A project by Jia-Chi Wu MA Narrative Environments 2016/2018 Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
A project by Jia-Chi Wu MA Narrative Environments 2016/2018 Central Saint Martins, UAL
Contents
Introduction 03 Research Question 04 Dramatic Conflict 05 Aims 08 Target Audiences 09 Potential Clients 10 Location 11 Narrative 12 Story Matrix 13 Content Matrix 13 The Visitor’s Journey 19 Collaborators 38
02
It’s only when you live with somebody and you share space, stories, evenings and meals with them that it becomes real what is happening and why people are having to flee
— Kitty, a refugee host
Introduction
Refugium is a pop-up event set up as a ‘property viewing’ that aims to raise public awareness of refugees in need of accommodation, security, and belonging as they integrate themselves into a new society and rebuild their lives in the U.K. It is not intended to be an actual matching service, but to explore the willingness of visitors to consider hosting refugees and to have a better understanding of these issues. The ‘viewing’ engages visitors who are interested in the plight of refugees by having them read stories about hosting. These stories are embedded in different forms of media placed around the communal space of a flat. During the ‘viewing,’ visitors think through their concerns, imagine what it might be like to host refugees in their home, provide commentary in their paper tent ‘host profile,’ and leave as potential hosts.
03
How can refugees be better integrated into society as they rebuild their lives in the U.K.?
Research Question
After arriving in the U.K. for a safer and more secure life, refugees and asylum seekers are often confronted with challenges that they could have never expected such as the language barrier, receiving key official documents late, obtaining employment, education, welfare benefits and maintaining their mental health. Among these, accommodation is considered to be a crucial foundation that provides them the physical and psychological comfort needed to start their new lives. Josephine, a refugee, said it best in describing the importance of finding safe accommodation: "We should know where we fit in. Life is not a game where people can guess and bet. We should know exactly where we will put our feet because there are mistakes made which I pay for the rest of my life and I find myself on the street. I don’t know who I am and it is not a safe place for anybody, not for women, not for anyone."
04
"They gave me asylum and then make me homeless," said a refugee. What if we change the perspective of how we see our relationship with refugees?
Dramatic Conflict
The current immigration and asylum policies refugees face are extremely strict and tough. The long-waiting process forces asylum seekers into limbo. Furthermore, once they are eventually granted asylum, they are immediately faced with a 28-day ‘grace’ or ‘move on’ period, which forces them into homelessness. "They gave me asylum but make me homeless," said a newly recognised refugee. Some refugees are resettled into flats in bad condition. At the same time, they are fighting social stigma as they struggle to integrate themselves into a new society. Others may also be suffering in mental health, as well as having to confront the language barrier, cultural differences or discrimination. The dramatic conflict is found in the challenges of integration. According to research, accommodation is an essential prerequisite in laying the foundation to deal with these other difficulties. There are people who are willing to help refugees and asylum seekers, but this is often seen under the traditional relationship of ‘helper’ and ‘receiver’. But, when it comes to housing and accommodation, the relationship between landlord and tenant, or host and guest, presents a different and new dynamic. Does this give us a new perspective on the issue?
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Dramatic Conflict
Asylum seekers
Asylum condition
Language
Migrants
Guests
Mental health
Culture
Refugees
Education
Employment
Accommodation Social stigma Quality and condition of accommodation
INTEGRATION
Volunteers
Hosts Charities
Public
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International law & UK immigration policy Asylum seeking process
To raise awareness about refugees in need of accommodation; to provide a better understanding of hosting; and to encourage meaningful actions
Aims
As recent research reveals, lots of newly recognised refugees face homelessness and destitution once they are granted asylum. The Home Office only gives these asylum seekers 28 days to find somewhere to stay before they are evicted from their asylum accommodation. A report published by Refugee Council, England’s forgotten refugees: Out of the fire and into the frying pan by Josephine Basedow and Lisa Doyle in May 2016, also confirms this. It says this flaw in the asylum seeking system results in numerous obstacles for refugees. Through this project, people will have a better understanding of the pressing issues refugees face in seeking accommodation, security, and belonging as they continue their lives in the U.K. Also, this project offers a chance for visitors who are interested in the plight of refugees, including their resettlement and integration, to learn more about hosting, and to be more willing to take meaningful actions.
