Belonging: Navigating Artificial Borders

BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS

Contributors:

Illustrations & Photography:

Phase 4 Shades of Noir Team

Estabrak Al Ansari (Cover Image) Tiffany Webster Jay Lee

Liesl Leonard Gurnam Singh Ayham Jabr Beatrice D Carey Estabrak Al Ansari Iman munier Iris Yau Romero Bryan

INFO: W: shadesofnoir.org.uk E: info@shadesofnoir.org.uk Tw: @shadesofnoir Fb: shadesofnoir OUR SUPPORTER:

CONTENTS. 06.

Welcome

08.

A Note From The Lead

10.

Key Questions

11.

Peer Review

18.

Key Data

Liesl Leonard and Gurnam Singh

24 .

Expanding The Conversation

60.

Further Resources Key terms, Further Reading, Digital Resources

WELCOME. Our Safe Space Policy.

Shades of Noir is committed to providing an inclusive and supportive space for all attendees at our events. SoN believes all guests should be free from intimidation or harassment, resulting from prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, marital or maternity/paternity status, race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity, trans status, socio-economic status, or ideology or culture, or any other form of distinction.

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Please do let us know if you have any disability access needs e.g. do you use British sign language, have difficulty using stairs, or need us to allow space for a guide dog? Let us know asap so we can do our best to accommodate you!

Content Disclaimer.

Please note that some of the words in the Key Terms section of this ToR are considered highly offensive to People of Colour but we have included them to support difficult discussions around the subject of Race in higher education.

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People of colour across the globe are having their voices and experiences shared through digital means, spaces like ‘black twitter’ and tumblr, and really just all social media, in general, has been great in exposing problems that people of colour face. Since the rise of Trump and Brexit, these issues have started to become exposed more often, but at the same time seem to be occurring more. The Independent tells us that hate crimes have increased up to “100 per cent”[1] since Brexit was declared, and just recently in Charlottesville all the pent up hatred has manifested in a brutal white supremacist rally that ended with three dead and “thirty-five injured”.[2] Since the beginning of time, there have been squabbles about who owns what land and who belongs where! There have been disputes over territory in just about every continent, for example, the Nigerian civil war for the Biafra in “1967”;[3] the “1830”[4] Indian removal act which resulted in The Second Seminole War in “1835”;[5] this year’s Bhutan Border dispute between “Chinese and Indian troops”[6] and a myriad of other occasions. It often seems that the real issue is ultimately about power and privilege. Racism, xenophobia, discrimination, prejudice, displacement, identity crisis’s, broken families, self-loathing; all seem to be problems of the modern world’s obsession with borders and location. We are too preoccupied with where people are from, where we think they belong, the greatest example of this kind of thinking would be Trump’s ban on Muslims.

This Terms Of Reference will focus on issues of nationality, citizenship and migration and how these issues affect real people; how it affects work, mental health and education. It will look at the concept of “Home” and what that really means. Whether it is a tangible thing, defined by a location or simply just a concept? This is a collection of intergenerational voices detailing life living between two or more cultures, nationalities and histories as well as exploring the positives and negatives of being, such as agency, impacts on religion or faith practices, the accessibility of language, cultural clashes, adjustments, hyper awareness and the navigation through diverse spaces.

[1]. Jones, J. (2017).

[2]. Aljazeera.com. (2017).

[3]. Encyclopedia Britannica. (2017).

[4]. ibid.

[5]. ibid.

[6]. Safi, M. (2017).

BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 7

A NOTE FROM THE LEAD.

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This Terms of Reference, like the name suggests, is all about ones need to belong, and how no matter where we are or who we are, we all share that same sentiment. Growing up a first generation British born Nigerian, I often felt that I was growing up stuck between two different cultures: a Nigerian one at home and a more Western world when I was out; finding it hard to choose a side I could call home. On numerous occasions, in the past year, following conversations with friends and colleagues, I noticed that this sense of being lost, of not feeling like you belong, is a very common occurrence for the average individual, well at least, in my circles in particular. Especially for the first generation kids like me, international students, migrants and refugees.

I enjoyed the creation of this Terms of Reference thoroughly, because I had never put something of this scale together before, this was entirely new to me. There were often times where I was stressed and frustrated, but at the same time, intrigued and delighted by the stories I had come across upon my research. Beautiful images with deep meanings.

Detailed experiences of real lives. The whole time I was taking in information, I felt like my own sense of Identity was growing and solidifying; seeing how so many people shared my thoughts, in correlation to their own lives, maybe the idea of belonging is just a thought that we imposed upon ourselves. This Terms of Reference causes one to do a lot of thinking. It causes one to reflect on their own Identity. Ask themselves a lot of questions. A lot of ‘Maybes’. A lot of ‘How’s?’. A lot of ‘Why’s?’. Hopefully, this ToR helps you figure out where you feel you belong, or at least points you in the direction towards it.

Salute!

Michael Ukaegbu.

BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 9

KEY QUESTIONS.

1. What does it mean to belong?

2. How do we define ‘Home’ and what does this mean individually and/or collectively?

3. How does being two or more nationalities and/or races impact your life and work? How does it affect your overall perspective on life and on your identity?

4. What role does race and religion play in the decision to migrate elsewhere, whether it be migration on an internal scale or a global scale, and how does the anticipation of one’s reception in relation to the reception upon arrival to a new country relate?

5. As an International student, what are the implications that come with migrating for your studies? Is it worth it?

6. After seeing events such as the Charlottesville riots and the general growth in racial tension/Islamophobia due to events such as Brexit, ‘domestic terrorism’ and the rise/fall of Trump, do you, as a person of colour, still see migration in a positive light?

7. Does it seem as safe to you to travel as a person of colour?

8. The act of archiving, registered documentation and unregistered documentation, papers, visas in relation to our bodies, in relation to agency and in relation to recognition of our bodies. What does it mean to be ‘off the grid’, to be unregistered and undocumented?

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PEER REVIEW.

Shades of Noir has been pleased to invite Liesl Leonard and Gurnam Singh to peer review this Terms of Reference.

Liesl Leonard was born, raised and currently resides in Cape Town, South Africa. She is a Mother to a gorgeous, energetic four year old and for the past three years, has worked as a Research Officer at the University of the Western Cape. Liesl holds a MA in Art Therapy from New York University as well as, a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education and a BA in Fine Art from the University of Cape Town. Liesl’s varied research interests are in art therapy, oral history, coloured identity, attachment theory, and ePedagogy (to name but a few).

Gurnam Singh described himself as an academic activist and he has a profound belief in the transformative potential of education, both for individuals but also society as a whole. He is currently a Visiting Fellow in Race and Education at the University of Arts London. He completed his PhD from the University of Warwick in 2004 on anti-racist social work. His teaching and research interests centre on critical pedagogy and critical practice, specifically in relation to questions of social justice, human rights and antioppression. He has published widely on all these and related issues in leading academic journals. In 2009 in recognition of his contribution pedagogy and Higher Education he was awarded National Teaching Fellowship from the UK Higher Education Academy.

BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 11

A NOTE FROM LIESL LEONARD. Different but Similar: Experiences of NOT Belonging.

For years I have had questions about my family history, our race group, and culture but I allowed them to go unanswered as, growing up, everyone avoided explaining anything; so I learned to accept the silences. When my grandparents died however, I realized that my parents actually did not know very much about our history at all and eventually I lost hope in ever truly knowing who I was, and who came before me. I realised that for many coloured[1] people in South Africa there existed an inability to trace back much further than two or three generations within the family. This unknown aspect of our history and culture often resulting in an identity crisis and a sense that we are void of culture; and ultimately do not belong. In Zimitri Erasmus’ new book, ‘Race Otherwise: Forging a New Humanism for South Africa’ she aptly explains some of the lived identity challenges coloured people are faced with: I am (more often than not) not considered African in South Africa. I am still called ‘Coloured’. […] In parts of Europe I am assumed to be from the Caribbean island. African-Americans are surprised to find that I was born and live ‘in Africa’.

People from different parts of the world ask ‘what mix’ I am. Which would you prefer? Salt and vinegar or cinnamon and sugar? Neither one of my parents was black Black. Neither one of them was white White. I am not half-and-half.

This very real feeling of not fully belonging anywhere, and constantly questioning and then defending your identity, leads to a lot of confusion within.

I found Beatrice Carey’s article, “The Paradox of The African American Identity, Nationality, & Societal Paradigms” to echo some of the assumptions made about coloured people in South Africa. The misconception that African Americans “have no heritage” is one that many coloured South Africans are also faced with, and which they often adopt as truth; while others, like Carey, oppose and instead do the work in retracing their history and sharing their knowledge. Carey comments on the falsified history we are fed as a result of “whitewashing” and how this has often resulted in the erasure of the contributions made by African Americans.

This article really highlighted how similar the plight of African Americans and coloured South Africans are, robbed of a past, and handed a fabricated version of ourselves for us to consume without questioning. Carey also mentions how, often “society confuses nationality, ethnicity, and race” and this struck me as present in many of the contributions in this edition, as I read.

In Michael Ukaegbu’s interview “A Crisis of Identity” in which he interviews Saffa who is of dual nationality, her experiences of being both Sudanese and Dutch resonated with [1]. Please note: ‘Coloured’ refers to the South African coloured population and not the broader black community as this term is commonly understood in other parts of the world.

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me as it shed light on some of the identity related questions I have had, even as a person of singular nationality. It also evoked feelings of guilt, as my son, may be faced with even more questions in future. My son is American (by birth) but, is currently growing up in South Africa and has a father who is from Saint Lucia in the Caribbean. In the interview, Saffa’s response that, “the idea of nationality causes a lot of confusion for people because it tells us where we’re from even though we may not agree with it,” hit me hard as, despite not experiencing an identity crisis related to nationality; as a coloured woman in South Africa, I have experienced this with regard to race and culture. I also reflected on how my son would in future be faced with not only navigating the complex racial boundaries still present in South Africa but also the various parts of his identity (like Saffa) in relation to nationality.

When my son was almost six months old and we moved back to South Africa, I assumed that because he had a South African mother, he would be granted South African citizenship but, I was wrong. Four years, and several attempts later, my son is still on a temporary Relatives Visa which is renewed every two years. He speaks with a South African accent, loves South African food, is in the South African school system yet, he is denied citizenship. All my son knows is life in South Africa; this is where his family is, this is (at least for now), his home.

Yet, despite this, certain legal boundaries prevent home from truly, legally, becoming home.

In a Taiye Selasi TED Talk I watched recently, titled, “Don’t ask where I’m from, ask where I’m a local,” she similarly questions the notion of nationality and its limits. She speaks about how simply knowing the country a person is from, tells us very little about who they are.

She counters the idea of nationality and urges us to see our identity as a collection of our experiences. She explains how even if one’s passport is taken away, your experiences remain and therefore, “all identity is experience.” In Charisse Chikwiri’s article, “Do you consider yourself Black British, or Zimbabwean?”, She writes about how she “differentiate[s] ([without] separate[ing]) between [her] identity on paper and [her] identity in ‘real life’.” She explains how she is constantly reminded that Britain is not her country and how she eventually adopted the response, “Zimbabwe” when asked, “Where are you from?” The barriers she has experienced with regard to paperwork angered me as I read, because they were unfair and because they highlighted that many people (including my son) are faced with these challenges. So often the paper (and financial) obstacles do not make sense. If someone has lived and been educated in a country their entire lives, why are they still regarded as foreign?

