The New Londoners Refugee Week Supplement 1

Education

Community

People

People

Comment

www.thenewlondoners.co.uk

June 2012

Much more than a“ b e a u t i fu l g am e ”By Carolina Ramírez

Today there are hundreds offootball leagues in London, and LatinAmericans in particular arecontributing to their rise in numbers.Sport-based social activities are oftenunderestimated in understandingrefugees’ experiences of becomingpart of a new society, and theireveryday lives in a city like London.The early days of the Latin American

football league of Clapham Common(1970s and 1980s) demonstrate,however, that what may begin as justsport can provide an important sourceof social support, camaraderie andcommunity.

During the 1970s and early 1980s,the pitches on Clapham Common andtheir adjacent surroundings did notsimply involve sports. Women andmen, adults and children went thereto socialise and build relationships, all

facing the challenging experience ofstarting a life in a new country. Whilemost of the players were male,women participated by socialisingaround the pitch and by preparingand sharing traditional nationaldishes which, apart from creating afamiliar atmosphere, allowed them toraise money and send some of thisback to Chile. It was also possible tofind news from home and updatesabout forthcoming community

Refugee Week Supplement

CCoonn ttii nnuueedd oonn ppaaggee 33 >>>>

Refugee Writer

Football in Clapham

SupportingRefugees

Refugees intoSchools

PoliticalActivist

2012 Refugee WeekSupplement

RomaTearne

Sri Lankan�born refugeeand writer tells her story

page 4

The New Londoners Refugee Week Supplement2

Editor-in-Chief:

Ros Lucas

Editorial team:

Dermott Carrol l

Joanna Haber

Sarah Pring

Production & Communications:

Sylvia Velasquez

Creative Director & layout:

Pablo Monteagudo

Creative Design:

Carlos Lavayen

Reporters:

Helena Argyle

Hasani Hasani

Photographers:

Jawid Jamil i

Bjanka Kadie

Pablo Monteagudo

Ray Yagnik

Mauricio Zamorano

Contributors:

Fotosynthesis

Jawid Jamil i

Mauro Longo

Carolina Ramírez

Richard Rushworth

Drawing:

Ian Drummond

Produced by:

Migrants Resource Centre

24 Churton Street

London SW1 V 2LP

02078342505

www.migrantsresourcecentre.org.uk

info@migrants.org.uk

With thanks to all the

volunteer journalists,

contributors

and media group

members who took part

in the production of the

supplement

Special thanks to:

Migrants and Refugee

Social Media Group

www.thenewlondoners.co.uk

Letter fromEditor-in-ChiefThis Refugee Week supplement of The New Londoners highl ights the contribution thatrefugees make to l ife in London: refugees such as Roma Tearne, the Sri-Lankan bornacclaimed artist and novelist, and Jawid Jamil i , an Afghani poet. Then there are groupswho have started activities to give support to their communities such as the Chileans whoset up a football league in the 1 970s and the Southwark Day Centre for asylum seekersthat provides a range of services to help refugees adapt to l ife in London.

The New Londoners is also produced with the assistance of refugees, asylum seekersand migrants who all wish to contribute to l ife in London.

All of their experiences and stories are a triumph of hope over adversity and we lookforward to celebrating Refugee Week with them in this vibrant, diverse city that hasbenefited greatly from their contribution.

Ros LucasMRC Executive Director

Follow us and join

in debate on:

@newlondoners

The New Londoners

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The New Londoners Refugee Week Supplement 3

activities in the UK. All of thiscreated a sense of communityand solidarity, drawing togetherChileans who were living in arelatively scattered waythroughout the city.

This does not mean that allChileans participated in theleague, or that the ‘community’ inquestion was strictly based oncountry of origin. Indeed, theleague increasingly incorporatedplayers and audiences who werefrom other countries in LatinAmerica and who also came toLondon in the 1970s and 1980s,either as refugees or throughwork permits. Support networkswere created by and for themthere. It also provided a way ofcoping with the difficulties someof them found in London, such asexclusion, exploitation and asense of cultural loss, at the sametime as coping with the burdens

of being in exile, away from familyand dealing with the impact oftraumatic experiences beforedeparture.

