As others see us.
(Photo:Chalak Abdulrahman/ New Londoners/ Dost/ PhotoVoice)
A book is being launched today at Tate Modern in London. There is a slideshow here. We'll have a report on the programme from Andrew Bomford who writes:
"It contains photos and words from fifteen young unaccompanied asylum seekers, capturing vivid impressions of their new lives in Britain. It's an opportunity for the rest of us to see something through someone else's eyes - from young people who have escaped difficult lives in their own countries, trying to build a new life here, without the security of their own families."
(You can see and hear much more by clicking on the link "continue reading")
Andrew writes:
"The book, called "New Londoners", is the result of collaboration between two charities - Photovoice, which provides photographic training, and Dost (which means "friend") which supports vulnerable children. Professional photographers gave up their time to mentor the young people learning photography.
We've spoken to three of the young people about their involvement in the project and about the pictures they took:
Chalak is 18, and from Kirkuk in Iraq. He is also studying at college and if he is able to stay permanently in this country would like to become a professional photographer. His photos capture something of the happiness and sadness of life in a new country - missing his home, but wanting a new more promising life.
Hassan is 18 and from Baghdad in Iraq. He arrived in Britain almost two years ago and is studying at college, but has found it very hard to adapt to life here. He arrived with very unrealistic expectations of London and was shocked to see poverty and homelessness. In time he was struck by how similar his life was in Britain with his old life in Iraq and his photos reflect something of the parallels - friends living in houses with no electrcity, men lying asleep on the streets, washing hanging outside buildings.
Loria is a 17 year old from the Democratic Republic of Congo. She arrived in Britain almost two years ago and now lives in south west London and is studying in college. She hopes to become a nurse or a social worker. She says photography has become a therapy for her in coming to terms with her past and her future."
Here are some of the photos along with audio descriptions. Just click on the photo to hear more:
(Photo: Chalak Abdulrahman/ New Londoners/ Dost/ PhotoVoice)
(Chalak Abdulrahman/ New Londoners/ Dost/ PhotoVoice)
(Hassan Almousaoy/New Londoners/Dost/ PhotoVoice)
(Hassan Almousaoy/New Londoners/Dost/ PhotoVoice)
(Loria Siamia/ New Londoners/ Dost/ PhotoVoice)
(Loria Siamia/ New Londoners/ Dost/ PhotoVoice)
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As times get tighter, I detect a growing hostility among normally rather tolerant generous friends to 'immigrants' as a generic body.
I hope this project will serve as a reminder that asylum seekers have often shown great courage just getting here, on top of the stress that living on your own in normal surroundings brings.
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Hear, hear, Fifi. We have a long history of tolerance in this country, let's hold on to it!
Apart from anything else, without immigration most of us wouldn't be here.
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Sid @ 2, Which of us would be?
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Chris @ 2 - good question.
We've had Celts (from various bits of Europe - both before and after the flooding of the land bridge to Europe); Romans (not just from Italy!);
Angles, Saxons and Jutes (from the Jutland/Danish peninsula and nearby); Norse (Vikings - Scandinavia); and Normans (French) for a start! Of course, the Royal Family have interbred with most other European monarchies over the ages, and we've almost certainly had visitors and settlers from outside Europe over the past 2,000+ years that haven't arrived in sufficient numbers to merit inclusion in the various histories.
So I wouldn't envy anyone trying to identify someone as 100% pure British...
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Chris @ 3, rather!
* Makes a mental note to learn to count...
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It is probably true of most developed countries that there are pockets of poverty which surprise incomers who may be wearing rose-tinted glasses.
Thinking back to my childhood, when people were generally less affluent than today, the differences were less marked. One of the things which shocks me now is that, with all that standards of living have, in general, risen across the board, we have such shocking disparity between the well off and the poor. It is something that makes me, as a Briton, very ashamed.
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I too would like to see asylum seekers treated with respect and welcomed here. But economic immigrants are not asylum seekers - they are a consequence of our vile consumerist society and cynical foreign policy.