“My mother was my first country, the first place I ever lived.” Nayyirah Waheed After reading Tiffany Webster’s poem “Home”, in which she writes, “[h]ome is said to be where our mothers are” it immediately reminded me of Nayyirah Waheed’s quote (above) but also got me thinking about family, location and what home really means. In Webster’s poem, it is evident that home does not necessarily always feel like home, whether we are referring to our BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 13

families or whether we read ‘home’ in a broader cultural, local, or national context. As much as the poem evoked the narcissistic part of me which would love to believe my son will always consider me, or where I am, to be home; I know this will change as he grows and discovers new places of belonging or, new people and experiences which feel like home. “Belonging: Navigating Artificial Borders” challenges the reader to think about where you belong or do not belong, and why? It will open your eyes to the flawed idea of nationality and how culture, community, experience and perhaps (or maybe not) family, play a bigger role in who we are and the identity we develop and keep developing over time. Ultimately, despite laws, passports, and popular opinion, you should be allowed to decide where you belong. Break every boundary.

References: ERASMUS, Zimitri (2017). Race Otherwise: Forging a New Humanism for South Africa. Johannesburg, Wits University Press.

SELASI, Taiye (2014). What is Home? Don’t ask where I’m from, ask where I’m a local. TEDGlobal 2014. 29 September 2015.

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A NOTE FROM GURNAM SINGH. Escaping Othering – A pedagogical challenge.

Throughout my life I have had to contend with being ‘othered’. Othering, can be a very dangerous and destructive process. In simple terms, othering is a process of dichotomising of human beings (black/white, male/female, Muslim/non-Muslim, disabled/able bodies, gay/straight, eastern/western etc). This process of reducing people to singular, simplistic and value laden descriptive categories can result in stigmatisation, rendering certain categories of people as something less than human.

My quest to ‘escape othering’, really begins when I read the autobiography of great freedom fighter Malcolm X. Whilst speaking truth to white power, Malcolm also spoke to African Americans to affirm and claim their own intellect and beauty. He coined the phrase ‘Black is Beautiful’. He realised that, in the face of vicious racism, the first task to African American affirmation of self was to awaken black self-consciousness and pride. Malcolm’s call for a psychological return to Africa through a process of historical reconstruction was aimed at overthrowing the enslavement of African American thought and thereby setting African Americans on the path to freedom and human dignity.

But most critically, he ends his own personal and intellectual journey, following his pilgrimage to Mecca, by embracing a universal humanism: ‘I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole’ (Malcolm X, 1987). Though I am from a South Asian background, being on the receiving end of white racism, I felt Malcolm was speaking directly of my experience.

Like Malcolm X, to escape othering we must first of all confront the mechanisms and ideologies that promote such distortions of human worth. This requires us to understand the mechanisms and processes that construct difference. Within the context of feminist and anti-racist struggles, I find Avtar Brah, (1996) offers a very useful taxonomy of difference and how it is produced: • Difference as Experience – this relates to the everyday experiences that differentiates people’s lives, material and relational.

• Difference as Social Relations – refers to the ways in which difference is constituted and organised into systematic relations through economic, cultural and political discourses and institutional practices.

• Difference as Subjectivity – Here difference is our ever changing perception of who or what we are. Here difference can be contingent, shifting in time and space, never complete and never unitary, BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 15

• Difference as Identity: This represents our attempt to achieve resolution in response to the previous three categories, It is this last category which, for me, connects social reality to pedagogy. That is the practical struggle we all face in navigating our material lives with the intellectual challenge to make sense and meaning of our existence, which is essentially what defines us as human being.

One of the problems with formal education is that historically it acts to produce and reproduce underpinning ideas and ideologies of inferior/superior Others. Hence, I have found that a much more useful approach is dialogical pedagogical strategies, both because of their potential to disrupt hierarchical approaches to learning and their universal appeal; we all dialogue in one way or another! Indeed, dialogue is a process with ancient roots. Socrates saw his role as being a ‘midwife’ to the growth and healing of youth in ancient Greece by engaging them in dialogue. He believed that he possessed no true wisdom, but that his gift was the ability to engage others in a dialogue process that would be transformative.

Dialogue has been referred to as a shared exploration towards greater understanding, connection or possibility, thus, when engaged in true dialogue, the main objective is to move towards greater understanding and the sharing of meaning among participants. In dialogue, each person meets the Other in an attitude of mutuality, reciprocity, and co-inquiry. Mutuality occurs in a relationship when each person perceives themselves and the Other as persons, as a subjects rather than as an objects, as thinking beings who have the capacity to change, grow and develop rather than as something to be used or as an obstacle to be overcome (Buber, 1965, pp. 74-75).

A relationship is reciprocal when each person believes they are able to both learn from and teach each other, when each gives and each receives. This implies both autonomy and interdependence, where each person speaks the truth as s/he knows it and acknowledges and attempts to understand the truth as the Other speaks it.

In debate, the goal is to prove one’s point. Therefore, in debate, the purpose of the encounter is to win. Dialogue has no such purpose or outcome goal. Ideas and beliefs are not seen as inherently right or wrong in a dialogical process. What is more important in dialogue is the process of moving towards greater understanding and meaning. As the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin points out, dialogue or what he terms ‘dialogism’, is a necessary drive to meaning and a necessary multiplicity in human perception and existence (2010).

If dialogical education, where I was enabled to claim my voice and experience, proved to be an important step towards escaping othering, then equally important was the necessity to nurture an identity that validated my intelligence and that of those around me. Tragically, though we have seen a massive expansion of higher education, at the same time, we see a profound sense of anti-intellectualism, both within the academy and society more generally.

To theorise is almost seen as a luxury, an escapism, as a rejection of the world, and to theorise about oppression is seen to be an obsession or indulgence in political correctness. However, for me, we cannot escape othering unless we can theorise the condition we are confronting. I am reminded of the words of Stuart Hall (1996), who argues that the aim of theory is not to raise our intellectual or academic reputation, but to open possibilities to understand the historical 16 // BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS.

word and its processes, to gain directions for our praxis, and to change it if necessary’.

The way to develop theory is to engage in critical thinking but also critical dialogue.

This requires both an ability to listen to oneself, but equally importantly to hear the words of the Other. Hearing is not easy and itself presents a pedagogical challenge. To hear we need to understand why/how the ‘other’ may be silenced.

So, what are the conditions that may require the Other to speak and be heard?

What can those in power do to enable them to hear other voices?

One of the reasons we fail to hear (or see) is that we are socially conditioned, we become fixed and just like in the physical world, in our minds, we develop a fear or reluctance to cross boundaries, to trespass into world of the Other. In order to hear the Other, we need to raise our state of consciousness that enables us to value the contribution of each and every human being. In this frame of thinking, diversity becomes a necessity for our existence, not something to be ignored, feared and exterminated.

To achieve this state of awareness, we need what Zygmunt Bauman (1991) suggests, to cultivate notion of ‘ambivalence’. This, he points out, commands our attention to ‘the other word or the word of the Other’ especially when it is unintelligible…ambivalence keeps the Other alive, whereas ‘certainty’ closes off and silences. We must allow ‘the Other’ to breathe, think and feel, to remember and to take risks, to step outside of the cage in which society has placed. Only when these gifts are available can we even begin to contemplate building new agendas centred on our common humanity. Celebration of ‘difference’ in this practice becomes a basis for the abolition of ‘otherness’ rather than an excuse for it.

And in the final act, once we begin to tune into the sound, voice, words, expressions and beauty of ‘the Other’ in all their glory, then we are empowered to respond creatively and expansively. We then find ourselves no longer patching together a series of monologues, but rather blissfully struggling to comprehend the profundity of our collective composition.

Now we are no longer satisfied with those things that deter up from engaging with the issues of human difference, power, justice and human rights. Our engagement with the Other is then no longer a battle to maintain privilege but to invoke a moral imperative to destroy it, to share wealth, power and social goods. And amazingly, in doing so we too can escape our own condition of being othered. And Audre Lorde famously noted, it under these conditions that ‘the learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot’. (2007:98) References: Lorde, A. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, New York: Ten Speed Press.

Bakhtin, M. M. (2010). The dialogic imagination: Four essays (Vol. 1). University of texas Press.

Buber, M. (1965) The Knowledge of Man: Selected Essays. Humanity Books.

Bauman, Z. (1991) Modernity and Ambivalence. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press Malcolm X (1987) The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley. Ballantine Books Hall, S. (1996) Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies, ed. David Morley and Kuan-Hsing Chen. London, Routledge.

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KEY DATA. Under UK and International law, refugees have a “legal right” to bring their families over to the UK to join them. “The UK received 38,500 asylum applications in 2016”. In total the refugee total population of the UK is “65.1 million”[1] Net migration to the UK has fallen to its lowest level in three years, as significantly more EU citizens left the country in the wake of the Brexit vote, official statistics have shown.The headline net migration figure of 246,000, which is the difference between immigration and emigration, was 81,000 lower than the 327,000 recorded in the March 2016 according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).[2] IPS estimates that “92,000 non-EU nationals” came to the UK to study for atleast a year. If you include British and EU citizens who migrated to the UK to study also that number increases to “132,000” student migrants overall.[3] Below are the number of hate crime offences recorded by police forces in England and Wales from July to September 2016. They are ranked according to the size of the change compared with April to June last year, which is the figure shown in brackets. An asterisk denotes that it was the highest quarterly figure since comparable records began in April 2012.[4] Dorset 104* (up 100%) Nottinghamshire 189* (up 75%) North Yorkshire 64* (up 68%) West Mercia 247* (up 64%) Devon and Cornwall 220* (up 63%) Leicestershire 213* (up 60%) Kent 277* (up 60%) Lincolnshire 78* (up 59%) Humberside 140* (up 57%) Dyfed-Powys 35* (up 52%) Northumbria 394* (up 48%) West Yorkshire 1,013* (up 46%) Essex 376* (up 41%) [1]. http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Refugee-support/Refugee-facts-and-figures [2]. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/24/netmigration-to-uk-drops-to-lowest-level-for-three-years [3]. http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/ briefings/non-european-student-migration-to-the-uk/ [4]. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/brexit-vote-hate-crime-rise100-per-cent-england-wales-police-figures-new-racism-eu-a7580516.html 18 // BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS.

Wiltshire 134* (up 38%) Suffolk 123* (up 37%) British Transport Police 620* (up 34%) Hampshire 463* (up 33%) Sussex 385* (up 32%) Hertfordshire 266* (up 30%) Cleveland 159* (up 29%) West Midlands 923* (up 27%) Norfolk 130* (up 25%) Gwent 77 (up 22%) North Wales 56 (up 22%) Lancashire 128 (up 21%) Metropolitan Police 3,356* (up 20%) Thames Valley 286* (up 20%) Avon and Somerset 449* (up 19%) Merseyside 477* (up 19%) Greater Manchester 1,033* (up 19%) Cheshire 195* (up 18%) Durham 66 (up 16%) Cumbria 50 (up 14%) South Wales 276* (up 10%) Cambridgeshire 179* (up 9%) Derbyshire 117 (up 8%) Staffordshire 237* (up 6%) Warwickshire 106* (up 6%) Bedfordshire 133* (up 6%) Northamptonshire 79 (up 4%) South Yorkshire 225 (down 1%) Gloucestershire 55 (down 4%) Surrey 137 (down 7%) City of London 25 (down 7%) Total: 14,295* (up 27%)

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• The UN Refugee Agency are now witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record.

