly shocked by this I looked further into the true horrific journeys’ immigrants take to just live a better life while white, middle to upper classed people can hop from country to country pretty easily. The true extent of it came when I moved to Mexico, I myself identify as the latter a white and privileged person. I could easily move to Mexico, I met people like me who even had work and their visas just kept being extended. On the other hand people were risking their lives via ‘The Beast Train’ to leave Mexico and find a safer more financially secure home in America. This book is based around real peoples stories with real situations, each figure represents a country and what the people of that country face while crossing boarders. I hope this book, like it did for me, reminds us that we are all living amongst immigrants and migrants some risking everything just to be ignored.

If you would like work in this style please message me