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Volunteers and people who are interested in the plight of refugees are the target audiences of this project
Target Audiences
Volunteers are the main target audience of this project. They are more likely to take action on issues they care about. Statistics show that people who are 65 to 74 years old (31% of volunteers) are the highest rate of those who volunteer on a monthly basis. That is to say, senior citizens have more time to contribute. It may be likely that if they have children who have grown up, they have spare rooms to offer people in need. Since the ultimate goal of this project is to engage more people in signing up to be official hosts, this may be an excellent target group. Another potential target audience are people who are interested in the plight of refugees, but probably do not know how to help. In using a new perspective in treating refugees as guests instead of victims or by-products of war, this project provides them a more intimate and fresh approach. By reading stories about hosting, they can think through the concerns they might have.
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Charitable organisations that work on providing shelter for refugees and asylum seekers are potential clients of this project
Potential Clients
Potential clients include Refugees At Home and Positive Action, which are charitable organisations offering rooms for refugees and asylum seekers. However, while they always welcome more hosts, they lack manpower and often have only a digital presence. Recently, Airbnb has also started a project called Open Homes, which recruits hosts who would like to provide free accommodation to people in need. However, Airbnb has no experience in dealing with the vulnerable. They need external help from the organisations mentioned above to match hosts and refugee guests. This project can be seen as a platform for these hosts by providing them an induction module about hosting refugees and asylum seekers.
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A communal, living-room-like space in a flat or community centre is the ideal environment to run the 'viewing'
Location
The experience interweaves the viewing of a flat with reading stories about hosting refugees. The ‘viewing’ might take place in an actual flat or community centre with sofas, coffee tables, lounge chairs, a kitchen and dining room, etc. An ‘agent’ would coordinates the ‘viewing’ in a private property and places reading material with stories about hosting around the living room, kitchen and dining room. These spaces would provide a natural setting in which visitors could better appreciate the concept of hosting. Another place to run the ‘viewing’ would be a community centre, especially in a neighbourhood that has migrants, asylum seekers or refugees resettled there. Community centres usually have a communal space for local residents to drop in and have a chat with people. The stories about hosting are placed around the space alongside basic living room furniture, residents could get a better understanding about their refugee neighbours.
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I’ve got my bedroom, my table, my books, my laptop,and most mportantly, I’ve got a roof! — Ahmad Al-Rashid, a Syrian refugee in the U.K.
Narrative
After a perilous journey to the West, refugees and asylum seekers are often confronted with challenges that they could have never expected like living in poor conditions, suffering from destitution, trauma, language barriers, and waiting endlessly on their asylum requests. Through real stories, embedded inside and outside the home, visitors can imagine how they encounter, connect with, relate to, impact and host refugees. Their impressions, interests, roles, experiences, and possibilities are prompted by personalised roof-shape host profile paper tents. Therefore, to take in or not to take in refugees should not be the question. The question is what meaningful actions can we take to help them integrate better into a new society? These refugees and asylum seekers, who are often talked about but rarely identified or recognised in a crowd, are not merely a statistic, they are human beings like every one of us. Let’s build a roof—your host profile!
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These two matrices describe how the narrative is woven into the space and what content will be used to highlight the issue
Story Matrix
Content Matrix
These two matrices give an overview of how the visitor’s experience is structured in this project, what contents are delivered and how. The story matrix runs from left and progresses over time. It describes how various elements are considered and designed to orchestrate the space, such as emotion, duration, contents, medium, and messages. The content matrix explains in more detail how stories about hosting are curated into five topics to address specific aspects of hosting, which people might be concerned about when it comes to hosting a refugee at home. Also, the content matrix shows the relationship among the media chosen, stories and space in presenting the narrative.