• An unprecedented 65.6 million people around the world have been forced from home.

Among them are nearly 22.5 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18.

• There are also 10 million stateless people who have been denied a nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement.

• In a world where nearly 20 people are forcibly displaced every minute as a result of conflict or persecution, our work at UNHCR is more important than ever before.

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• Inflow for formal study is the estimate of immigrating students entering the UK long-term.

• Figure 1 shows calendar years only, however the latest available figures are provisional estimates for the year ending (YE) March 2017 that indicate 139,000 immigrated for study, of which, 93,000 were non-EU nationals.

• Estimates for the calendar year 2016 are provisional and will become final on 30 November 2017.

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• Figure 2 shows the difference between the number of Tier 4 student entry clearance visas, for 1 year or more, granted (main applicant) in 2010 and 2016 for non-EU nationals.

• Individuals in the short-term student category (previously referred to as student visitors) are allowed to come to the UK for 6 months (or 11 months if they will be studying an English language course) and can’t extend their stay. These students are excluded from these figures.

A majority of short-term student arrivals are non-visa nationals who don’t need a visa (such as US nationals), and further information on short-term student visitors is available in Home Office statistical releases and a Home Office research study published in 2013.

• Quarterly and annual statistics published by the Home Office relating to those nonEuropean Economic Area (EEA) coming to the UK for study are available.

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• The Survey of International Graduating Students was conducted between 13 March and 30 April 2017. The survey targeted all graduating international students at UK universities.

• Graduating international students were asked how long they planned to stay in the UK after completing their current course of study and how certain they were of these plans.

• The “uncertain” category includes those who responded as “neither certain nor uncertain” and “uncertain” of their intentions.

• The percentages are not weighted to be representative of the wider student population.

Further detail on the survey and representativeness is available in Annex 1.

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EXPANDING THE CONVERSATION.

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HOME. WORDS BY TIFFANY WEBSTER.

Mi casa no es SU casa

soil beneath mis pies

Ni es MI casa tampoco, ni mi hogar

Home could be the people you surround yourself with

Home is said to be where our mother’s are But what if your mother never felt like home?

What if what you thought

The feeling you get with someone, can feel like Home.

Home was me, within me, myself, the embodied moving home,

was home The one place I leave and always come back to De esta casa no se escapa

wasn’t really Home?

I thought home was London, I felt it was, when I was away..

And it’s asking me to come back.

También pensaba que era Sada, mi casa verde del Tarabelo, the home I helped build.

I began to feel as though Alomejor..

Home was merely, just, a feeling not a location, or a place, or the

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WHAT IS A HOME? WORDS BY MICHAEL UKAEGBU

A simple google search will come up with various different definitions from various different dictionaries of what the term “home” means: Oxford Dictionaries ● “the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.”

Merriam-Webster ● “one’s place of residence” ● “a place of origin” Dictionary.com ● “the place in which one’s domestic affections are centered.” ● “an institution for the homeless, sick, etc.:” Most dictionaries define it as a tangible thing, a location or a place, something that can be both seen and felt; the imagery that comes to my mind is that of a house. That association or rather connection between the two is most likely what creates that physical image of a home, but before humans built their first house, does that mean we or our ancestors were all essentially homeless? “a place of origin”, “one’s place of residence” This type of contradiction is why some people end up gaining an identity crisis. To

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me, a home is a place of safety and security; where you can hang up all your insecurities and be comfortable. A place you can relax, where memories have been built, a place you feel you belong. To some, their place of origin and the place where they reside are completely different, and some don’t feel they belong or fit, in either. So then what then?

Although, they have a house and what the dictionary deems a ‘home’, why then do they not feel at home? Are they then homeless too?

I recently watched an old TED talk video titled “What is home?” by Pico Iyer. In the talk, he tried to answer the question from the perspective of an individual who lives in the Age of Movement; meaning an age where ‘home’ isn’t something that hasn’t been assigned to us like our grandparents might have had. We can freely move through the world and choose which destination we’d like to settle in (if we’re able to obviously).

He spoke of a time in his life where in his parents home in California, he looked out his window and saw that his house was surrounded by massive flames. A couple hours later, everything he owned, all his worldly possessions had become nothing but ash. The next day at his friend’s house, he realised that the only thing he possessed was a toothbrush he had just bought. If asked

where you are. So it’s more to do with you rather than any house or building.

where was his home, he wouldn’t be able to point to any physical construct, home would have to be what he carries inside him. I feel this story and the message he conveyed through it echoes a well-known quote from living legend Maya Angelou’s ‘Letter to My Daughter’ poem. She writes

There are a thousand more quotes that I could come up with from great figures throughout history, but that would defeat the point of this piece. No-one can tell you what home is because the definition and meaning are entirely up to you. It’s what you think it is, where you think it is and who you think it is with. Home is something we carry within ourselves and means something different to every single one of us.

“I believe that one can never leave home. I believe that one carries the shadows, the dreams, the fears and the dragons of home under one’s skin, at the extreme corners of one’s eyes and possibly in the gristle of the earlobe.”

So… Here Maya also emphasises the point that a ‘home’ isn’t defined by some kind of physical man made construct, it’s more of a concept that we each carry within our individual being; hence why everyone’s definition of home and what they call their home may be different. This can even be used in relation to the famous quote, one in which I’m sure we all know by Roman Author, Pliny the elder, where he simply says,

What does home mean to you?

“Home is where the heart is” ...which I interpret as meaning, home is simply where you long to be, where you feel the deepest affection for, no matter

BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 27

JUS SOLI. WORK BY TIFFANY WEBSTER.

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JUS SOLI: the principle that a person’s nationality at birth is determined by the place of birth Jus soli, que significa “derecho del suelo”, comúnmente referido como ciudadanía de derecho de nacimiento, es el derecho de cualquier persona nacida en el territorio de un estado a la nacionalidad o la ciudadanía.

Como base incondicional para la ciudadanía, es la regla predominante en las Américas, pero es rara en otros lugares. Desde que se promulgó la vigésima séptima enmienda de la Constitución de Irlanda en 2004, ningún país europeo concede la ciudadanía basada en el jus soli incondicional. Un estudio realizado en 2010 encontró que sólo 30 de los 194 países del mundo otorgan la ciudadanía al nacer a los hijos de residentes extranjeros indocumentados, aunque no se disponía de información definitiva de 19 países.

que se hayan adherido a la Convención sobre la Reducción de la Apatridia de 1961 otorgarán la nacionalidad a los apátridas que hayan nacido en su territorio o en un barco o un avión marcados por ese país.

Jus soli está asociado con los derechos de ciudadanía permisiva. La mayoría de los países con leyes de jus soli incondicionales tienden a otorgar la ciudadanía (y la nacionalidad) sobre la base del derecho del jus sanguinis, aunque estas estipulaciones tienden a ser más restrictivas que en los países que usan el jus sanguinis como base primaria de la nacionalidad.

Casi todos los estados de Europa, Asia, África y Oceanía otorgan la ciudadanía al nacer con base en el principio del jus sanguinis (derecho de sangre), en el cual la ciudadanía se hereda a través de los padres no por el lugar de nacimiento o una versión restringida del jus soli en la cual la ciudadanía Por lugar de nacimiento es automático sólo para los hijos de ciertos inmigrantes. Los países

BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 29

JUS SANGUINIS.

Jus sanguinis (Latin: right of blood) is a principle of nationality law by which citizenship is not determined by place of birth but by having one or both parents who are citizens of the state.

Los niños al nacer pueden ser ciudadanos automáticamente si sus padres tienen ciudadanía estatal o identidades nacionales de origen étnico, cultural u otros. La ciudadanía también puede aplicarse a los niños cuyos padres pertenecen a una diáspora y no eran ciudadanos del Estado que confiere la ciudadanía. Este principio contrasta con el jus soli (latín: derecho del suelo).

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BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 31

A CRISIS OF IDENTITY.

WORDS BY MICHAEL UKAEGBU.

Identity crisis can be defined as a state in which a person experiences uncertainty and distress about with whom they identify, as a result of conflicting internal and external experiences. This is an issue often brought about in instances of migration, displacement, and people of dual or more nationalities.

It’s a very common occurrence, particularly amongst young people of colour, as expressing our pain is something we struggle with. I felt it would be an interesting idea to hear first hand from someone who feels they made it through their own identity crisis and to hear what it’s like to go through it and how they eventually overcame it.

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I interviewed a young woman named Saffa as she shared with me her story.

Michael: What do you identify yourself as?

Saffa: I identify as Sudanese, people usually find it weird when I say that because of my strange accent. My parents and siblings migrated from Sudan to Holland as refugees before I was born. So I was born and raised in a suburb in Holland.

Michael: What nationality are you?

Saffa: Well, I’m of dual nationality; I hold both a Sudanese passport and a Dutch passport.

Michael: You seem pretty sure of your identity. Growing up as a black girl in a suburb in Holland, were you always so sure of who you were?

Saffa: No, growing up as one of the only two black kids in my school situated in a predominantly white city, I always viewed myself as Dutch like everyone else. I found it weird when people used to ask me where I was from, whenever I answered and said I was Dutch, the other children would ask me why I was black. Which I never really had an answer to because I just couldn’t wrap my head around the question. Well, I’m black because i’m Sudanese, but aren’t I Dutch?

I mean we speak the same language, right?

This confusion led me to really question my identity, especially since there weren’t any other black girls around me that I could connect with, so I was often suffering through my confusion alone, I didn’t feel like I had anyone to talk to because I was different than all the other Dutch kids at school but then I was also different from the rest of my family because they were all born and raised in Sudan. I mean I had friends of different ethnicities but they didn’t quite understand my struggle.

Michael: How do you think you overcame this?

time I was surrounded by a lot of other first generation Sudanese kids that I felt I could connect with, and who could understand me. The change in culture and the extra time I ended up spending with my family gave me a chance to learn more about my Sudanese heritage, I asked a lot of questions about the culture and slowly came to the realisation that although I didn’t grow up in Sudan I was brought up in a Sudanese home, like a young Sudanese woman.

Although I was born in Holland I never felt like I really connected with the culture.

Michael: I think that’s often the case with first generation people: when our parents migrate to the western world, although we’re not physically growing up in say Sudan or Nigeria or wherever they came from, we’re still being brought up in that culture. I was born a first generation Nigerian, born in London, yet I grew up very much in the Nigerian culture still. Around the clothes, the foods, the people, I think the idea of nationality causes a lot of confusion for people because it tells us where we’re from even though we may not agree with it; although I still understand why ‘nationality’ is a thing. As someone who has overcome their Identity issues, what advice would you give to others who suffer from ‘crisis’ of identity?

Saffa: Learn to appreciate culture in general and take time to understand the cultures you’re associated with. Take time to make a conscious decision to find out who you are for yourself, rather than letting others tell you who you should be. Your identity is yours, so don’t let others dictate it for you.

Saffa: To be honest, I’m not too sure myself. Two years ago when I was 16, I moved to London from Holland with my family. This change in culture really impacted me, for the first BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 33

“BLACK BRITISH, OR ZIMBABWEAN?” WORDS BY CHARISSE CHIKWIRI. “Do you consider yourself Black British, or Zimbabwean?”

My friend recently asked me this, and as she probed for the answer, I found myself struggling to choose between the latter or the former, it felt like “the chicken or the egg” type of question. The answer is both, and in defining who I am today neither comes before the other, but instead, they go hand in hand.

