Journey Matters: Unequal borders, travel narratives and refugee integration
Current framings of migration and mobility in the UK are increasingly polarised. Some journeys are allowed but others are contained, with unequal border rules and travel narratives applied to refugee journeys. This becomes especially apparent in places of deterrant/crossing such as Calais-Dover, where journeys made by refugees in boats are 'illegal' and must be stopped but 'booze cruise' tourism is encouraged and adventurous sea-crossings are celebrated in the canon of travel writing on both sides of the Channel. For refugees who do reach the UK, the UK immigration system's ongoing focus on deterrence and detention curtails freedom of movement and opportunity for refugees. It sets them apart from other people in receiving communities.
Yet community is where integration occurs - where people's lived experiences intersect, mediated by narratives that support or hinder integration. How is integration affected if people living together in communities carry such manifestly different experiences and narratives of journey? Lead by Dr Esa Aldegheri and funded by a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship, this project investigates how unequal narratives and bordering of refugee journeys affect integration, focusing on Scotland as a case study. This builds on a growing body of scholarship, including Esa's own work with the UNESCO Chair on Refugee Integration through Education, Language, and the Arts at the University of Glasgow, which recognises the internationally relevant learnings from the devolved Scottish Government's New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy (NSRIS) approach to integration.
The project will use a combination of qualitative, multilingual and narrative-based research methods and will develop over three interconnected phases. Esa will first analyse how integration policy and canonical travel writing in the UK often fram refugee journeys as 'other'. She will then examine unequal border practices that enact this 'othering', particularly at the Calais-Dover crossing and in places of immigration detention in Scotland. Finally, she will develop and deliver journey-based participatory travel writing workshops in collaboration with community organisations across Scotland, relating research findings to people's lived experiences of integration.
The complex and interconnected elements of migration and integration have long been the focus of Esa's work as a scholar, a creative writer and a community education facilitator. This fellowship supports her in further bridging academic and non-academic worlds, interweaving insights and methods from different spheres of activity. Alongisde a scholarly monograph, the project will generate a collection of creative writings from the journey-based travel writing workshops, expanding current understandings of refugee integration and supporting further creative research across disciplinary boundaries.