The football community gave asense of familiarity in the face ofthese migrants’ common feelingsof being ‘out of place’. Theexperience of becoming an exileand a refugee in the UK oftencame with feelings of dislocationand a sense of being perceived asdifferent for the first time. Thiswas not only felt by adults, butalso by exiled children who oftenhad to start school as soon as theyarrived, even before learning thehost country’s language. As someof the children relate today (asadults), counting on gatheringplaces like the one created by theLatin American football leaguewas crucial - “I didn’t have to askmyself if I had very black hair, ifI’m different. I was a child ofChileans and that’s it!” one of

them recalls. By participating inthe space developed by thefootball league, these children andadults received validation inrelation to their customs, habitsand appearance - invaluablesources ofbelonging formigrants.

Communities built aroundsports are often underestimatedin understanding how refugeeslive their lives in London. They areusually seen simply in terms of

entertainment activities, withoutacknowledging the wider socialand cultural benefits they create.Yet, as the case of the LatinAmerican football league of SouthLondon shows, these sport-basedspaces can create a vital sense ofbelonging for refugees while theyare handling the complexexperiences of becomingmembers of a new and foreignsociety.

<<<< CCoonn ttii nnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 11

ootball and newFoundations

The pitcheswere not onlyused for sport

The New Londoners Refugee Week Supplement4

Roma Tearne was just 10 when her parents

moved to London, escaping the violent

ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. Over time she

became an acclaimed artist and writer in

Britain. Her first novel, Mosquito, was

shortlisted for the 2007 Costa Award and

the latest, The Swimmer, was long listed for

the Orange Prize last year. Her fifth book is

out in June.

In her novels, Tearne depicts the brutal

impact of the civil war on the Sri Lankan

people and their experiences of migration

and exile here. She talks to Hasani Hasani,

an asylum seeker himself, about her life,

her work, and how she became a master of

the English language.

Interview by Hasani Hasani

a chat with

RomaTearne

Hasani: What was it like to bean immigrant or asylum seeker in1960s London?

Roma: During the 60s and the70s there was a lot of racism inBritain. When I was 18 and went touniversity, I wrote a piece aboutCharles Dickens. My tutor said Icouldn’t have written that because,if I had written that, I wouldn’t bein that university but in Oxford. Hesaid if I did it again I would be sentout. I was only 18 and I hadenough. I left, I didn’t get mydegree.

Hasani: Your parents faceddiscrimination in Sri Lankabecause of their interracialmarriage. What impact had thisexperience on you and yourfamily?

Roma: On my parents it wasterrible because they marriedagainst each of their parents’wishes. My grandfather (mymother’s father) was a Sinhaleseman and he said he didn’t wantmy mother to come within onemile radius of his grave when hedied. My grandparents, on myfather’s side, the Tamils, made mymother sleep outside in the garden

on her wedding night.My mother also lost two

children because the doctors didn’tlike the fact that she wasexpecting a Tamil child. I wroteabout this in my book BrixtonBeach; one of the doctors wouldn’tgive her a caesarean operation andthe child died.

Hasani: Have you ever goneback to Sri Lanka?

Roma: No, I won’t go. I’ve beenwarned not to go because thegovernment is not very happy withthe things that I’ve written aboutthem. As a migrant, you come to ahost country and you think thatyour problems are over, but thenyou have to deal with otherproblems and carry inside you allthe hurt from your home. This iswhat I did, which is why I startedto write.

Hasani: How have youmanaged to retain such vividchildhood memories of Sri Lanka,which you left almost 40 yearsago?