I make it a point to differentiate (not separate) between my identity on paper and my identity in “real life.”

On paper I am Zimbabwean; my nationality is Zimbabwean. Although I have “Indefinite leave to remain in the UK”, my passport is also the green colour of Zimbabwe.

When travelling to anywhere other than Zimbabwe (including Europe), I have to apply for a visa as a Zimbabwean.

My birth certificate is Zimbabwean, Harare 1997. When applying for a job, I have to prove my eligibility to work in the UK. When applying for my provisional license, it’s not enough to do the online application process, I have to post my documents to HMRC to prove that I am allowed to be here.

So how then can I consider myself British if I cannot operate with the same freedom as someone who is “British on paper”? If in order to get a British Citizenship/Passport, I have to pay £1300, not including the costs of writing a British history exam (£50) and an English exam (£250). I have to write a test to prove that I am able to speak English, despite the fact that from kindergarten to 34 // BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS.

university, I have been educated in the UK. However, it doesn’t end there. After this, I must attend a ceremony and where I essentially “pledge allegiance” to the Queen and her country (£80), and lastly the actual processing of the passport (£75).

A grand total £1,755. It is virtually impossible for me to currently afford this sum as a student, and so I must depend on my parents, who must also go through this process for themselves. So multiplied by the three of us it costs £5,265 to become a British citizen, not including my younger siblings. For a working class family to be able to afford this, and still sustain themselves and live a comfortable life, I have seen parents work seven days a week, tirelessly for months to achieve this; sacrificing themselves, all in the name of “Great Britain”.

I have nothing more to say on that subject for now.

When asked “where are you from?”, my answer has always been “Zimbabwe.” Because of all of the above, from a young age, I have always been reminded that this is not my country. Regardless of my skin colour, I have never felt fully “British” and I suppose that’s where the “black” prefix comes in.

Generally speaking, when we use the “black” prefix for a noun, it is to make it inclusive of black people. The experiences of a Black British person may have relevance to that of simply “British”, but a distinction is made because they are not the same.

There are a multitude of factors that have an effect on this experience, too many to summarise from a single perspective, and so I will continue to use myself as an example while referencing the experiences of others along the way.

The term Black British is defined as “British people of black (or non-white) ethnic origin, identified as a distinct social and cultural group.” This could be British by birth or British by “naturalisation” (a term used for obtaining citizenship).

We Black British people are the fusion of our motherlands’ cultures and British culture. The English we speak has its own unique flair, our slang is greatly influenced by Caribbean/ African languages. The food we eat, the music we listen to, our attitudes and our approaches to life… they define us as a unique people, both individually and collectively.

I personally identify as Black British based on my lived experience, and how that has shaped who I am. I tick the “Black British African” box on the ethnicity section of any given form because, although I was born in Zimbabwe, I migrated to the UK at the age of 3. This means that my formative years have been spent in the United Kingdom. If there was a Black British Zimbabwean box, that would be the exact box that I would tick. I am African yes, but for example, Zimbabwe and Nigeria are two very different countries.

So you see, the formation of my identity is complex and dual like the form of the yin yang. Being Black British – Zimbabwean may be complex and difficult to navigate at times but in many ways, I appreciate it. Through having access to “both worlds”, my perspective is broader than I can imagine it ever being if I was either or. As a writer/creative my output is rich and has the potential to be revolutionary.

While being an immigrant in this country is far from easy, and the treatment of immigrants is in many cases inhumane. Being granted British residence comes with certain privileges, that I would be wrong to say I am not thankful for. Especially remembering that my parents migrated to this country for specific reasons.

For example, education is “free” in this country and that is not the case at all in Zimbabwe. The education I have had, the people I have met, the opportunities that have been available to me, the places that I have seen and the experiences I have been through in this country have shaped me. They have shaped me and opened my eyes to a world beyond my local bubble.

Even though I speak and understand Shona (one of the Zimbabwe’s many languages), and have an ingrained understanding of the culture, I live, exist, work, study and vote as a British person.

If I was to move back to Zimbabwe today, my integration into society would not be a smooth one.

BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 35

THE PARADOX OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN IDENTITY, NATIONALITY, & SOCIETAL PARADIGMS.

WORDS BY BEATRICE CAREY.

I have encountered numerous individuals from just as many countries who upon making my acquaintance are perplexed by my identity. Understanding African American culture and our plight only through the bias lens of the media and what is drip fed through our history books about whitewashed American history, they often times either through ignorance or arrogance begin to tell me how I, and others of my shared heritage should exist. I usually encounter it through various filters of pity, misinformation, and general lack of knowledge of African Diasporic history, for it is quite a shame that I do not “know where I come from” or my favorite question, “what is it like to have no heritage?” This line of questioning frequently strikes a surge of anger, pain, and bewilderment throughout my body. After wiping away my hurt, as these questions come out of the mouths of a plethora of ethnicities ranging from European to African descent, I find the strength to challenge them on their foundations of understanding my culture and begin the questioning to a paradigm shift on what is perceived as the African American existence.

Many do not realize that African American history does not actually start off with slavery, but with indentured servitude. Just as the first English settlers came over for a 36 // BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS.

new and better life, so did the first Africans, and there was acquiescence among African, English, and Native Americans for a brief time in history. It began to change when the servitude population began to become both integrated and free from bondage.

Coming from the very class based society of England, the white upper class citizens were concerned about the collaboration of the newly released serving class and their ability to become the majority with both the Native Americans and fully immigrated Africans. So little by little, they created laws that divided early Americans by color and created the notion of race that began the moral beings of slavery and injustice that has been used across American history and separates the United States today. Learning this truth was the first step in understanding African American identity for me, as I, and too many others, were taught that our history only starts with slavery when in fact it was manipulated away by greed.

Through slavery, the former citizens of West African countries were forcibly stripped of their African heritages but through pure resistance, creativity, defiance, and survival, various strands of African American heritage and Caribbean cultures were born.

Nationality is defined as the status of belonging to a particular nation, whether

by birth or naturalization. The first English and European settlers became American citizens through naturalization as America was already a land cultivated by Native Americans. African Americans became citizens of America by birth and labor with emphasis on manual inhumane labor.

African American slaves built a mass majority of the states of the country, endured unspeakable physical and emotional suffering while receiving absolutely zero compensation for their blood, sweat, and bodies, created a constant revenue of sustainable free labor, which is still unfortunately being perpetuated today with the manipulation of the thirteenth amendment and the prison industrial complex, and generated the income to forge America as an up and coming superpower nation while just in its infancy as a country. I am questioned quite a lot about my nationality, as society confuses nationality, ethnicity, and race far too often. When I speak, many are amazed by my American accent and can’t fathom that I could be both black and American. From getting overly questioned at customs in British airports when my white American counterparts go straight through with no concerns, to getting followed around museums in Germany on a class trip with students from different nationalities including white American, the treatment I receive because of a lack of knowledge is quite daunting at times. One question that I am repeatedly asked is why don’t African Americans just leave America and just go back to Africa?

To this I give the brief history of Liberia.

After racially charged events this year, most recently the white nationalist march in Virginia, people around the world including some white American citizens unfortunately, are wondering why African Americans do not seek refuge in another more hospitable land. This question has already been answered in history. As with most Black History, the origins of Liberia and its connections to the United States are not aptly disclosed as freely as the narrative of slavery. Before sharing the links I ask my audience to look up the flags of Africa. I then ask them to point out the familiar color scheme and question them as to why Liberia’s flag looks so different to the rest, and what country’s flag does it seem to resemble. The creation of the country of Liberia occurred through former slaves wishing to flee the horrid country of the US and return to the welcoming embrace of their homeland, the continent of Africa. What they received upon arrival was disbelief, alienation, and estrangement from the only life they knew in America. Starting as the American Colonization Society, and the only country that gained independence without fighting another colonizing country, it stands as the example of why African Americans do not just immigrate back to Africa. Liberia faced tumultuous difficulties with acceptance from other African countries, acclimation, and survival.

To uproot an entire population without adequate leadership, foundation, support, and financial BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 37

sustainability is an ill-conceived concept at best. However, the most important rebuttal to this line of inquiry I can’t help but bring up, is why should we have to leave a country that our ancestors literally died building?

There are many questions that I just can’t answer around where my country should go from here and what African Americans collectively should do at this point in time.

What I do know is that I am proud to come from the lineage of survivors and will never be ashamed to be African American, a descendant of people who survived one of the worst forms of slavery and yet still rises and excels. To clear up any misconceptions, I do have a heritage, I do know where I come from, and America is my country and home so I will not be migrating away from the legacy my ancestors bled, dreamed, and died for. My ethnicity is African American (and I use African American to remind those of my ancestors’ origins before being forcibly brought to America although I myself may not be directly from any African country), my race is black and my nationality is American and I will never let anyone tell me otherwise about my identity. I have had the privilege of being raised by my great grand parents, know the different ethnical make up of my DNA and come from selfless

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visionaries who have carved out change for people all over the world. African American culture from music, art, fashion, film, speech, and mannerisms are admired and emulated all over the world yet individuals have the audacity to believe that African Americans do not have a heritage. My only wish is that those who adore the products of our culture would take the time to look at the history of the people who actually made it. Because of the whitewashing of history, society does not truly comprehend the contributions of African Americans, and because of the lack of knowledge of the Diaspora, the rest of the world pities us as a people. I can not express how much sorrow this brings me, but I will not stop having hope. This simply propels me through my artwork whatever medium that serves best at the time, to deliver to the world the beauty of my heritage that has been hidden in plain sight.

OMANIS UNDERWATER. WORK BY ESTABRAK AL ANSAR.

Mufuddel (meaning privilidged in Arabic)

Omanis.. Submerged in water. Headless and faceless, only their bodies and dress tell us a story. In a society where religion is so caught up in peace, trust and understanding, there lives deep inherited fear for the unknown..

The different. Water holds a power to embrace or destroy us and this is one of the concept’s currently driving Estabrak’s work. Using water as a representation of the environment and current societal choices of local norms, she examines underlying discourses that constitute Oman’s society, through a lens ignored by many.

The use of Omani’s placed in water allows for a relationship to be examined between body and water, revealing parts of Omani’s society that uniform was always meant to hide. This prize winning series is fueled by notions of societal and personal responsibility, by concepts surrounding the inability to exist in places for long periods of time and aims to act as a seed for much needed, honest dialogues. *This project is part 01 of a proposed global photographic series looking at varying societies through water.

BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 39

Aisha (meaning ‘one who is alive in Arabic)

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Badr (meaning moon in Arabic)

Muna (meaning wishes in Arabic)

BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 41

SHONA, BECAUSE OF YOU I PRONOUNCE THE O’S IN ONIONS AND OVENS.

WORDS BY CHARISSE CHIKWIRI.

I was three years old when I migrated to the UK, speaking little to no English but fluent in Shona (as fluent as a three year old can be). This would be the perfect time to write a descriptive paragraph about how I felt when I landed on “the greener side”, but honestly, I remember nothing.

Yes, I’ve been back to Zimbabwe several times, but does going for a holiday really compare to being raised Kumusha?

Kumusha = the place where you come from.

Whilst I can’t recall memories of Zimbabwe prior to me moving to this country, what I do have is my language, the Shona language.

I’m using medium to divert from the question which asked “how much power am I afforded by the languages I speak?”, because it is important for me to first establish what the languages I speak mean to me.

I can’t begin to paint the bigger picture, without the initial understanding of colour. We’re still headed for the same destination, this is just a necessary pit stop.