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Story Matrix Booking
Viewing
Visitors book a 'viewing' time slot through the online booking system at Refugium.
An agent guides visitors and invites them to roam the space and explore the stories found in reading materials placed around the communal space of a flat:
Experience
Space
Duration
Emotion
Content
Message
Media
Spatial Elements Graphic Elements
1. Reading stories that reflect five aspects of the hosting experience; 2. Thinking about the question unveiled by the stories that relate to a specific topic; 3. Collecting a colour triangle with the question from each model house, five pieces in total.
Online booking system
Reception area, lounge chairs, bookshelf, living room, balcony, kitchen
2 mins
20 mins
Curious
Aware, thoughful, empathetic, compassionate
Browsing flats and/or hosts
Encounter, connect, relate, impact, host
Being able to choose
Impressions, interests, roles, experiences, possibilities
Website
Photo album, magazine, newspaper, digital device, cookbook
Computer
Living room or communal space of a flat, five model houses
Online booking system interface
five reading materials, five colour triangles with a specific question on each of them
Evaluation
Wrap-up
After visitors read through all the stories, they then sit around a table:
Once visitors finish making their own host profiles, they will:
1. Writing down their thoughts on the colour triangles; 2. Assembling five triangles into the arrangement they like; 3. Pasting them on a paper tent, which becomes a visitor’s host profile.
1. Build a 'roof' by folding the paper tent in half and placing it above an installation house; 2. Ask further questions about how to officially register to be a host, if interested; 3. Leave as a potential host.
Dining room
Doorway
10 mins
3 mins
Engaged, reflective
Fulfilled
Creating host profiles
Discussing concerns
To host or not to host
Taking meaningful actions
Paper tent
Leaflet
Dining table and chairs
A set of installation houses for placing 'roofs'
Paper tent (with a feedback form on the back), glues and pens
Leaflet: Host application form with FAQ
Experience
Space
Duration
Emotion
Content
Message
Media
Spatial Elements Graphic Elements
Content Matrix Topic/Question A - Encounter: impressions Life is full of encounters. Can anyone be really prepared for the unexpected? What does your mind say to you at the moment? In the stories, the two hosts and their eventual refugee guests, share their own mixed feelings—worries, insecurities, anticipations, and uncertainties—surrounding their first meetings and impressions.
What impressions do you make on others?
B - Connect: interests Spending time together is always the best way to get to know each other better. The three stories here depict how hosts and refugee guests open up to each other by doing things that interest them both, such as watching football games, drinking tea, and reading. At the moment that they connect, they find something in common.
What might interest you doing together with your refugee guest?
C - Relate: roles 'An Englishman's home is his castle.' These hosts have decided to open their homes to welcome refugee guests. Even though they might have initially set up some rules in the beginning, they end up changing, even breaking them, as roles evolved through time. Beyond hosting and being guests, they have become friends, brothers and sisters, and even parents!
Do you have any special circumstances or rules that your guest should know?
D - Impact: experiences A seemingly little difference we make for people might actually bring tremendous change in them and even in us too. The two hosts’ stories below tell us about their experiences of hosting refugees and using the skills they have to empower them. Unexpectedly, the tiny differences they make bring mutual benefit and great impact.
What special skills or volunteer experiences do you have?
E - Host: possibilities It is perhaps a good time that we think again about who we are, what we can do, the definition of home, and what makes up a home. Here, two host families take in refugee guests who have different religions from them, but they turn out to be perfect matches.
If you have a spare room, would you consider hosting a refugee? How long could you offer to host?
