ESRC Seminar Series - Briefing Paper 5 - Swansea University

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• Amplify migrant voices and perspectives and to reach and engage a diversity of audiences; • Facilitate workshops, events and mentoring activities and then to transfer skills, into the NGO sector; and • Research migration and produce media in the service of social justice A critical point for FOMACS is the politics of story telling - the politics of the voice in terms of migrant experiences. As Áine highlighted “…everybody has voices, everybody has agencies, however, the problem is not just about giving voice it is about having those voices heard meaningfully.” Áine identified the politics of listening as a major factor in the intersection between story and strategy, particularly in relation to the impact of social media campaigns and their ability to effect change. Drawing on Romand Coles’ work on the power of listening, Áine left us with the following quote: “A big part of the problem too, is likely to be that most of us do not listen to one another well if and when we listen at all. We have not only marginalized the arts of voice, we have, relatedly, and perhaps even more so, marginalized the arts of listening. Certainly the democratic arts of voice and listening are deeply related, but all too often we interpret and seek to nurture democracy through a lens that greatly accents the former and adds the latter almost as an afterthought. The alternative idea here is that if democratic voices are weak in a community, it is probably significantly because efforts to develop political voice have not dwelled in nor sufficiently passed through the arts of listening” (Coles, 2004, p.687) The presentation was concluded with the showing of a variety of examples of FOMACS work, each of which represented very different types of story telling. These included a documentary film, an excerpt from a feature length film, a three minute animation and a digital story. ‘Stories that matter: refugee women and the representation of political claims’ - Dr Leah Bassel, City University Dr Leah Bassel’s presentation explored the ways in which migrant voices are, or are not, taken up in broader social and political narrative and how this particularly impacts upon the voices of migrant women and their ability to be heard. Leah firstly outlined the theoretical elements of her argument, drawn from democratic theory and the approach known as intersectionality. She then discussed practice on the ground in terms of the existing power relations and limits to articulating an alternative perspective, and how these become visible at the intersection between asylum and integration and immigration. Situating this in the broader social context of a “gendered politics of integration, the gendered politics of the way people make the transition from outsider to citizen”, Leah postulated that some women’s voices may be subject to misinterpretation and instrumetalisation whilst others may be denied or silenced. Leah related this to current debates around multiculturalism articulated through the veil, the burka, or full face covering, and issues around female genital mutilation and forced marriage, in this context she argued, the politics of integration can increasingly be viewed as a gendered politics of the body. However for Leah the issue is less about the politics of multiculturalism and more about the voice, agency and possibilities of participation for the women who are at the centre of these debates but who are also situated at the interception of multiple social justice agendas. Leah argued that “…it is not enough for the women who are seen to be at the centre of these debates to just be able to participate within them…meaningful participation …has to mean something more. It has to mean being able also to challenge the terms of the debate itself, to challenge the way that democratic context is even constructed.” Furthermore, Leah perceives the exclusion of voices that do not conform to the victim versus agent narrative as a democratic failure, a failure of politics. She concluded her presentation with an appeal
for a politics that doesn’t restrict political subjects just to “…responding to predetermined positions … but rather understands them as agents in the intercepting fields of multiple social justice agendas.” PANEL 2 Creating space for ‘the migrant voice’ Chair: Dr Alex Rotas, Cardiff University ‘Nothing to do with us: class, ethnicity and power among Polish immigrants in UK’ - Dr Michal P. Garapich, Roehampton University Dr Michal Garapich discussed the performance and articulation of meaning making practices through the medium of ethnicity, with specific reference to Polish immigrant communities in the UK. For Michal “…ethnicity is not something that people have it is rather what people do, and this means that it is a strategic resource that can be deliberately showed off in particular situations and might be under communicated in other situations” Refering to the title of the seminar, Michal observed that, “Who tells the story?” is only one aspect of the dilemma because it is not possible to abstract the teller of the story from the listener. Furthermore, the dominant story “…is a complex outcome of both internal competition for power, prestige and recognition within a particular group, … as well as what is the cultural and social environment that renders some stories more valuable and acceptable than others.” Michal illustrated this point with reference to the dominance of the ‘soldier narrative’ which constructs Polish and Eastern European Migrants as a model group for other migrants with regard to integration. Michal further developed this theme and applied it to the situation of London-based British Polish immigrant communities, arguing that there are particular dominant traits in discourses of emigration and Polish culture, one of which is the dichotomy between the economic and the political. Through his research, Michal has identified strong tensions and conflict between established groups of British Polish immigrants and those who arrived more recently as a result of the EU enlargement in 2004. Michal suggested that the dominant discourse excludes stories that do not fit or contradict the soldier narrative and its associations with productivity and work ethic, an example being the real and significant growth of poverty and destitution among Eastern European immigrants in the UK. For Michal, this is demonstrative of the complex interaction of class and ethnicity that is utilised to reproduce and maintain the dominant power relations within an immigrant group and control access to social inclusion. ‘Refugee community organisations and the creation of social capital: a case study’ - Alexa Kellow, Southampton University Alexa Kellow began by outlining the research project from which her case study was taken. She then introduced the notion of social capital, concluding with some findings and examples. Alexa’s research focuses on refugee led community organisations (RCOs) and has examined in depth, the process by which RCO’s increase access to social capital. Her case study was undertaken over a period of six months with an RCO for Albanian speakers and was used to develop a survey of London based RCOs. Alexa applied Social Capital Theory (the idea that people have social as well as political, financial or human capital which they can use as a resource in various ways) as developed by both Putman and Woolcock to the data from the case study. Woolcock identified three kinds of social capital: • Bonding social capital - connections between close friends and family; • Bridging social capital - connections between remote associates or friends; and • Linking social capital - connections to or between formal institutions. Alexa emphasised the importance of recognising that a social capital connection does not necessarily result in a resource. In light of this, her analysis separates resources and
Page 1: ESRC Research Seminar Series ‘Und
Page 5 and 6: Referring to her own experience as
Page 7: PANEL 4 Conclusions and reflections

ESRC Seminar Series - Briefing Paper 5 - Swansea University

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