Pit Stop 1: The Shona Language.

This was the first language I ever spoke.

The main language my parents speak.

I speak Shona to those who understand it. From the moment I say “hesi” (hi), those who understand it, know exactly where I come from. Shona is the 42 // BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS.

currency of the Zimbabwean side of my identity. Its exchanges are exclusive. *** I need to take a break here, this has been a struggle to write. As a writer, I am in the practice of not only writing for myself but for others as well, for you to understand me. I am struggling to use English to concisely explain what Shona means to me. So instead I am going to write a letter to my native tongue, and I hope that through this I will break the barrier. *** Dear Shona, You are not just a language; a dictionary of words I use to communicate. You are more than a skill I can add to my CV. You represent a side of me that only those close to me know.

You represent my culture, the culture that has taught me to be nurturing and respectful.

You represent my mother’s roots and my father’s land, because of you I will never forget where I came from. Even though I don’t see her often, through you I remember the things my Grandma used to say.

Because of you my mum is “mama” and my grandma is “gogo”, it doesn’t matter if I speak in English, who they are stays the same. I feel an intense love when I call my little sister

“nhanha”, stronger than when I use her name.

You constantly remind me of the importance of family and togetherness.

I appreciate how you call my mum’s sister “mainini”, which translates to “smaller/ younger Mum.” I appreciate how you have no specific word for “cousin”, to you my cousins, are my brothers and sisters. You don’t like to distance yourself from your history and your relatives, so you use brother because you fear “cousin” will get lost in translation.

I notice how you seep into my second language, English, the language I use the most. I notice how because of you I pronounce the O’s in onions and ovens.

I notice how sometimes when I am lost in intimacy, I turn to your words to express either love, joy or excitement without even realising.

Shona, you are my memory’s oldest friend. No matter where I go, I can never seem to shake you.

There have been times that I have tried to suppress you, but you held on. For that, I thank you. I realise now that in this western world, I need you more than ever.

Each of your words tells a story. You are substantial. You are a living artefact. You will never die, so long as your people continue to speak you. I wish I had understood earlier, my history is significant now more than ever.

But soon I must ask you if I was to create a product out of you, what would your unique selling point be and how much would you be worth on the market?

I ask this not so that I can degrade you, I will never. My personal relationship with you will always remain. I ask so that I can widen my perspective and understand where you fit in the grand scheme of things.

BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 43

44 // BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. Concert a Ocarina by Iman Munier

CHILD OF MANY. WORK BY IMAN MUNIER.

Child of many I have grown up in a culture that I have been told is not my birthright.

I have grown up in a culture that I have been adopted into as my own.

I have grown in a land in which my maman and papa have constantly been referred as foreign.

Foreign people, with a foreign mindset.

Foreign reactions in a foreign culture.

I have grown up in a land in which people have constantly asked me where I was from.

Reminding me that perhaps I was not like them. Which I must admit, is confusing for a child that has just hit the age in which she must learn of her home address. I remember one day, I sat by my family after finishing morning prayer in which i asked my maman “Maman of where am I from?”

In which she answered sweetly “from me my child” embracing me for a hug. From god my papa stated with pride. From Toronto my brother would pipe up. From across the great sea my grandmaman would whisper.

Being from the faith of Islam the only instruments that I play are those that composite natural sounds. My father from Arabia, believes that means only the drum can be our tool of rhythm.

Eastern mindsets. Eastern horizons.

My flute is my instrument.

Western world.

Eastern traditions.

BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 45

INTERNAL LANDSCAPE: SYRIA DESTRUCTION. WORK BYAYHAM JABR. Dear Reader....

Like what Oscar Wilde said, “ All art is quite useless.” I can’t be more honest than that...I am sorry, but you will not find any art that can heal your pain or delete your bad memories or ease your sorrow or even bring back those you have lost. And by any chance, you find yourself in peace for example in any art piece you view. You should accept it, embrace it then let the journey suck you down the rabbit hole.

Along For The Dream: The journey of life is filled with, memories, sorrow and hope. Ask the bottom of the mediterranean sea.

Damascus Under Siege: A fleet of martian spacecrafts besieges and surrounds Damascus, the oldest capital in the world. They state, “We Came For Peace”, yet their coming ends in their total annihilation.

Internal Landscape-Syria Destruction: Each time i walk by a destroyed building or alley that was once so beautiful, but has now been reduced to ashes and rocks, I feel like this is not my country, not my home. I often get confused and question if it’s all real.

The Clear Message: I do not believe that refugees are terrorists even if some may believe in some extreme ideology.

Each person is responsible for their own actions as an individual only, not the actions of their cult or society.

They blame religion for acts of terrorism, so then what is the cause for wars and economic sieges ?

The Lord Of Failure: If you claim you can change things and make everything right but you don’t, that makes you a failure even if you’re a god. The Lord of Failure.

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Along For The Dream HQ.

Damascus Under Siege

Internal Landscape-Syria Destruction.

The Clear Message.

The Lord OF Failure.

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INTERVIEW WITH ROMERO BRYAN. “It is widely acknowledged that designers from the UK produce some of the world’s most cutting-edge fashion; one of them being Romero Bryan, 30.

Mr Bryan’s talent and innovation have been widely recognised by members of the international fashion press and fashionistas.

such as Forbes Magazine.

Most recently named on the Lloyds TSB & Thomson Reuters ‘POWERLIST 2013’ as one of ‘BRITAIN’S MOST INFLUENTIAL BLACK PEOPLE’.”

From a young age London-born Romero Bryan aspired to become a world-renowned fashion designer and he began to hone his skills for design and creation at just thirteen.

Mr. Bryan has fashion in his genes – both his grandfather and uncle were tailors, whilst his grandmother was a seamstress. Mr. Bryan’s designs first caught the media’s attention in 2001, when UK singer Samantha Mumba attended the Brit Awards in a Romero Bryan dress with a plunging neckline.

What does it mean to belong?

Mr. Bryan graduated from the London College of Fashion in late 2005 and his career took off soon after. His designs have been worn by ‘A-List’ celebrities across the globe including Alek Wek, Cameron Diaz, Destiny’s Child, The Noisettes lead lady & Fashion Icon Shingai, Mariah Carey and Usher, to name but a few. Romero Bryan’s garments have also been purchased by Kate Moss, Katy Perry & many more. Over the years, Mr. Bryan’s clientele has broadened and the “boy wonder” (Vogue.com) has matured into a wonderful young man.

Romero Bryan’s talent, hard work, determination and potential have been recognised by Philip Beresford in the predicted ‘Rich List 2020’ compiled for the Royal Bank of Scotland. The list appeared in international publications

***

For me personally, “to belong” means to be at peace with your surroundings and therefore to feel safe. Honestly, it’s taken me close to 3 decades to feel I belong to any particular group in society.

How do you define ‘Home’ and what does this mean individually and/or collectively?

Funnily enough, my cousins and I were talking about this at last Sunday’s family dinner. Born in the U.K. to Jamaican/Cuban parents, I have never known anywhere to be home.

If I called the U.K. home, my British friends would always ask “but where are you really from?” Most of the times I’d wind them up and reply with the name of the hospital and ward I was born in here in London.

And if I called either Jamaica or Cuba my home, my relatives that were actually born there would disagree and accuse me of being British because I’m entitled to benefits they’d never receive being a British citizen.

Truth be told though, since visiting the African continent several times for work, it’s become so much easier for

BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 53

“Migration will continue regardless because people are always wanting to travel to better themselves and the people in their lives they love. “ me to say “Africa” in response to when people ask me where i’m from.

No one dares to even argue with me when I claim Africa as my home.

So yes, the motherland, AFRICA is my true home.

I feel so safe and comfortable when I visit Africa, and whenever I encounter any problems there, it’s ok because I know it’s nothing to do with the colour of my skin haha.

Home is a safe space. And Africa always feels like a safe space whenever I go, and I have walked through civil wars on my many trips to Africa, but I’ve come to the conclusion that if anything is to happen to me to end my life, it should be there back in my original home, AFRICA. What does being of two or more nationalities and/or races bring into one’s life and into your work? How does it affect your overall perspective on life and on your identity?

Another conversation I had with my family members a few weeks back. With cousins marrying into different cultures and races, I’d often pose the question to my cousins and siblings about what it means to be of mixed heritage.

I’ve often wondered what it felt to be a mixed race relative who when visiting one side of the family looked more like them and then the other side that looked nothing like them.

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One thing I will say is, I’ve learnt sometimes even just asking questions out of curiosity can offend.

A mixed race relative of mine shared with me, that often they’re privy to hearing conversations that one side of their family have and compare and contrast experiences, making them a much more balanced person in life.

Which I suppose is a good skill to have.

But I can’t use one person’s life experiences to paint a picture of the majority.

Because I know some mixed race friends who feel they have to identify with one race regardless of being a mix of both from early ages.

You travel a lot for your work within the fashion industry, what do you think are the effects of consistent travel and movement? How do you stay grounded?

I am exposed to meeting such beautiful and diverse people whilst traveling. I meet people from the get go, sitting in airport lounges and on the planes, to people attending my presentations in different countries. These interactions with people from all backgrounds, makes me appreciate my life as it is now, but also makes me strive to wanting to be more.

And in answer to your “grounded” question, my bank statements come through at the end of each month, which keeps me firmly grounded haha!

What role does race and religion play in the decision to migrate elsewhere, whether it be migration on an internal scale or a global scale, and how does the anticipation of one’s reception in relation to the reception upon arrival to a new country relate?

I remember the first time I was invited to the middle east, and heard stories of homosexual men being beheaded and blacks being spat upon and it made me even question turning down an opportunity to present my work to that region.

Luckily, I was talked around into attending and it has since afforded me so much other opportunities since. But being a black gay man can definitely have it’s downsides to wanting to travel the world.

Does it seem as safe to you to travel as a person of colour?

Last month I was invited to Budapest to attend an EU creative arts conference and present my collection, and I was terrified because again I heard stories of black tourists being attacked, both verbally and physically.

I went and had the best time ever.

People there were so nice. Often I went into restaurants and managers refused to let me pay for my bill, because they said I was a guest in their country.

I’ve come to the conclusion that if something is going to happen, it’s going to happen, but I’m not going to not go places because of horror stories I’ve heard.

Horrible things are happening here in London, in our very own backyards.

After seeing events such as the Charlottesville riots and the general growth in racial tension/Islamophobia due to events such as Brexit, ‘domestic terrorism’ and the rise/fall of Trump, do you, as a person of colour, still see migration in a positive light?

Racism and Islamophobia is nothing new! It’s just now there is social media to give people like us a voice to air our experiences in the global community.

It’s the same shit, just a different day.

There have always been and will always be characters like Trump globally who are racist.

To be honest, I prefer the upfront racism I give those racists more respect, because they let everyone know where they stand, it’s the institutional racism that I can’t stand.

The micro aggressive racism that you’re unable to document.

Migration will continue regardless because people are always wanting to travel to better themselves and the people in their lives they love.

Racism and islamophobia will not stop migration. I mean the torches used by the racists in charlottesville were invented by nonwhites, they need us more than they’re willing to admit haha.

”These interactions with people from all backgrounds, makes me appreciate my life as it is now, but also makes me strive to wanting to be more.”

BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 55

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INTERVIEW WITH IRIS YAU. Iris Yau is an International product and supply chain strategy adviser. She is alumni of the London College of Fashion having studied a degree in product development for the fashion Industries, graduating in 1998. Iris has worked for a multitude of luxury brands such as YSL, Emanual Ungaro, Ozwald Boateng, Burberry, Princess of Greece Marie-Chantal and the leading Hong Kong based retailer G2000. Iris is also bilingual, she can speak fluent English and Chinese. Iris is a firm believer in giving back and she is a regular volunteer working with many organisations on a voluntary basis. She has worked for the University of Arts London as a mentor at the London College of fashion enterprise career as well as for London 2012 Summer Olympics. *** What does it mean to belong?

When I was a drummer volunteer for London 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony (I had never played a drum prior to London 2012! ), the diversity and the goodwill of people empowered and enriched every single one of us. We all have something to give… words cannot really describe the exact feeling of being valued and appreciated. It was such a privilege to be able to give back in such a fun and meaningful way, it was and still is the most amazing experience to I have been part of such a joyous and wonderful London 2012 community! It was empowering.

How do you define ‘Home’ and what does this mean individually and/or collectively?

Both Hong Kong and London are my “home” where my close friends and family live, where I find joy and pride, where I integrate with different people and cultures happily. I appreciate both Hong Kong Chinese have a practical and hard -working mentality and the charm of the English Heritage, I like both direct and dry humour, my heart will ache hard if anything bad happens to either country and I am proud of the things we have done well in either city. Home is somewhere I feel at ease, loved and we can make a difference together.

What does being of two or more nationalities and/or races bring into one’s life and into your work? How does it affect your overall perspective on life and on your identity?

My life has been constantly enriched through being of dual-nationality (Hong Kong Chinese & British), the cultural capital I bring into work (both in the fashion industries & academically) has always been well received and appreciated.

However, I do believe that this cultural difference can only be shown in a positive light when we use it for good intentions (for the greater good rather than self-gain).

One of the reasons why I left a high profile fashion management role and became a self-employed consultant some years ago,

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“Home is somewhere I feel at ease and loved and we can make a difference together.”

it is to live life in fullness, perhaps, giving back is in my family’s blood as we believe it is important to make contributions to the society, is that not what we are here for? and it is always forever life-enriching… it is better to give than to receive !

I have worked with different charities in my spare time, they help and empower people with learning disabilities; a family reading group for English as a second language; local park conservation; art gallery arts education, after school classes; major sport and culture event ceremonies volunteer; fundraising for cancer research uk …etc., Learning new things and meeting different backgrounds of people help me to stay grounded and open-minded, we might be a specialist / a professional in our own field, but there is so so so much more knowledge and potential out there … learning from each other “good and bad” is part of the journey!

I wish I had a mentor when I was a fashion undergraduate student especially when I was so far away from home, guidance from an experienced individual could have excelled my career sooner. I wish I did not need to learn almost everything the hard way when I was younger ? I hope my students have been

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inspired by the journey I have been on, the industrial insight for employability and the positive thinking I am guiding them towards.

You travel a lot for your work within the fashion industry, what do you think are the effects of consistent travel and movement? How do you stay grounded?

Travelling is very exciting, eye-opening, you see and experience things first-hand (learning by doing), it always makes a huge difference when I meet and discuss business with the suppliers in person rather than communicating with them by emails. However, travelling is tiring and can be frustrating especially when problems arise while on route.

I do as much charity work as possible to stay grounded, that is something money can’t buy.

What role does race and religion play in the decision to migrate elsewhere, whether it be migration on an internal scale or a global scale, and how does the anticipation of one’s reception in relation to the reception upon arrival to a new country relate?

Sadly due to a lack of understanding and poor education on cultural difference, some places or people might have prejudices about

people who are different to them? As a Hong Kong Chinese person, I did not have any problems when I first arrived in London as a fashion degree student back in the late 90s.

Now as a British Hong Kong Chinese and a global fashion supplier-chains sourcing and buying professional in the U.K. I have travelled across the globe with work and for leisure. I am blessed that I never have had any major problems at the immigration wherever I travel to. People seem to like to work or do business with Chinese people as historically Chinese people are reliable and hardworking.

I am inclined to use my Hong Kong Chinese passport rather than my British EU passport to travel to some countries so that I don’t have to pay the visa fees, in other words, I would feel I am more welcome there.

Have you travelled to anywhere in the world where there are few people of colour? What did that feel like? How were you treated and what advice would you give to people of colour who are travelling to similar countries?

that we all are an ambassador of our own background, no matter what races and social situations you believe you belong to … do our best to be nice and stay openminded… as my late dad always said : a smile can break the ice and prevent conflict… we all are equal until we start to think we are better or lesser than the other !!!

After seeing events such as the Charlottesville riots and the general growth in racial tension/Islamophobia due to events such as Brexit, ‘domestic terrorism’ and the rise/fall of Trump, do you, as a person of colour, still see migration in a positive light?

I believe the world has turned backwards for some narrow-minded people but not all, I still believe, the majority of people including myself see migration as an advantage for cultural capital, and perhaps, we need to work harder on keeping people open-minded and stay positive. In order to achieve this peaceful goal we need migration more than ever …

I never thought of this until I read this question, as I myself don’t see / differentiate people by their colours, but by their manners.

Perhaps, some parts of the world for example, Switzerland, Hungary, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Peru, Egypt, Japan, Korean, Taiwan and China…I have been to might have lower cultural capital than the United Kingdom. By this I mean that some of the countries that I have been to seem not to be as cosmopolitan as the United Kingdom in terms of BAME communities. I believe

“A smile can break the ice and prevent conflict… we all are equal until we start to think we are better or lesser than the other”

BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 59

FURTHER RESOURCES.

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KEY TERMS. Active Citizen

A citizen who takes an active role in the community, such as crime prevention and the local community.

African American

An American of African and especially of black African descent

Anti Blackness

Showing discrimination against Black people

Assimilation

The processing of adapting to or falling in line with the culture of a nation.

Assisted Voluntary Return

Administrative, logistical, financial and reintegration support to rejected asylum seekers, victims of trafficking in human beings, stranded migrants, qualified nationals and other migrants unable or unwilling to remain in the host country who volunteer to return to their countries of origin.

Asylum seeker

A person who leaves their home country as a refugee and seeks asylum in another.

Black

Belonging to or denoting any human group having dark-coloured skin, especially of African or Australian Aboriginal ancestry

Black British

British people of Black and African origins or heritage, including those of African-Caribbean (sometimes called "Afro-Caribbean") background, and may include people with mixed ancestry

Borders

a line separating two countries, administrative divisions, or other areas

Border management The control and security of the border, effectively controlling who legally comes in and out and prevent any illegal immigrants or substances coming in.

Boycott

To voluntarily abstain or protest something.

Brexit

A term used to describe the United Kingdom's exit from Europe.

Brown

Dark-skinned

Capacity building

Building capacity of governments and civil society by increasing their knowledge and enhancing their skills.

Circular migration

The repetitive movement of a migrant worker back and forth between home and host areas.

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Citizenship

Being a citizen of a particular country.

Coloureds

(Afrikaans: Kleurlinge) are a multiracial ethnic group in South Africa, who have ancestry from African (Khoisan and Bantu), European, and sometimes also Asian (Austronesian and South Asian) ethnic groups.

Coloured

Offensive term for black people.

Community

Groups of people who live in the same area, or that have particular characteristics and attributes in common.

Coon

Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive.

A contemptuous term used to refer to a black person.

Country of origin

Refers to the country where one is born.

Culture

The ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.

Critical Race Theory A theoretical framework in the social sciences focused upon the application of critical theory, a critical examination of society and culture, to the intersection of race, law, and power. CRT proposes that white supremacy and racial power are maintained over time, and that the law may play a role in this process and investigated the possibility of transforming the relationship between law and racial power.

Democracy

A system of government where leaders and representatives are selected by the people; rule of the majority.

Demographic

Factors and statistical data of a population.

Deportation

The exile of an individual from a country.

Diaspora

The movement or spread of people from their homeland.

Displaced

force (someone) to leave their home, typically because of war, persecution, or natural disaster.

Dual Citizenship

When a person is regarded as a national of more than one state.

Emigrate

When an individual leave’s their own country to permanently reside in another.

Equality

A state in which all individuals or social groups are treated fairly, equally and no less favourably; be it by virtue of their race, gender, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation or age. Equality stands for inclusion and is against discrimination.

Equal Opportunities An individual's right to be treated fairly without discrimination, no matter what their sex, race or age is.

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Ethnicity

The fact or state of belonging to a social group that as common national or cultural tradition.

Expatriate

An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of their citizenship. In common usage, the term often refers to professionals or skilled workers sent abroad by their employers, who can be companies, governments, or non-governmental organisations.

Facilitated migration Where migration is encouraged and made easier, through methods such as streamlined visa processing.

Forced migration

A term that usually refers to refugees and civilians whom have been displaced by some kind of disaster.

Freedom

The state of being unrestricted and able to move easily.

Freedom of association

The right to band together to form groups, whether they be societies or clubs, for a common cause without interference from the government.

Freedom of expression

The right to express to one’s opinion without restraint.

Freedom of movement

An individual's right to travel within a state or outside of a state, and still return to it.

Harassment

Behaviour of an offensive nature, aggressively pressuring or intimidating someone.

Heritage

Something that is handed down from the past, as a tradition. Additionally something that comes or belongs to one by reason of birth.

Human rights

A right which is believed to belong to every person.

Identity

The characteristics determining who or what a person is.

Identity crisis

A period of uncertainty and confusion in which a person's sense of identity becomes insecure, typically due to a change in their expected aims or role in society

Immigration

The permanent movement of a person or people from one country to another.

Internally Displaced Persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to Person (IDP) leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border.

International The minimum standard of treatment which states must uphold minimum standards when dealing with foreign nationals and their belongings.

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Intersectional

Is a concept often used in critical theories to describe the ways in which oppressive institutions (racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, classism, etc.) are interconnected and cannot be examined separately from one another. The concept first came from legal scholar KimberlĂŠ Crenshaw in 1989 and is largely used in critical theories, especially Feminist theory, when discussing systematic oppression. When possible, credit KimberlĂŠ Crenshaw for coining the term "intersectionality" and bringing the concept to wider attention.

Irregular migration

Movement that takes place outside the regulatory norms of the sending, transit and receiving countries. There is no clear or universally accepted definition of irregular migration.

Islamophobia

Prejudice against Islam or the Muslim population.

Labour migration

Where an individual migrates to another country for employment purposes.

Lobby

A group of people seeking to influence legislators on a particular issue

Migration

The movement of a person or people to a new area or country.

Nationality

The nation an individual belongs to.

Naturalization

The process in which a non-national in a country can acquire nationality of that country.

Navigate

To walk or find one's way on, in, or across

New Humanism or Neohumanism

Where terms applied to a theory of literary criticism, together with its consequences for culture and political thought, developed around 1900 by the American scholar Irving Babbitt, and the scholar and journalist Paul Elmer More.

Non white

Denoting or relating to a person whose origin is not predominantly European.

Normative theory

Hypotheses or other statements about what is right and wrong, desirable or undesirable, just or unjust in society. The majority of sociologists consider it illegitimate to move from explanation to evaluation

Marginalise

To relegate to the fringes, out of the mainstream; make seem unimportant: to place in a position of marginal importance, influence, or power.

Meritocracy

Is a political philosophy stating that power should be vested in individuals almost exclusively based on ability and talent.

Oppression

The feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles and or adverse conditions.