Roma: I think it was a quitetraumatic experience for me as achild. What I saw when I was a

Acclaimed Sri Lankan�born artistand novelist Roma Tearne recallsthe traumas of her childhood, theexperience of migration, and howshe put on a Cockney accent

The New Londoners Refugee Week Supplement 5

I just wantedto be like anEnglish girl

child was like a photograph in mybrain and also, don’t forget, I sawsome terrible things. I saw a manbeing burned in front of me when Iwas four years old. I also sawobviously what happened to mymother.

Hasani: With the end of the SriLankan war three years ago, doyou hope that things willimprove?

Roma: It can happen, but theoppressed must be able to speakopenly, there has to be a sense ofclosure. There has to be anadmission that the governmentdid the things they did, but thisgovernment is not interested inthat. What they call reconciliationis not reconciliation. Reconciliationalways starts with remembering.

Hasani: One of the maincharacters in your latest novel,The Swimmer, is an asylum seekerwho faces xenophobia in Britain.What made you write about this?

Roma: One thing was the boythat was shot by mistake inStockwell [in 2005, Jean Charles deMenezes, a Brazilian electrician,was shot dead by police in a caseof mistaken identity] . I saw aphotograph of his mother after hewas killed and I was haunted bythat look.

Hasani: You initially made aname as an artist. What made

you start writing?

Roma: I always wanted to be awriter but when I left universitybecause they said I was copying, Idecided I didn’t want to write. Ijust wanted to be like an Englishgirl with blonde hair and blue eyes[laughs] . I wanted to get rid of myaccent, because I wanted theRounders team to allow me in, so Itold my mother not to speak to mein Singhalese and I got myself alittle Cockney accent. Then, whenthe business at university didn’twork out, I wanted to see if I couldpaint. I went to Oxford, to theRuskin College, and trained as apainter and filmmaker.

Hasani: What’s your next bookabout?

Roma: It’s called The Road toUrbino and is set in Italy. The storyis told in two voices of two verydifferent men: one is animmigrant and the other is a verycultured Englishman.

Hasani: What advice would yougive to aspiring immigrantwriters?

Roma: Read as much as youcan. Get your reading skills asperfect as you can. Learn thelanguage so that you can combatracism by speaking the languagewell. Do not blame your hostcountry, but always try to have apositive outlook.

Roma Tearne was pleased to supporta literary evening to mark the 20thanniversary of REDRESS, the charitythat seeks justice for torture survivors

Left page picture of the writer by MauroZamorano

Roma Tearnepublished novels:

Mosquito(Harper Collins, 2007)

Bone China(Harper Collins, 2008)

Brixton Beach(Harper Press, 2009)

The Swimmer(Harper Press, 2010)

The New Londoners Refugee Week Supplement6

How long have you beenattending the centre and whatbenefits has it had for you?

As Ahwazi refugees, wehave been coming to thecentre for many years and wefeel welcomed by the staffwho work there. They are

friendly and kind to us all andencourage us to speak tothem about our situation.Ahwazians, who have beenunder the Iranian regime,have had the opportunity toexplain how they have beentortured, how our boys andgirls have been hung, how we

have had no right to chooseour children’s names, haveno right to wear ourtraditional clothes and tospeak our own mothertongue, or to celebrate ourown festivals.

We find that the centre isvery helpful and convenient.For people who have justarrived and do not know howto register with a GP orschool, find a job, find friendswho have come from similarsituations or from the sameregime, and have beenthrough a difficult time, theCentre provides support andan opportunity to socialise.Personally, I think the DayCentre is a great place to go

to. It helps people build theirconfidence, share stories andmove on to a better future.

How does the centre help youpractically?

We go to the Centre formany reasons – for fillingforms, making phone calls,English classes, art classes,gardening, sports, advice etc.Some of those who use theCentre’s services, return asvolunteers and help withtranslating and form filling.The Centre brings thecommunities together. Wecelebrate most of ourfestivals together and thatshows what a multiculturalcommunity we are.

