Refugee Week

Photo: Raphael Achache

Nottingham is such a diverse city. Why do you think Refugee Week is so important here?
Precisely because it celebrates diversity. It’s a vibrant city, that’s currently got 900 asylum seekers. There’s many more than that just outside the icty. It’s a poor city, but it’s vibrant and compassionate - it’s a strong city. I did some work in Hyson Green and the number of languages spoken in a small primary school is around thirty to forty. I think it advertises to the wider world that Nottingham welcomes diversity and sustains it despite political negativity. What we’d like to see is a network of cities doing Refugee Week, it’s so important to do stuff like this in a town with not so much diversity. My hometown, Bournemouth, would be a good example. We should raise awareness.

The media are pumping out anti-immigrant propaganda, and UKIP have gained popularity at an alarming rate recently. What is that about?
There are a lot of myths and stereotypes about refugees – they tend to get swallowed up in the general immigration figures. With the new government, we’re more aware that issues around immigration are going to get sharper. I think we need to challenge the figures, but that’s the rational argument. You can talk about how much immigrants contribute to the gross domestic product and, in terms of taxes, what they pay exceeds the benefits they claim. UKIP are full of contradictions, but people, particularly in a time of austerity, live with contradictions. The politicians who run UKIP are all businessmen and landowners and perhaps some lower-middle class business owners find this an attraction. The core of the vote is more than that. It’s an emotional response. I think it can be eroded, but not by slagging them off, that’s the worst thing you can do to any group of people as it stiffens their resolve.

We are trying to showcase the positives without ignoring the fact that for most asylum seekers it’s very hard. I work at the Forum in the café as a volunteer, and sometimes it’s very distressing. You see people sat, faces empty, head down, sometimes waiting years for leave to remain. People are being refused and we sense that the refusals will increase. Which is even more reason to have Refugee Week.

So it’s about integration, then?
Without preaching, we have to pick up that word neighbour and say, “This is your neighbour”. What you discover is that people realise the differences with their neighbour are less than they thought. There’s a saying, ‘An enemy is a person whose story you don’t know yet.’ I think if you swap the word enemy for immigrant, it works very well.

I used to be chair of governors for a school in the Forest Fields area, and there were two children in the school threatened with deportation. There were people who came to the meetings who would be vilified in the press – chavs, pram faces, no marks – people of ‘no account’, but they counted. They came in large numbers. They were our children in our school. The headteacher was in tears at the meetings, and there were pickets and protests and it was moving. We saw a community come into being. Communities don’t exist, they’re politicians’ rhetoric. They only emerge at points of crisis, but if Refugee Week can help to generate or enable the emergence of community then we’ve done our job. Belonging is a key issue. Trying to articulate through our events that belonging is not just to do with refugees and asylum seekers, but belonging to a city means being active.

As part of the events you’re screening Paddington. Do you think the film is an effective way of educating children about refugees or asylum seekers, or does the lack of ethnic representation in the film detract from the potential?
I think it’s a problem - London is one of the most diverse cities in Europe and I think they saw the commercial value and just didn’t think it through. The draw will be the bear - it’s a story that goes back 57 years, it’s perennial. We don’t want to sound like teachers, and the kids will make of it what they will. It’ll be a fun thing with a message. Children’s understanding of immigration is very negative and distorted so the need to educate them is so much stronger than I realised. It’s something that we’ve picked up on, [with the film] the immigration, it wasn’t billed as a film about that. We’ve sort of adapted it. We’re hoping the children will focus on the bear, and the fact that he was an illegal migrant.

What do you make of Katie Hopkins comments in The Sun in regards to the Mediterranean boat tragedies?
I try to avoid her as much as I can. Katie Hopkins is a kind of consumerism. She is a product and there’s no answer to that media. It wants you to respond. They are mocking the liberal consciousness and they want you to be upset and angry and sue them because they’ve got millions. She says these things and you have to wonder if she even believes in them, but she exists to provoke and the best answer is to not rise to it. But that’s very hard. It seems to be quite effective to turn your back on someone, not to ban or respond, but to physically turn away.

Metaphorically, we need to find ways of turning our backs on this media. No logical argument will make them back down and we know they’re powerful. Even if they apologise it’s in small print at the bottom of page 10. They’ll have a front page headline that’s completely scandalous, and then a tiny little apology. It’s a game. These humble events are a response. They’re not big, but they’re a response, and you hope that you strike a chord.

So, what's going on?

Saturday 13 June: Launch event, Nottingham Contemporary, 1 - 4pm

Monday 15 June: Film Festival: Neuland (Unknown Territory), Broadway Cinema, 6pm

Tuesday 16 June: Film Festival: Le Havre (12+), Central Library, 6.30pm

World Food Night, Tasty Tuesday, Thomas Helwys Baptist Church, 6.30pm

Hidden Stories: 20 years of supporting immigration detainees, NNRF, 6pm

Film: ‘Working Illegally’, NNRF, 6pm

Wednesday 17 June: Vol Special (Special Flight) (15), Nottingham Playhouse, 7pm

Public Speaker: Alex Ntung Mvuku, author of Not My Worst Day, NNRF, Sycamore Centre, 7pm

Thursday 18 June: VOCAL: Evaporating Borders (12+) and panel discussion, New Art Exchange, 6.30 – 8.30pm

Friday 19 June: Paddington Bear themed crafts and storytime, Hyson Green Library, 4 - 5.30pm

Amnesty International & Rainbow Project. Speakers and Q&A: Why and how do people seek asylum?

Nottingham Community and Voluntary Service, 6 - 7.30pm

Saturday, 20 June: Paddington (PG), New Art Exchange, 11am - 12.30pm

World Music Night, Nottingham Contemporary Café, 8 - 11pm

Wednesday 3 - Tuesday 30 June: Art Exhibition: Ahinee Mensah: Expressions of my lived experience - Remembering Africa, First floor Exhibition Space, Central Library

Refugee Week, Saturday 13 - Saturday 20 June.

Refugee Week website