In a development of general interest to media watchers, some of the UK's leading investigative journalists have launched the Foundation for Investigative Reporting, and an associated Investigations Fund.

In an open letter, they write:

'Even before the onset of the recession, thousands of media jobs had been lost across Britain. The internet, digital television, falling advertising revenues and the commercial pressures of the 24/7 news cycle have all had an impact. While there continues to be great examples of courageous journalism, a growing number of news outlets are increasingly putting emphasis on entertainment, on rapidly-delivered and recycled news rather than the investigation and discovery of what the public wants and needs to know.

'We have decided to announce the formation of a Foundation for Investigative Reporting to look at what practical steps can be taken, both to experiment with new means of funding essential investigations and to inspire a new generation of reporters. The Foundation will act as an incubator for new ways of conducting journalism and for new ideas of how to finance this kind of reporting.
 
'As of today, we are creating a new rolling fund that will aim to help provide the initial cash required for the kind of risky, challenging reporting and film-making for which there is a crying demand, but few sponsors. This not-for-profit venture will not compete directly with established media, but will instead provide the seeds from which the big stories can grow.'

The full text of the letter is available here.

A report in the Media Guardian is here. It notes:

'Fundraising has yet to begin, but the Telegraph group has offered to make a contribution to start-up costs, and Google is to provide technical support and advice for free. Grey is talking to other media groups and is hoping to attract the interest of philanthropists or draw subscriptions from donors. A relatively modest budget of £500,000 could "transform things". The fund will, he hopes, give harried journalists the time to pursue the leads they are often forced to neglect. "Unless you have the resources or integrity to be able to spend a lot of money on something and still be prepared not to run anything, there's not going to be much integrity in your own investigation."'

Under the heading, 'The Crisis', the Foundation outlines the current depressed state of the media business:

'Even as the practice of investigative journalism – the pro-active search for facts and explanations in the public interest – is squeezed and endangered by ever-greater commercial pressure, global trends make world events themselves ever more complex. The ‘story’ itself has got beyond what any individual investigator – be they a newspaper or media organisation or official agency – can investigate with their own resources. In the regulation of the corporate sphere, investigation is increasingly privatised under the guise of ‘self-regulation’ or ‘due diligence’.'

And they note the following 'depressing trends':

- 60 local papers in Britain have closed in the last 12 months, and over 4,000 jobs in the UK media went from July 2008 to January 2009, including the jobs of at least 1,000 journalists.

- The average Fleet Street journalist now fills three times as much editorial space as he or she did in 1985.

- According to research commissioned for Nick Davies’ book 'Flat Earth News', only 12% of stories in Britain’s quality newspapers show evidence that they have been thoroughly checked.

- 54% of stories in Britain’s quality newspapers are wholly or mainly constructed from PR material.

The implications of these trends for reporting on the issue of immigration are clear: except in the scaremongering tabloids, migrant-related stories do not 'sell' papers. As Carol Coulter commented at the recent launch of new guidelines for reporters on refugee issues (see below), the media too often treats asylum stories simply as human interest ones, neglecting the stories and issues that do not have an immediate human interest angle and failing to subject the institutions of state and the justice system to adequate analysis. We wish the Foundation for Investigative Reporting well in its work.

After a number of false starts, the Office of the Minister for Integration, established in 2007, has launched a new, comprehensive website.

Some content of note:

Migration Nation: Statement on Integration Strategy and Diversity Management, from May 2008. This document is a Ministerial statement on the future direction of integration policy in Ireland. This Statement recognises that a key challenge facing Government and Irish society is the imperative to integrate people of different cultures, ethnicity, language and religion so that they become the new Irish citizens of the 21st century.

Key statistics on immigration

An archive of Press Releases

Funding: Details of the (small) amount of funding disbursed by the Office in support of integration projects countrywide.

Managing Diversity: A section containing comprehensive information on government policy and the international context.