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Orderly migration

Migration that adheres to the rules of the state which the individual as exited and the state in which they’re migrating to.

Paradox

a statement or proposition which, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems logically unacceptable or self-contradictory.

Persecution

Hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of race or political or religious beliefs; oppression.

POC

People of Colour.

Political Blackness

Political blackness is the idea that all non-white people can define themselves under one term: black.

Political migrants

People unable to return home due to well founded fears of being persecuted and unlikely to receive protection from government.

Political party

A group that hold power in government; they come together to create policies and programs in which they hope to promote for the good of their supporters.

Population

All the inhabitants of a particular place or area.

Prejudice

Hatred towards someone based on their identity. Example: An oppressed person of colour can be prejudice against privileged races but cannot be racist.

Pressure group

A group sharing the same interest or cause, that tries to influence the policies of the public.

Privilege

A special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group.

Pull Factors

Factors that attract people to a location.

Push Factors

Factors that drive people away from a location.

Push-pull factors

Factors that cause people to migrate, either through attraction or by pushing them away.

Race

Refers to groups of people who have differences and similarities in biological traits deemed by society to be socially significant, meaning that people treat other people differently because of them.

Race

Is not biological. It is a social construct. There is no gene or cluster of genes common to all blacks or all whites. Were race “real” in the genetic sense, racial classifications for individuals would remain constant across boundaries.

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Racism

The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race/s.

Receiving country

Country of destination or a third country. In the case of return or repatriation, also the country of origin. Country that has accepted to receive a certain number of refugees and migrants on a yearly basis by presidential, ministerial or parliamentary decision.

Remittances

Monies earned or acquired by non-nationals that are transferred back to their country of origin.

Repatriation

The personal right of a refugee, prisoner of war or a civil detainee to return to his or her country of nationality under specific conditions laid down in various international instruments (Geneva Conventions, 1949 and Protocols, 1977, the Regulations Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, Annexed to the Fourth Hague Convention, 1907, human rights instruments as well as customary international law).

Refugee

An individual who had been forced to leave their country in fear for safety, because of events such as war,or natural disaster.

Social Construct

A concept or perception of something based on the collective views developed and maintained within a society or social group; a social phenomenon or convention originating within and cultivated by society or a particular social group, as opposed to existing inherently or naturally.

Social Justice

Justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society.

Stateless person

A person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law" (Art. 1, UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 1954). As such, a stateless person lacks those rights attributable to national diplomatic protection of a State, no inherent right of sojourn in the State of residence and no right of return in case he or she travels.

Statutory rights

An individual's legal rights, set by the government, put in place to protect citizens.

Travel Ban

An executive order, where a state prohibits an individual or certain individuals from entering or leaving the country.

Visa

An official document that allows an individual to enter, leave or stay in a country for a period of time.

Windrush

Relating to or denoting the people who emigrated from the Caribbean to Britain on the British ship the Empire Windrush in 1948.

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White

Belonging to or denoting a human group having light-coloured skin (chiefly used of peoples of European extraction).

Whiteness

Seated in the history of the ideology of ‘race,' ‘whiteness' as the foundation of racial categories and racism.

White Supremacy

White supremacy is an ideology centered upon the promotion of the belief, that white people are superior. It is argued by critical race theorist that all white people have a level of white supremacy values because of the media, education and politics have embedded whiteness as superior in society.

White Washing

A term used to describe white actors or actress playing non-fictional and historical non-white character roles. Therefore writing and disconnecting historical events and achievements to the non-white community.

Xenophobia

Prejudice of people from other countries.

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FURTHER READING. Books Abbot, L., & Seroff, D. (2009). Ragged but right: black traveling shows,” coon songs,” and the dark pathway to blues and jazz. Univ. Press of Mississippi.

Arnold, R. (2001). Fashion, desire and anxiety: image and morality in the twentieth century. IB Tauris.

Arsenault, R. (2006). Freedom riders: 1961 and the struggle for racial justice. Oxford University Press.

Baldwin, J. (2001). Another country. Penguin UK. Barkan, E. (1992). The retreat of scientific racism: Changing concepts of race in Britain and the United States between the world wars. Cambridge University Press.

Becker, C. (2001). Surpassing the spectacle: Global transformations and the changing politics of art. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Bell, V. (Ed.). (1999). Performativity & Belonging (Vol. 16, No. 2). Sage.

Bhattacharyya, G., Gabriel, J., & Small, S. (2016). Race and power: Global racism in the twenty first century. Routledge.

Bhopal, K., & Preston, J. (Eds.). (2012). Intersectionality and” race” in Education (Vol. 64). Routledge.

Black, R., Engbersen, G., & Okólski, M. (Eds.). (2010). A continent moving west?: EU enlargement and labour migration from Central and Eastern Europe. Amsterdam University Press.

Bullard, R. D., Johnson, G. S., & Torres, A. O. (Eds.). (2004). Highway robbery: Transportation racism & new routes to equity. South End Press.

Clifford, J. (1997). Routes: Travel and translation in the late twentieth century. Harvard University Press.

Cooper, D. (1998). Governing out of order: Space, law and the politics of belonging. Rivers Oram, London and New York University Press.

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Davis, B. M. (2006). How to teach students who don’t look like you: culturally relevant teaching strategies. Corwin press.

Delanty, G., Wodak, R., & Jones, P. (Eds.). (2008). Identity, belonging and migration. Oxford University Press.

Dixson, A. D., & Rousseau, C. K. (Eds.). (2006). Critical race theory in education: All God’s children got a song. Taylor & Francis.

Du Bois, W. E. B. (2008). The souls of black folk. Oxford University Press.

Fanon, F., Sartre, J. P., & Farrington, C. (1963). The wretched of the earth (Vol. 36). New York: Grove Press.

Ford, D.,E., (2017). Profiling Disorder: Hate Groups and Domestic Terrorism. ASA Publishing Corporation Ferguson, R. (Ed.). (1990). Out there: Marginalization and contemporary cultures (Vol. 4). MIT Press.

Ghemawat, P. (2007). Redefining global strategy: Crossing borders in a world where differences still matter. Harvard Business Press.

Gilroy, P. (2013). There ain’t no black in the Union Jack. Routledge.

Gilroy, P. (1993). The black Atlantic: Modernity and double consciousness. Harvard University Press.

Hacker, A. (2010). Two nations: Black and White, separate, hostile, unequal. Simon and Schuster.

Hainsworth, P. (Ed.). (1998). Divided society: ethnic minorities and racism in Northern Ireland. Pluto Press.

Hall, B. L., Dei, G. J. S., & Rosenberg, D. G. (Eds.). (2000). Indigenous knowledges in global contexts: Multiple readings of our world. University of Toronto Press.

Harris, R., & McNamara, D. (Eds.). (2002). Overseas students in higher education: Issues in teaching and learning. Routledge.

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Harris-Perry, M. V. (2011). Sister citizen: Shame, stereotypes, and Black women in America. Yale University Press.

House, F. (2016). Freedom in the World 2016: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties. Rowman & Littlefield.

Kelley, R. D. (2002). Freedom dreams: The black radical imagination. Beacon Press.

Kester, G. H. (2011). The one and the many: Contemporary collaborative art in a global context. Duke University Press.

Kim, N. Y. (2008). Imperial citizens: Koreans and race from Seoul to LA. Stanford University Press.

Loza, M. (2016). Defiant Braceros: How Migrant Workers Fought for Racial, Sexual, and Political Freedom. UNC Press Books.

McRobbie, A. (2013). In the culture society: Art, fashion and popular music. Routledge.

Memmi, A. (2013). The colonizer and the colonized. Routledge.

Moore, M. (2003). A world without walls: freedom, development, free trade and global governance. Cambridge University Press.

Naficy, H. (2013). Home, exile, homeland: film, media, and the politics of place. Routledge.

Pratt, M. L. (2007). Imperial eyes: Travel writing and transculturation. Routledge.

Ransby, B. (2003). Ella Baker and the Black freedom movement: A radical democratic vision. Univ of North Carolina Press.

Rojek, C., & Urry, J. (Eds.). (1997). Touring cultures: Transformations of travel and theory. Psychology Press.

Roy, A., & Ong, A. (Eds.). (2011). Worlding cities: Asian experiments and the art of being global (Vol. 42). John Wiley & Sons.

Savage, M., Bagnall, G., & Longhurst, B. J. (2004). Globalization and belonging. Sage.

Tator, C., & Henry, F. (2006). Racial Profiling in Canada: Challenging the Myth of� a Few Bad Apples�. University of Toronto Press.

Turner, B. S. (Ed.). (1993). Citizenship and social theory (Vol. 24). Sage.

Vertovec, S., & Cohen, R. (Eds.). (2002). Conceiving cosmopolitanism: Theory, context and practice. Oxford University Press on Demand.

Wong, E. L. (2009). Neither Fugitive nor Free: Atlantic Slavery, 72 // BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS.

Freedom Suits, and the Legal Culture of Travel. NYU Press.

Zamudio, M., Russell, C., Rios, F., & Bridgeman, J. L. (2011). Critical race theory matters: Education and ideology. Routledge.

Articles, Essays & Journals: Akwada, N. (2017). Are African Americans really Americans?. [online] This Is Africa. Available at: https://thisisafrica.me/african-americans-really-american/ [Accessed 30 Aug. 2017].

Aljazeera.com. (2017). Charlottesville attack: What, where and who?. [online] Available at: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/charlottesvilleattack-170813081045115.html [Accessed 21 Aug. 2017].

Art Practical. (2017). Art + Citizenship | Art Practical. [online] Available at: http:// www.artpractical.com/issue/art-citizenship/ [Accessed 18 Aug. 2017].

Enar-eu.org. (2017). Islamophobia in Europe: Recent Trends - ENAR. [online] Available at: http://www.enar-eu.org/Islamophobia-in-Europe-Recent-Trends [Accessed 30 Aug. 2017].

Gdb.voanews.com. (2017). Cite a Website - Cite This For Me. [online] Available at: https://gdb.voanews.com/AACBC217-CFCE-4D56-BCABB26CCD35E6AB_w1080_h608.jpg [Accessed 4 Sep. 2017].

Jones, J. (2017). Hate crimes across England and Wales have risen by up to 100 per cent since Brexit vote. [online] The Independent. Available at: http://www.independent. co.uk/news/uk/home-news/brexit-vote-hate-crime-rise-100-per-cent-englandwales-police-figures-new-racism-eu-a7580516.html [Accessed 21 Aug. 2017].

New Scientist. (2017). The truth about migration: How it will reshape our world. [online] Available at: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23030680-700-thetruth-about-migration-how-it-will-reshape-our-world/ [Accessed 30 Aug. 2017].

Olusoga, D. (2017). Black people have had a presence in our history for centuries. Get over it | David Olusoga. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/12/black-peoplepresence-in-british-history-for-centuries [Accessed 18 Aug. 2017].

Oppenheim, M. (2017). Samuel L Jackson and Magic Johnson mistaken for ‘lazy migrants’ by Italians after shopping in Tuscany. [online] Independent. co.uk. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/ news/samuel-l-jackson-magic-johnson-lazy-migrants-italy-tuscany-forte-deimarmi-louis-vuitton-a7905026.html?amp [Accessed 30 Aug. 2017].

Safi, M. (2017). Chinese and Indian troops face off in Bhutan border dispute. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ jul/06/china-india-bhutan-standoff-disputed-territory [Accessed 21 Aug. 2017].

