It was early 2022, another dark day in London. Lovina Shenoy was new to the city, navigating her way through an unfamiliar and sometimes overwhelming environment.
Have you tried India?
— Jonathan Wong (@WGthink) May 19, 2025
Lovina is part of the largest immigrant group to the UK.
According to the 2021-22 UK Census, an estimated 32% of all foreign-born residents in the UK came from five countries: Poland, Pakistan, Romania, Ireland and India.
Indians made up the highest number of immigrants to the UK with 965,000 people, representing 9% of foreign-born residents.
Following that initial coffee get-together, Lovina started the Indian Women in London & UK (IWLUK) group on Facebook in March 2022.
Shortly after, she started a number of WhatsApp groups according to specific-locations. In just over three years, there are more than 38,000 members on Facebook and 15,000 women across WhatsApp.
Lovina and the group’s other three admins, Prableen Rupra, Disha Rawat and Nishi Gill, say that they recognised several challenges faced by migrant women in a new country so worked to tackle it.
They say they established IWLUK to bridge the gap between expats and UK-born Indian women, with the aim of fostering connections through various social and business networking events.
