ESRC Seminar Series - Briefing Paper 5 - Swansea University

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• Identifying what was missing - • National voice • Resources and skills • Practical information and tools from NGOs and researchers Maryam summarized the role of the MRN as providing support to organisations by establishing networks, identifying issues and influencing the outcome of policy discussions. MRN sees its role less as one of representing migrants but rather as a facilitator, promoting and enabling dialogue between organisations at both a local and national level and providing strategic analysis of national policy. Within this broader remit, a key aim of MRN is to facilitate discussions between different organisations and enable local groups to act outside of their immediate contacts. This led to the development of the MRN’s Communication Strategies Project. Maryam explained that the Communication Strategies Project is a pilot project which aims to: • Develop the skills and capacity of activists and organisations working at regional level to communicate messages in support of migrants; • Establish an interactive web-based platform for communications which support progressive debate on migration; and • Feed regional perspectives on migrants’ rights into wider policy and advocacy debates in the UK; The Project aims ultimately to change the debate in the UK by empowering local activists to build regional and national networks of migrant organisations. Following a detailed explanation of how the project intends to achieve its goals, Maryam returned to her opening question, namely ‘what should we aim for in our networks?’ and presented a number of potential answers for the group to consider. Maryam concluded by outlining the on-going aims of the MRN at both the local and national level, stating that “ultimately doing this will establish a progressive narrative and promote migrants’ rights and needs and really hold up something in opposition to what is prevailing”. ‘Voices for change: transforming how migrants are seen and heard in the media’ - Nazek Ramadan, Migrant Voice Nazek Ramadan is the founder and editor of the Migrant Voice organisation. Nazek described Migrant Voice as a migrant-led organisation set up to develop the skills, capacity and confidence of members of migrant communities, to enable them to author and produce their own media representations in order to influence policy making, and as a counter to the very successful but negative media campaigns of organisations such as Migration Watch. Although Migrant Voice has a number of expert members it considers itself to be a platform primarily for those migrants whose voices are not usually heard. Nazek outlined the circumstances that led to the publication of the first issue of the Migrant Voice Newspaper. The target audience of this publication was the general public, with the aim of increasing the visibility of migrants whilst countering the prevailing negative public opinion. The newspaper, written by migrants, about migrants and migration related matters, was distributed for free across London by those who had authored it. An important element of this method of distribution was that it enabled the public to ask questions of, and engage directly with the journalists about the material. As Nazek remarked: “You hear them better when you look them in the eye. You hear anyone better when you look them in the eye but we are not visible and people don’t see us”. Nazek outlined Migrant Voice’s plans for future work and concluded with the salient words of President Obama: “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the change that we seek”.
PANEL 4 Conclusions and reflections Professor Heaven Crawley, <strong>Swansea</strong> The seminar concluded with a discussion of the key themes and issues which emerged over the course of the day. Despite a diversity of experiences and perspectives, a number of issues resonated across the presentations and discussion and require further consideration when thinking how best we can represent the voices of the migrant communities with whom we work: • There is a tension in dominant representations of ‘the migrant voice’. Migrants are most commonly presented as victims or oppressed but there is also a story (less often heard) of the migrant as a political activist or an individual with rights. The question of which of these represents the ‘authentic voice’ or the migrant remains contested and changes over space and time. • The issue of ‘who tells the story?’ is a complex one and largely contingent on who is given the space to express / articulate a voice. This will depend in part on differences of power and access which are associated with different statuses and identities within and between migrant communities. These differences in power and access are associated, most commonly with age and gender, but also with educational background and previous experience of political engagement and activism. The dangers of ‘essentialising’ the migrant experience through particular associations and representations were emphasised by several speakers. • The content of the story is as important as who tells it. Differences within and between the experiences and backgrounds of different migrant communities were emphasised. Many participants considered that there is no necessary dichotomy between the migrant as victim and oppressed and as an individual with rights but considered that some migrant groups and some communities choose to present specific aspects of their experiences and identities over others to reflect the wider political and policy context within which they find themselves. • Several speakers reflected on the implications of utilising different approaches to capturing and representing ‘the migrant experience’. Reflecting and building on earlier methodological considerations (<strong>Seminar</strong> 3), there was a focus on the constraints and opportunities provided by different techniques, for example, digital story telling, and in working with researchers from different backgrounds. • It was concluded that ‘who hears the story’ of migration and of the migrant is often a reflection of the political context within which the story is being told and the motivations of those to whom it is being communicated. This may require some difficult strategic decisions to be made about where to target stories about ‘the migrant experience’.
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ESRC Seminar Series - Briefing Paper 5 - Swansea University

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