After welcoming their first guest a week before the Covid-19 lockdown, London couple Rebecca and Alex were inspired to become regular hosts for Refugees at Home, taking them on a journey involving Gen Z, TikTok, and making new Christmas traditions.

For them, the idea to host a refugee started with a neighbour. The person next door had started to host with Refugees at Home and, inspired by the act, and a long-standing concern for the wellbeing of refugees, the couple welcomed their first guest just days before the Covid-19 pandemic turned their two-week placement into an indefinite one.

“It was really fortunate,” said Rebecca. “He was wonderful and we’re still very close with him. We got along well, which is good because we spent the whole pandemic locked down together!”

To date, the pair have hosted six guests, all of whom have made a lasting impression.

Alex said: “We are still in touch with every single person who has come to our house in one way or another, and some we see or hear from more than others, but every single person that has come has stayed a part of our lives.”

“That first guest who stayed with us during lockdown now has his refugee status, he’s got his passport and he’s been through so much. And we’ve done that with him; it’s so enriching to our lives.”

As an LGBT couple, they feel a particular affinity for those who have experienced discrimination, and most of their guests to date have been part of the LGBT community.

Rebecca said: “I guess we’ve got our own niche of hosting LGBT people. It’s quite validating for us to help people in our wider global community, but it’s also inspiring to hear their stories because we’ve been lucky enough to not have faced anything like the stigma and homophobia they’ve had to deal with.”

“It’s incredible to see people come out of their shells and go from being insecure in who they are to fully fledged members of the community and living their life openly and without fear of prejudice. A couple of the people we’ve hosted seem like different people now because they’re able to be themselves and it’s as simple as that.”

One of those people was a young woman they hosted over the festive period. “She was young and very much the Gen Z influencer type,” said Alex. “It illuminated a generational divide that I’d never experienced. It was so fun because we were experiencing the life of young people we’d only read about in newspapers and there she was making TikTok videos with our cats.”

“She was super cool, an inspiring woman. She’d been through a lot in her life and chatting to her about it was really interesting and heartening; it gave us both a lot of insight into her journey, but also a lot of faith in the resilience of young people and their ability to do difficult and special things.”

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