Political activist and user ofSouthwark Day Centrefor Asylum Seekers

Nabyeh Moramazi

Nabyeh Moramazi is an Ahwazi refugee from the Al-Ahwaz province in the south west of Iran. Despite being a lucrative state due

to its natural resources of oil, the Ahwazi Arabs are mainly known for being the poorest people on the richest land. In addition to

being left empty handed, since the 1980's the Iranian regime has imposed several discriminatory measures against the Ahwazi

Arabs, culturally and politically; oppressing them and often torturing and prosecuting them. Nabyeh is a keen politically activist

for her people and also a regular client of the Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers.

Activists holding flags

during a demonstration in

London about the province

of Al�Ahwaz (Iran)

The New Londoners Refugee Week Supplement 7

A little goesa long way

South London centre helps refugees adapt to life in London

By Helena Argyle

Spread over three centres, theSouthwark Day Centre for AsylumSeekers offers a range of free services,ranging from legal advice to Englishclasses and parenting lessons.

The New Londoner paid a visit to thePeckham Settlement to speak withcoordinator Pauline Nandoo and some ofrefugees and asylum seekers attendingthe Centre.

Lunch at the the Peckham Settlementis served at 1 pm, as in all the othercentres; an eclectic group of people beginto congregate in the hall. A medley ofdifferent languages cuts through the air,and friends from all over the world cometogether, ready to chow down. A queuebegins to form and The New Londoner

quickly attracts eager clients ready totalk to us about the centre, and sing itspraises.

Sassan from Iran, for example, is keento emphasise how the centre has helpedhim work through the tough times he hashad since arriving in the UK. He has lived

in London for 12 years, and had difficultyapplying for permanent residency, alsoknown as indefinite leave to remain (ILR) .The first years of his London life wereovershadowed by his difficulty obtainingwork, but eight years ago he startedcoming to the Southwark Day Centre,where he was given advice on housingand benefits as well as important legaladvice to help him with his statusapplication. He points out that the Britishimmigration law systems can be quiteconfusing; often because many people

using these services are still getting togrips with the English language.

He cheerily looks around as food isbeing served and eagerly joins the queue.Today he is just coming to eat andsocialise, a practice that is common atthe centre. It' s not just the practicaladvice, but the sense of community andfamiliarity that support the people whoattend, who have come from far awayand have often been through traumaticand unsettling experiences. The sense ofsociety here, fostered by its volunteers,helps people like Sassan to connect withothers and share their experiences.

Raymond from Ghana obtained ILRwith the help of the centre, and nowdrops by regularly to meet up withfriends and say hello. I would say: ForRaymond, the centre offers both a placeto greet familiar faces as well as anavenue for different cultures to meet.

Once everyone has eaten, the platesare cleared and people begin to say theirgoodbyes. At the back of the hall a crècheis provided so that parents can enjoy astress-free afternoon of English lessons,or get help with such things as theirstatus, their benefits and getting theirchildren enlisted in schools. Those whowish to stay and carry on talking arewelcome. At the Southwark Day Centresthe doors are always open, with relaxedand friendly volunteers ready to help anda buzzing array of clients ready to chatand share experiences with.

a placeto greetfamil iarfaces

Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers: www.sdcas.org.uk

The New Londoners Refugee Week Supplement8

What volunteers say:

I strongly believe that sharing one'sexperiences with others contributes

towards a happier andmore balanced society.I feel it is my duty tohave a positive impacton our children'seducation as a token ofgratitude to Britain andto the British people foraccepting refugees aspart of their society.

What pupils say:

It is really sad if you havea family and you have toleave them behind, weworry about little thingsbut we don't see how someothers have had hard lives.

What schools say:

One year on, it is still clearthat the children were genuinelyinspired by the visit. They wrotepassionate and articulate lettersto the Indonesian governmenton behalf of an imprisonedteacher, after learning aboutwhat can happen if thepersecuted of other countriesdon't leave to become refugees.By meeting a refugee, they wereable to really understand why peopleare forced into such circumstances.(Enfield School)

Refugeesinto Schools

50 volunteers – all refugees – havegone into London schools and sharedtheir experience of conflict, seekingsafety and rebuilding their lives withmore than 4,000 children. TheRefugees into Schools* project engagesschoolchildren from across the city inthe personal experiences of refugees.It offers a unique opportunity forpupils to meet a refugee, ask questions,and deepen their understanding of whypeople are forced to seek refuge.