We are a crowded island that is seeing its values, traditions and quality of life eroded through a mixture of political correctness and avarice.
As others have said like most of us I can identify some foreign roots in my background. But balanced migration is necessary - as well as a healthy disrespect for politically correctness and bigotry in all its forms.
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AnnChovy @ 7. Brave of you to be the first such voice. I tend to agree.
Are these asylum seekers or are they students? If they are shocked at poverty here, that tends to suggest that they are economic migrants expecting streets paved with gold. And what does the fact that we have asylum seekers from Iraq say about the effect of the Iraq war. Yes, we should welcome asylum seekers, but other groups who enter the country pretending to be such when they are not only do harm to the genuine.
Big Sister @ 6. I am not sure how any country can both welcome all and provide financial security to all. The more open our borders are then the more we are unable to help those who have fallen out of society. In the same way as you cannot single-handedly solve the problems in your area, so the UK is unable to solve the problems of the world. This is nothing to be ashamed of, just a fact of life.
However, I agree that it is no excuse for not trying.
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Nigel-N: Um, I wasn't commenting on immigration, rather on the state of the British nation.
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Ann Chovy @ 7, you write
'We are a crowded island that is seeing its values, traditions and quality of life eroded through a mixture of political correctness and avarice.'
At the moment, the people eroding the values, traditions and quality of life in Britain seem to me to be not people from foreign parts but those who are systematically trampling over these things on the pretext of preserving them. That would be those with the power to demolish little traditions like 'innocent until proven guilty' and 'habeus corpus' and the check on their powers exercised by another House by whom legislation must be approved before it is passed. Not the poor immigrants: the wealthy and mostly indigenous members of the lower house of parliament.
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Chris @ 10 - I love you and I want you to have my children. There's only three of them, and they're all old enough to look after themselves ...
... but seriously, you're absolutely right.
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Sid @ 11, I'll have to ask my three about that. :-)
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withoou wishing to be too much of a pedant,most brits dna demonstrates that we originate from the basque country.this is because the very earliest humans could walk across land that is now covered by seas.now,where have I put my anorak?
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jacksofbuxton @ 13, that's interesting! Up in the North there seem to be some communities that might as well be in Norway, going by their DNA. Maybe the marauding Scandewegians simply took over and didn't interbreed in some places.
Linguistically I suppose we then have to worry abiout where the Basque language came from, and what *their* place-of-origin therefore was, because surely that small patch wasn't left un-marauded -over for millenia?
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Chris @ 14 - I can't remember who it was, but someone remarked once that if we take repatriation to its logical extreme, we'll all end up in the Olduvai Gorge!
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Asylum seeking is a symptom not the problem. It is the result of political policies. The individuals whose families have been burnt out by foreign governments for simply existing, are welcome. But those governments and their "cleansing" could not have done it without the arms and the support of the people traffickers.
Drugs makes money, but trafficking people makes much more. It is reverse slavery. Not only do you get rid of your dissidents but you make them pay for the privilege of leaving, for years to come. Failed, or scared, asylum seekers is what they want. Stateless and owned for life. Having a wishy washy policy fuels the system.
Even the simple "dropping of aid" destroys societies by gathering people in drop zones. These people, if spread thinly, would not be able to be victimized. Putting in a peace keeping force polarizes a territory into the haters and the sympathisers. Once polarized the society is destroyed. There has to be a large proportion of "I don't care" people for moderation to continue. Just look at our own country, it only survives because there are so many that can not see the point in politics. This is actually good. It is the don't cares that keep this country from revolution. So why do we endeavour to polarize every country we encounter. In the past it was the British way to divide, and fuel the hatred, so that it would not be targeted at us. Why continue this process now.
We cause these people to flee. I feel sorry for those that arrive with their promised dreams shattered. In the end it is just marketing by the traffickers. Hopefully these stories will be the reverse marketing campaign the system needs.
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