Rome mayor’s anti-migrant stance signals shift to right for Italy’s Five Star Movement
The tower: Diary of an EU citizen in the UK (26)
The Grenfell Tower is a microcosm of London’s superdiversity and income inequality.
London’s burning, London’s burning.
Fetch the engines, fetch the engines.
Fire fire, Fire Fire!
Pour on water, pour on water.
My son is in Year 1, last term the 1666 fire of London was the core theme of his school activities – he made dramatic fire-related artwork, he learned about fire and wood houses, firefighters and the pain of those who survived. They were read passages of Samuel Pepys diary. He asked a thousand questions. He wanted to know if our home is safe. In his school diary he wrote: People were fleeing like meerkats; the flames were like dolphins jumping on a flat sea. He sang and sang this song.
How do I tell my son, how do we tell our children that in 2017 London is burning again? How can we explain to a 6-year- old that someone like him in London had half of his classmates vanished…
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Can Europe really take the moral high ground on refugees?
In a long piece published today the CNN questions current responses to refugees in Europe and challenge the moral high ground some EU leaders have claimed in responding to Donald Trump's executive orders. Dr Nando Sigona told the CNN: "the key priority is reducing the flow without any consideration for the causes of migration. By... Continue Reading →
Where is integration in the refugee ‘crisis’?
By Jenny Phillimore While migrants seeking to escape conflict, persecution, poverty, and environmental disaster have been crossing the Mediterranean by boat to seek sanctuary in Europe for a number of years, in 2015 the scale of arrivals increased beyond all expectations. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported in excess of one million arrivals, with migrants... Continue Reading →
Brexit a window on contemporary processes, says Zygmunt Bauman
By Emilee Moore, University of Leeds On 5th October 2016, Emeritus Professor Zygmunt Bauman spoke at the Bauman Institute at the University of Leeds on the topic of ‘Europe’s Adventure: Still Unfinished?’ The lecture was part of a series of events taking place at the University of Leeds around the subject of Brexit. Prof. Bauman began... Continue Reading →
The challenge of superdiversity for urban planning
by Simon Pemberton (UPWEB, Keele University) Given my eclectic background as a practising urban planner, research institute director (on social inclusion) and (more lately) human geographer, I have become increasingly interested in the implications of increasing super-diversity for urban planning, as well as the equality of outcomes of planning practices. To this end, I have... Continue Reading →
From ‘Go back to China’ to ‘Where are you really from?’: Nationality and ethnicity talk in everyday interactions
In a blog post that was originally posted on the Birkbeck blog – Birkbeck Comments – TLANG team member Zhu Hua reflects on the personal significance of a question that sits at the centre of our research.
In his open letter published in the New York Times on 9 October, Michael Luo, who was born and grew up in the US, told of his encounter with a woman who yelled at him and his family, ‘Go back to China!’, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan when they came out of a church service. Puzzled by the event, his 7-year-old daughter asked ‘Why did she say, ‘Go back to China?’ We’re not from China.’
What Michael Luo experienced is ‘perpetual foreigner syndrome’, a problem facing many transnational individuals in everyday interactions, especially those who may look or sound different from the local majority. Back in 2002, Frank Wu, the first…
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Can the fabric of a diverse society be undone?
By Nando Sigona @nandosigona If you woke up this morning in a British city, you can see this happening right in front to your eyes. From the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham – one of the most diverse cities in the UK - the Tories are feeding the press with anti-immigration soundbites relentlessly, competing among... Continue Reading →
Barack Obama says the refugee crisis is a ‘test of our humanity’ – is Britain failing it? Asks Nando Sigona
Nando Sigona, University of Birmingham In a compassionate and compelling speech, Barack Obama called the response to the global refugee crisis “a test of our humanity” and invited world leaders attending the Leaders' Summit on Refugees on September 20 to do more to assist those fleeing war and persecution. The British prime minister, Theresa May,... Continue Reading →
Linguistic xenophobia and why it should be resisted
TLANG team
Like many around the country, the TLANG team have been shocked by the upsurge of xenophobia and racist hate crime which the police believe have been triggered by the BREXIT vote https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/11/police-blame-worst-rise-in-recorded-hate-on-eu-referendum . The outcome of the vote seems to have been interpreted by some as permission to hate, or rather to express that hatred through abuse and violence. As part of the TLANG Project (website) we are working with the East European Advice Centre, housed in the Polish Social and Cultural Association (POSK) building in Hammersmith, London. As widely reported in the media, POSK came under racist attack with graffiti smeared over its front door the day after the EU Referendum.
Aspects of the BREXIT campaign, designed to raise fear and anxiety over migration, have encouraged this response, as has the campaign of disinformation on migration conducted by some sectors of the press. As concerned citizens we…
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The Age of Superdiversity 