Why is it important that children inLondon learn about refugees? Thereare enough refugee children in Londonschools for there to be, on average, onein every class. Hearing the stories ofthe volunteers gives these childrenmore confidence in discussing theirown backgrounds, as well as providingpupils from all backgrounds with rolemodels of survival and success throughincredibly difficult circumstances.

As the city’s ethnic diversityincreases, it is important that youngpeople have a good understanding ofdifferent communities. Research showsthat negative attitudes towardimmigration becomes increasingly setduring adolescence. Given thefrequently hostile media depictions ofrefugees and asylum seekers,addressing how children think aboutthese issues is essential for theirinteractions with people from differentbackgrounds.

For the volunteers, it is a chance tolearn more about the school system,gain experience and confidence thatcan improve their employmentopportunities and become moreinvolved in the city's civic life.

Refugees educatethe school children

The Refugees into Schools Project: www.employabil ityforum.co.ukBy Mauro Longo

The New Londoners Refugee Week Supplement 9

In Afghanistan I have twooptions: To have a good life inmy house or to die. But here inUK, I don't have any options.Here they don't let you die andthey don't let you stay alive.They put you in a cage.

Money cannot bringhappiness.

I came here to enjoy my lifeand to have a better life but itbecame worse. I cannot doanything I want because nowsomebody controls me.

The Home Office and SocialServices, I can't do anythingwithout asking them, I have toask them and then do whatthey say. They are alwayspromising but they aredeceiving the people. They tellme I am over age so why arethey telling me they would helpme until I am 25? It is good totell the truth and the personhelped would be happy as longas he knows they are not goingto help him. I have to pay formy house now but I cannot finda job. They told they would payfor it. If I know then I can domy things without waiting forthem.

I came to the UK inSeptember 2008. From thattime till today I do not see anyinteresting things such as lifeand death. This situation is theonly thing I am able to thinkabout.

The reason I am saying thisis because those peopledisappointed me.

First they say they will helpyou but the second thing theywill do is to kick you like a ball,and that is the reason why I amdisappointed.

“My nameis J. J.”

This was my bedroom in a hostel I lived for 2 years

Jawid JamiliAfgan refugee and poet sharehis experiences with us

These pictures were taken as part of the“Exploring Surroundings “Project deliveredby Fotosynthesis, a not-for profitorganisation that uses photography to givea voice to marginalised people, provideeducational activities and encouragecommunity cohesion.

www.fotosynthesiscommunity.org.uk

The New Londoners Refugee Week Supplement10

I feel aloneBy J.J

I feel aloneI alone can devalue gold, by not caring,If it fal ls or rises in the market place,Wherever there is gold, there is a chain you know,And if your chain is gold so much the woes for you

LoveA new feeling gets bigger in your heart. You feel it every time you

look at me. You are always thinking of me.You long for me and die for me. I don’t want you to tell me words

that melt my heart of longing and love.Enough for me to tell me, I love you.

These words kil l me.

With me, your heart is crazy; even your eyes’ looks are crazy.You blink for a second and my eyes wil l not see yours.

My name is JJ; I am a refugee from Afghanistan.I arrived in the UK when I was 15 years old, I was alone and had leftAfghanistan.Because of the war my family had many enemies who were trying tohurt us.We had no choice but to leave. I wanted my family to be safe.Sadly, I am the only member of my family who survived.

Voices from No Man' s Land

The Poems, published on this space are by

refugees and asylum seekers living in London

Refugee Week 2012 is a

unique opportunity to

discover and celebrate

the contribution that

refugees bring to the UK

Drawings by Ian Drummond

www.refugeeweek.org.uk