Story/Space/Media
Other Materials
#1 - Terrified! Living with Strangers #2 - 'Will he change his mind, if knowing we are…' #3 - Strange Encounter
I Can Only Tell You What My Eyes See: Photographs from the Refugee Crisis
space: Lounge chairs media: Photo album
author: Giles Duley genre: Photography
#1 - ‘Everything is fine, except over football’ #2 - Quiet Librarian and Outspoken Syrian Artist #3 - Making Sculpture and Reading
Threads: From the Refugee Crisis
space: Bookshelf media: Magazine
author: Kate Evans genre: Graphic Novel
#1 - ‘Lovely, Surprising’ Friendship #2 - 'I feel like he is my son’ #3 - Kitchen Nazis V.S. Control Freak
Human Flow
space: Living room media: Newspaper
author: Ai Wei-Wei genre: Documentary
#1 - Biking the New Life #2 - Grateful and Influential
https://www. theguardian.com/ world/refugees
space: Balcony media: Digital device
author: The Guardian genre: Reports
#1 - Jewish family’s perfect Muslim guest #2 - ‘I am Berliner!’
Falafel, dates, hummus, baklava, tabouli, fufu, wat, etc.
space: Kitchen media: Cookbook
author: -genre: Food
The visitor journey takes place as a property viewing experience with stories about hosting placed around the living room and other communal spaces
The Visitor’s Journey
As seen in the matrices, the visitor journey demonstrates how all the elements work together through space and time. The ‘viewing’ itself consists of visitors arranging/booking a viewing, being guided by an agent, reading the stories, thinking through the questions posed, collecting colour triangles, writing down their responses, assembling and pasting them, building a ‘roof’ by placing the paper tent on top of the installation house, asking further questions if interested, and finally leaving as potential hosts.
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6 D 5 C 8
4 B
7 E
3 A
1
9 2
10
The visit consists of visitors: 1. Arranging a viewing through an online booking system and arriving at the venue at the designated time 2. Being Guided by an agent to explore stories in various reading material, which is placed in the communal space of a flat 3. Reading the stories about hosting in a photo album on topic A - Encounter: ressions 4. Reading the stories about hosting in a magazine on topic B - Connect: interests 5. Reading the stories about hosting in a newspaper on topic C - Relate: roles 6. Reading the stories about hosting in a digital device on topic D - Impact: experiences 7. Reading the stories about hosting in a cookbook on topic E - Host: possibilities 8. Assembling five triangles into the arrangement they like and pasting them on a paper tent, which becomes a visitor’s host profile 9. Building a ‘roof’ by folding the paper tent in half and placing it above an installation house. Asking further questions about how to officially register to be a host, if interested 10. Leaving as a potential host
Thinking of the question unveiled by the stories under each topic Collecting a colour triangle from each model house Writing down their thoughts on the triangle
Booking
Refugium: Book Your Viewing Refugium is a pop-up event set up as a ‘property viewing’ that engages visitors in their interests and concerns about hosting refugees. Through the 'viewing' experience, visitors will learn more about hosting, and hopefully will leave more willing to take meaningful action as a result. If you are interested in the plight of refugees, please consider booking a 'viewing'. It would be fantastic if you could bring others with you. Light refreshments will be provided. Thank you very much!
1. What's your name?
2. Will you be bringing any guests to the viewing and how many?
3. When would you like to schedule your viewing?
4. How can we contact you?
Being guided
Arranging a viewing through an online booking system and arriving at the venue at the designated time; Being guided by an agent to explore stories in various reading material, which is placed in the communal space of a flat.
What impressions do you make on others?
Encounter:
Life is full of encounters. Can anyone be really prepared for the unexpected? What does your mind say to you at the moment? In the stories, the two hosts and their eventual refugee guests, share their own mixed feelings—worries, insecurities, anticipations, and uncertainties—surrounding their first meetings and impressions.
impressions
Thinking of the question unveiled by the stories under each topic; collecting a colour triangle from each model house and writing down their thoughts on the triangle.
What might interest you doing together with your refugee guest?
Connect:
Spending time together is always the best way to get to know each other better. The three stories here depict how hosts and refugee guests open up to each other by doing things that interest them both, such as watching football games, drinking tea, and reading. At the moment that they connect, they find something in common.
interests
Thinking of the question unveiled by the stories under each topic; collecting a colour triangle from each model house and writing down their thoughts on the triangle.