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The Conversation. (2017). Dual nationality and the hurdles facing Britons who want to keep EU citizenship after Brexit. [online] Available at: http:// theconversation.com/dual-nationality-and-the-hurdles-facing-britons-whowant-to-keep-eu-citizenship-after-brexit-74470 [Accessed 18 Aug. 2017]. the Guardian. (2017). Top 10 books about migrants. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/22/top-10-booksabout-migrants-sunjeev-sahota [Accessed 30 Aug. 2017].

The National. (2017). Refugee crisis breeds Islamophobia in Eastern Europe. [online] Available at: https://www.thenational.ae/world/refugee-crisis-breedsislamophobia-in-eastern-europe-1.232554 [Accessed 30 Aug. 2017].

Travis, A. (2017). Net migration to UK falls sharply after Brexit vote. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/feb/23/netmigration-to-uk-falls-by-49000-after-brexit-vote [Accessed 18 Aug. 2017].

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DIGITAL RESOURCES. Websites: Refuge. www.refuge.org.uk “Refuge is committed to a world where domestic violence is not tolerated and where women and children can live in safety. We aim to empower women and children to rebuild their lives, free from violence and fear. We provide a range of life-saving and life-changing services, and a voice for the voiceless.”

International Organization for Migration (IOM). unitedkingdom.iom.int “The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is an inter-governmental organisation committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits both migrants and society. As the leading global organisation for migration, IOM works with migrants, governments and its partners in the international community to provide humane responses to the growing migration challenges of today.”

Migration Museum Project. www.migrationmuseum.org “The Migration Museum Project is increasing knowledge and appreciation of how migration has shaped Britain across the ages through the creation of an authoritative and inspiring permanent national Migration Museum, a far-reaching national education programme, and a knowledge-sharing network of museums and galleries across the UK.” Migration Policy Institute. www.migrationpolicy.org “The Migration Policy Institute is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank in Washington, DC dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development, and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at local, national, and international levels. It aims to meet the demand for pragmatic and thoughtful responses to the challenges and opportunities that large-scale migration, whether voluntary or forced, presents to communities and institutions in an increasingly integrated world.”

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The UN Refugee Agency. www.unhcr.org/uk “UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. We work to ensure that everybody has the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge, having fled violence, persecution, war or disaster at home.”

UK Council for International Student Affairs. www.ukcisa.org.uk “The UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) is the UK’s national advisory body serving the interests of international students and those who work with them. We have been supporting international students, universities, colleges and students’ unions for nearly 50 years.”

Child Migrant Stories. childmigrantstories.com “Child Migrant Stories was launched in February 2016. It drew, initially, on experiences of people who migrated under the age of 18 from across the world to East London from 1930 to the present day. Some came on their own; others came with, or to join family members who they may not have seen for years. Their stories are of loss and reunion but of resilience too, often in the face of war, poverty and discrimination. They are poignant, powerful and sometimes very funny.”

Our Migration Story. www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk “Our Migration Story: The Making of Britain is an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded collaboration between the Runnymede Trust and academics based at the universities of Cambridge and Manchester. Drawing on the words and research of over 60 historians based in universities and historical institutions – including the National Archives, the Imperial War Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Royal Historical Society – this website presents the often untold stories of the generations of migrants who came to and shaped the British Isles.”

Immigrant Stories. www.immigrantstories.umn.edu “Immigrant Stories is a research and archiving project run by the Immigration History Research Center (IHRC) at the University of Minnesota. Immigrant Stories helps immigrants, refugees, and their family members create digital stories: brief videos with images, text, and audio about a personal experience.”

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Institute of Race Relations. www.irr.org.uk “THE Institute of Race Relations (IRR) was established as an independent educational charity in 1958 to carry out research, publish and collect resources on race relations throughout the world. In 1972, the IRR’s membership backed the staff in a radical transformation of the organisation from a policy-oriented, establishment, academic institution into an anti-racist ‘thinktank’. The IRR began to concentrate on responding to the needs of Black people and making direct analyses of institutionalised racism in Britain and the rest of Europe. (For more information on the IRR’s first fifty years, watch the slide show on IRR’s history.) Today, the IRR is at the cutting edge of the research and analysis that inform the struggle for racial justice in Britain, Europe and internationally.”

Podcasts: Migration Policy Institute Podcasts www.migrationpolicy.podbean.com “MPI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank dedicated to the study of the movement of people worldwide (immigration, migration)” A New Life in Europe: The Dhnie Family www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p037lrj7/episodes/downloads “The story of one Syrian family heading for Europe in search of a better life.

For the last two years, the Dhnie family has been living as refugees in Jordan. In August, the family decided there was no future for them there and little prospect of returning to Syria.

They packed up their lives and set off for the EU. Manveen Rana documents the twists and turns of their journey in a series of reports for BBC Radio 4’s The World at One.” Migrants Right Network www.migrantsrights.org.uk/news/podcasts “Migrants’ Rights Network is an innovative UK- based NGO working and campaigning for the rights of all migrants. Our work brings together migrant activists and support organisations, think tanks, academics, faith groups and public sector representatives to advocate for a rights-based approach towards migration in the UK.” African migration to and from Europe: Rethinking circular migration www.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/african-migration-and-europe-rethinking-circular-migration “Antony Otieno Ong’ayo presents an alternative approach to the management of migration in the context of EU–Africa migration relations”

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YouTube Channels: IOM - UN Migration Agency. www.youtube.com/user/iommigration “IOM works in the four broad areas of migration management: Migration and development, Facilitating migration, Regulating migration, Forced migration. IOM activities that cut across these areas include the promotion of international migration law, policy debate and guidance, protection of migrants’ rights, migration health and the gender dimension of migration.”

Cities Of Migration. www.youtube.com/user/CitiesOfMigration “Cities of Migration showcases good ideas in immigrant integration and promotes innovative practices that create inclusion and urban prosperity. A project of the Global Diversity Exchange (GDX) at the Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University.”

Migration Policy Institute www.youtube.com/user/MigrationPolicy “MPI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.., dedicated to the study of the movement of people worldwide. We provide analysis, development, and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at local, national, and international levels. Our aim is to meet the demand for pragmatic and thoughtful responses to the challenges and opportunities that large-scale migration, whether voluntary or forced, presents to communities and institutions in an increasingly integrated world.”

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency www.youtube.com/user/unhcr “For more than 60 years, UNHCR has protected and promoted the rights of tens of millions of refugees and displaced people. For those who flee their homes because of war or persecution, the UN refugee agency is often the last hope for a return to a normal life. UNHCR cares for more than 40 million of these uprooted people.”

Coloured Mentality www.youtube.com/channel/UC1bL50P7GzQKhorkDC6cdyg

YouTube Documentaries: Going Undercover as a Migrant in Brexit Britain www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEhC0oM1aAo Great Human Odyssey - Documentary 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE_I8PyUJW8

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Ted Talks What is a Home? www.ted.com/playlists/394/what_is_home Don’t Feel Sorry For Refugees - Believe in Them www.ted.com/talks/luma_mufleh_don_t_feel_sorry_for_refugees_believe_in_them Why Brexit happend - and what to do next www.ted.com/talks/alexander_betts_why_brexit_happened_and_what_to_do_next#t-424180

Twitter Users to Follow: @itscaitlinhd @sundersays @ColinYeo1 @MSF_Sea @Refugees @bouckap @MigrationUK @AmnestyUK @refugeecouncil @RefugeeAction @RefugeCharity

Key Organisations: Migration Museum www.migrationmuseum.org Migration Policy Institute www.migrationpolicy.org International Organisation for Migration unitedkingdom.iom.int The UN Refugee Agency www.unhcr.org/uk Refuge www.refuge.org.uk The International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) www.icmpd.org/home Migration Watch UK www.migrationwatchuk.org BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 79

Refugee Council www.refugeecouncil.org.uk Amnesty International www.amnesty.org.uk Refugee Action www.refugee-action.org.uk

Contacts, Services & Support Groups: Refugee Women’s Resource Project, Asylum Aid www.migrantsresourcecentre.org.uk “Migrants Resource Centre has worked for over 30 years to help migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers overcome the barriers that prevent them from fully participating in British society. In this time, we have helped tens of thousands of people secure protection in the UK, regularise their immigration status, learn English, and find work. We have helped people who are stateless and have other nationality issues secure more certain future.”

UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group www.uklgig.org.uk “The UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group (UKLGIG) promotes equality and dignity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) people who seek asylum in the UK, or who wish to settle here to be with their partners.”

Micro Rainbow International (MRI) www.micro-rainbow.org “Micro Rainbow International’s (MRI’s) vision is to create a world where lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) people are free from discrimination, persecution and have equal opportunities in life, including in accessing employment, training, education, financial services, healthcare, housing, places of faith, and public services.”

Migrant Help www.migranthelpuk.org “We are a leading national charity offering support, guidance and accommodation to vulnerable migrants across the UK. Whether someone has fled persecution, escaped from slavery or found themselves in a situation that they do not understand, Migrant Help offers advice, support and a place of safety. Read more about who we are, what we believe and what we do.”

Turn2Us www.turn2us.org.uk 80 // BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS.

“Turn2us helps people in financial need gain access to welfare benefits, charitable grants and other financial help – online, by phone and face to face through our partner organisations.”

Citizens Advice www.citizensadvice.org.uk “We aim to provide the advice people need for the problems they face and improve the policies and practices that affect people’s lives.”

AVID, The Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees www.aviddetention.org.uk “AVID, the Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees, was founded in 1994 in response to the increase in numbers of people being held in immigration detention, and the local community reaction to this.”

REAP, Refugees in Effective and Active Partnership www.reap.org.uk “Refugees in Effective and Active Partnership (REAP) (Charity 1103345) is an independent, refugee-led organisation in West London that aims to empower refugees and asylumseekers to live as valuable and valued members of British society. We believe that it is essential to protect the right to refuge so people can escape danger and suffering caused by persecution, and that one implication of giving refuge is that there must also be reasonable level of effective and equitable support for people as they recover and rebuild.”

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees www.unhcr.org/uk “For more than 60 years, UNHCR has protected and promoted the rights of tens of millions of refugees and displaced people. For those who flee their homes because of war or persecution, the UN refugee agency is often the last hope for a return to a normal life. UNHCR cares for more than 40 million of these uprooted people.”

Asylum Aid www.asylumaid.org.uk “Migrants Resource Centre has worked for over 30 years to help migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers overcome the barriers that prevent them from fully participating in British society. In this time, we have helped tens of thousands of people secure protection in the UK, regularise their immigration status, learn English, and find work. We have helped people who are stateless and have other nationality issues secure more certain future.”

Shelter www.shelter.org.uk “Shelter helps millions of people every year struggling with bad housing or BELONGING: NAVIGATING ARTIFICIAL BORDERS. // 81

homelessness through our advice, support and legal services. And we campaign to make sure that, one day, no one will have to turn to us for help.”

British Red Cross www.redcross.org.uk “We are a volunteer-led humanitarian organisation that helps people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are.”

European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) www.ecre.org “ECRE is a European network of 99 NGOs in 40 European countries. It protects and advances the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and displaced persons. Its diverse membership ranges from large international NGOs with global scope to small organisations of dedicated activists; members work on humanitarian relief, social service provision, legal assistance, litigation, monitoring policy and law, advocacy, and campaigning.”

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We salute you!

Reimagining the Mixed Race Experience Š Shades Of Noir 2017