I arrived in the UK just over eleven years ago from Brazil, eager and ready to build my career and life many thousands of miles away from home.

Fast forward to 2018 and I have just received in the post my first British passport. Hooray? Yes, hooray now, but even though I was lucky enough to first “enter” the UK immigration system in pre-“hostile environment” times, the journey from being a Brazilian citizen to a British one hasn’t been easy.

There were the exorbitant fees – for a spousal visa, indefinite leave to remain, and finally citizenship – the intrusive document requests, the unnecessarily vicious questions from border security at airports, and the underlying feeling that nags away at most immigrants in the UK – the feeling that you are a second-class citizen.

Sometimes it is not just a feeling and your status is made very clear to you. For instance, when I gave notice of marriage a couple of years ago, because my indefinite leave to remain label was in an expired passport – which is allowed by the Home Office – the computer said “no” and the Home Office ignored the registrar’s note saying she was satisfied I had the right to be in this country. Cue, a letter arriving in the post notifying me and my husband-to-be that we are being investigated to ensure we are not about to embark in a sham marriage. It was only after I wrote my own strongly-worded letter back to them pointing out their mistake, that they decided to apologise and confirm we were actually not under investigation.

Why am I writing about my personal experience? Because that’s what motivated me to apply for the party’s immigration and identity working group. The work we have been doing for the last 18 months – with fantastic people from a range of backgrounds – has resulted in the policy paper that we are presenting at conference next month.

We spent months collecting evidence and consulting with interested groups and individuals. Many organisations gave evidence, among them British Future, who have been conducting research with Hope not Hate; the Refugee Council, who helpfully detailed some of the problems with the UK’s asylum and detention systems; and expert lawyers, who gave evidence about visa processes. As we were drafting the paper, I was grateful to see that the policy group was on the same page. We all wanted migration and asylum policies that were compassionate, positive, humane and realistic. After all, it is not inconceivable that the Liberal Democrats could be in government again, so our policies need to not promise things we can’t deliver.

But realism doesn’t mean being inhumane, xenophobic and cruel, the characteristics that have defined Theresa May’s period as Home Secretary and Prime Minister. We are proposing to scrap the “hostile environment” and implement structural and cultural changes that will see migrants, as well as asylum seekers and refugees treated fairly and with dignity.

We will also end the unfair spousal income threshold meaning British citizens will no longer have to prove they earn a certain amount and have property or savings in order to bring their husbands and wives to the UK. Liberal Democrats are not in the business of cruelly separating families and will put an end to this vile policy.

Recently, when applying for my first British passport, I was asked to give pages and pages of irrelevant information about my family, which I refused to do. Despite having already been granted citizenship, I was then summoned to attend an interview, so my identity could be confirmed. Up until that moment, I felt I was still being treated like garbage. I had to call the passport office a number of times to confirm my appointment and never received an email with details of what to do on the day.

Even though I am a British citizen and now have my passport, I still get this nagging feeling that because I wasn’t born here, I will continue to be seen as foreign for as long as Theresa May’s “hostile environment” exists.

For that reason, I was personally keen to push for language in our paper that reflected our intention, as Liberal Democrats, to create liberal and compassionate migration and asylum policies. We want to celebrate people who, like me, have chosen to make Britain their home. We are determined to care for those who turn to our country in their hour of need, and to strive to help communities to integrate and welcome all newcomers. I am confident we have achieved that.

* Thais Portilho is Head of Communications at ActionAid International and Vice-Chair of the Immigration and Identity policy working group.