Do you have any special circumstances or rules that your guest should know?
Relate:
'An Englishman's home is his castle.' These hosts have decided to open their homes to welcome refugee guests. Even though they might have initially set up some rules in the beginning, they end up changing, even breaking them, as roles evolved through time. Beyond hosting and being guests, they have become friends, brothers and sisters, and even parents!
roles
Thinking of the question unveiled by the stories under each topic; collecting a colour triangle from each model house and writing down their thoughts on the triangle.
What special skills or volunteer experiences do you have?
Impact:
The seemingly little difference we make for people might actually bring tremendous change in them and even in us too. The two hosts’ stories below tell us about their experiences of hosting refugees and using the skills they have to empower them. Unexpectedly, the tiny differences they make bring mutual benefit and great impact.
experiences
Thinking of the question unveiled by the stories under each topic; collecting a colour triangle from each model house and writing down their thoughts on the triangle.
If you have a spare room, would you consider hosting a refugee? How long could you offer to host?
Host:
It is perhaps a good time that we think again about who we are, what we can do, the definition of home, and what makes up a home. Here, two host families take in refugee guests who have different religions from them, but they turn out to be perfect matches.
possibilities
Thinking of the question unveiled by the stories under each topic; collecting a colour triangle from each model house and writing down their thoughts on the triangle.
Assembling
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Pasting
Assembling five triangles into the arrangement they like and pasting them on a paper tent, which becomes a visitor’s host profile.
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Building
The paper tent roof is an individual visitor’s host profile, which consists of five triangles pasted on it with specific questions and their thoughts. These profiles are placed above an installation house, and the act of ‘building’ the house reflects their contribution to the issue.
Leaving
Building a ‘roof’ by folding the paper tent in half and placing it above an installation house. Asking further questions about how to officially register to be a host, if interested; Leaving as a potential host!
Collaborators
Concept Development Richard Jao, Kirsten Wehner Spatial Design Support Eve Chokechalermwat, Pauline Chiang Project Assistance Ana Plasencia, Yu Zhao (Ella) Event Documentation Annisa Dyah Lazuardini, Ronnie Chou Consultancy Refugees At Home Sara Nathan, Rachel Mantell Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants Andy Ruiz Palma, Chief Executive Martha Maclachlan, Volunteer Manager Migrant Voice Anne Stoltenberg, Project Development Manager London Welcome Project Amy, Coordinator Refugees Welcome Haringey Lucy Nabijou
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With special thanks to
Ingrid Hu, Tutor Tricia Austin, Course Leader, MA Narrative Environments CSM, UAL Aliia Galimova, Concetta Reuss, Kirsten Wehner, Tonya Guan, Tutorial group members Rebecca Haywood, Mentor Nadine Alfa, Original Story Writer Ana Plasencia, Andre Chen, Annisa Dyah Lazuardini, Benson Lee, Bethany Shepherd, Brendon Singh, Claire Healy, Eve Chokechalermwat, Fabio Gygi, Jeff Lai, June Shin, Kevin Flude, Mandy Kershaw, Nobert Schwarb, Richard Jao, Ronnie Chou, Shang-Chia Tseng, Shu-Yi Lin, Sophie Chenevix Trench, Stephanie Romig-Orr, Tom Chang-Wei Lin, Patricia Huang, Pauline Chiang, Yu Zhao (Ella), Tutors from MA Narrative Environments CSM, UAL Sara Nathan, Refugees at Home Rachel Mantell, Refugees at Home Andy Ruiz Palma, Chief Executive, Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants Martha Maclachlan, Volunteer Manager, Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants Maury, Michael, Mehgan White, Michael McLure, Volunteers Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants Anne Stoltenberg, Project Development Manager, Migrant Voice Amy, Coordinator, London Welcome Project Lucy Nabijou, Refugees Welcome Haringey Visitors of the 'viewing' on 18 March 2018 And all the refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants who I met while volunteering
“We are all human, and need a sense of security and belonging from which to dream.