Connection: Time to Rethink Migration

CONNECTION Time to Rethink Migration

Global migration is a matter of growing importance that can polarise opinions. In his recently-published book 'How Migration Really Works: A Factful Guide to the Most Divisive Issue in Politics', sociologist Hein de Haas observes: 'On March 7, 2023, Rishi Sunak gave a press conference with a striking visual image: Britain’s first prime minister of colour stood on a podium emblazoned with his government’s slogan, ‘Stop the boats’. It is an image that encapsulates the oddities of the polarising issue – a nation perhaps becoming more at ease with its diversity struggling to cope with a migration debate that feels ever more panicked.’

Designed as an interactive workshop and titled ‘Connection: Time to Rethink Migration’, this photography project invites people to: - Look mindfully at glimpses of life in Britain – tinged with the colour of lifejackets and the open sea - Listen to human stories from the media about global migration – retold gently and with compassion - Reflect and discuss how British life may be connected to the situation of people seeking refuge in our country

Apart from government policy and political rhetoric, media coverage often uses images of small boats packed with refugees in lifejackets heading for British shores. But little is said about the reasons that people embark on long and perilous journeys to distant lands.

Migration is driven by ongoing catastrophes, including climate change, extreme poverty, conflict and oppression and there is every indication that the situation will become worse rather than better.

Many may feel powerless and even fearful and so labelling people or 'othering’ - is perhaps a natural human response to protect what we might perceive as 'ours’.

My aim is to create an environment for reflection and discussion where participants can listen to other viewpoints and raise questions rather than present solutions. The hope is that creativity can prompt the search for a way of living in which we consume less, waste less and share more, both as individuals and as a society.

My own experience of partnering with those who have lived experience of migration started with a photographic project in 2021. Working with young people on an English course for speakers or other languages - most of whom were seeking asylum – we explored the post-industrial Yorkshire town of Halifax. They used both their new English skills and their home language to write comments alongside images and then took their own photographs on mobile phones, looking at the town with completely fresh eyes.

Most recently, and for Refugee Week 2023, I had the privilege of working collaboratively with ten people with lived experience of migration. An initial discussion with each of them provided quotations that became the brief for photographs taken by myself and by the participants. The project cultivated in me a sense of solidarity with this remarkable group of people who were willing to share their hopes and aspirations for the future.

This new project is ambitious because it neither photographs people seeking asylum nor involves collaboration with them.

Instead, it turns the lens on to day-to-day life in a relatively wealthy and powerful nation that is receiving people from other countries. A pair of audio-visual presentations brings together human stories about migrant boat disasters with images of quotidian British street scenes, backed by meditative soundscapes. We are invited to consider if our consumer lifestyles, our demand for fossil fuels and our colonial legacy make us, in some way, complicit in the plight of people escaping ongoing conflict, poverty, persecution and the effects of climate change.

The images are deliberately intended to be disconcerting – even slightly dystopian. But I have tried to avoid the risk of lecturing or promoting personal views by shaping the project as a workshop that provides time and space for personal reflection and respectful discussion. I have also sought guidance from individuals and organisations with greater knowledge and experience of working in such a sensitive and complex environment, including Counterpoints Arts and Earth Charter.

Shaping this project as an interactive workshop does feel like a risk.

Holding an exhibition in a pleasant gallery space or printing a carefully-crafted photobook is probably less likely to ignite strongly-held opinions. But, by presenting some basic ground rules for workshop conversations and by including participants’ written contributions in the output, my hope is that it might discourage entrenched viewpoints and encourage expansive thinking. As Hein de Haas also states in his book: ‘Any real debate on migration will therefore inevitably be a debate on the type of society we want to live in.’

From an article by Gerard Liston in PhotoVoice, April 2024 https://photovoice.org/gerardliston-connection/ Resources for the self-directed workshop https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9_9X2CJpJngtcbWaYsFF zDjGtSdGAF6q

Though I am different from you, we were born involved with one another Tao Yuanming, from 'Substance, Shadow, and Spirit'

Our home is also global. We are interconnected; we share the earth’s resources, climate and its challenges.

Refugee Week 2024, ‘Our Home’

Our home is also global. We are interconnected; we share the earth’s resources, climate and its challenges.

Refugee Week 2024, ‘Our Home’

Our home is also global. We are interconnected; we share the earth’s resources, climate and its challenges.

Refugee Week 2024, ‘Our Home’

Our home is also global. We are interconnected; we share the earth’s resources, climate and its challenges.

Refugee Week 2024, ‘Our Home’

Our home is also global. We are interconnected; we share the earth’s resources, climate and its challenges.

Refugee Week 2024, ‘Our Home’

Our home is also global. We are interconnected; we share the earth’s resources, climate and its challenges.

Refugee Week 2024, ‘Our Home’

Our home is also global. We are interconnected; we share the earth’s resources, climate and its challenges.

Refugee Week 2024, ‘Our Home’

Our home is also global. We are interconnected; we share the earth’s resources, climate and its challenges.

Refugee Week 2024, ‘Our Home’

Our home is also global. We are interconnected; we share the earth’s resources, climate and its challenges.

Refugee Week 2024, ‘Our Home’

Photography: Gerard Liston www.objective.uk.com