ESRC Seminar Series - Briefing Paper 5 - Swansea University

PANEL 4 Conclusions and reflections
Professor Heaven Crawley, Swansea
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 (Seminar 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’.