Useful Information for Migrants

On the home page, John Curran, the Minister of State responsible, writes:

'The Irish people have vast personal experience of the challenges and opportunities that emigration and integration present as traditionally we were a country of emigration ourselves. Therefore, as a result of our own history, we understand emigration and the problems that emigrants can face. Uprooting your life, finding work, accessing services and building friendships in a new country can be a major challenge, even without the added complexities of cultural or language differences.

'In the 1990s, we saw a new, transformed Ireland emerge as a result of the economic success of the Celtic Tiger years. We became a destination-of-choice and over the past decade or so, many migrants have come here to live, work and study.

'By examining the official figures, we can clearly see the extent and indeed speed of this change - in 2002, approximately 5.7% of Ireland’s population of just under 4 million were immigrants while the 2006 Census figures show that over 10% of our population are newcomers and this represents an astonishing increase of 87% over the four year period. It is no overstatement to say that this has been a phenomenal demographic and social change for a small country to absorb over a relatively short timeframe.

'The 2006 Census figures show that we have over 420,000 migrants here who have come from 188 different countries and these people have a wide diversity of cultural and religious backgrounds. The level of migration we have experienced has brought both benefits and challenges but it is generally agreed that the benefits to Ireland have been substantial. Over the coming years, I expect that inward migration will continue to contribute to our labour force growth but that the level of immigration will not be as high as in recent years.'

The new Integration.ie website (as reported above) contains an 'information portal' on migrants and education developed by the Department of Education and Science.

According to the introduction on the site, the portal contains 'links to information on the Irish education system, links to resources available for intercultural education, and links to organisations and institutions (in Ireland and abroad) conducting educational research on migration. It will be of interest to all sectors of education from pre-school to higher education and will provide information for policy makers, parents, teachers, researchers and others interested in migrants and their education in Ireland.'

As a close reading of the above suggests, this is very simply a collection of links to bodies and information sources relevant to newcomers to the Irish education system.

According to the website, this information is also available on the website of the Department of Education & Science. After some navigating of that site, I found a section on 'Newcomers to Ireland'. This is distinct from the information in 'portal' on integration.ie, and has an eclectic but potentially useful collection of documents and official statements relating to migrants and interculturalism in the classroom.

The launch of integration.ie coincides with that of integration.eu, a new European Union site on integration matters.

Amongst the features of interest on the site are the following:

Good practices: a selection of examples of good integration practice from all across Europe, submitted by those involved. (The criteria for selection and details of how to do so are here.) 

An information sheet on Ireland, which appears to be a comprehensive selection of links and documents on key aspects of integration policy.

The PROMINSTAT database is a comprehensive inventory of statistical datasets on migration, integration and discrimination in Europe and currently contains descriptions of more than 1,200 statistical datasets.

A facility to contribute and share information on integration.

An extensive selection of information on national, European and private funding opportunities.

A discussion forum that has clearly not yet gained any traction, but nonetheless provides a potentially useful facility.

A revised edition of the journalists' guidelines, 'Reporting on Refugees. Guidance by & for Journalists' was launched last week. The guide can be downloaded here. It is produced by the National Union of Journalists, the Irish Refugee Council and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The launch event was chaired by Carol Coulter of the Irish Times, and the panel consisted of the press ombudsman, John Horgan, the head of the NUJ, Seamus Dooley, journalist Abiba Ndeley, originally from Cameroon, and myself. Carol Counter's excellent contribution can be heard in this podcast from community radio station Near 90 FM and can be downloaded here. I will also publish the texts of the various contributions in subsequent posts.

The following is the advance text of Carol Coulter's remarks at the launch of the guide, 'Reporting on Refugees'. Carol Coulter is Legal Affairs Editor of the Irish Times.

Others will speak of the need for accuracy, for a basic knowledge of what is involved in asylum-seeking, for avoiding stereotyping and the repetition of ill-informed and prejudiced comment, for treating asylum-seekers and refugees with courtesy and respect, so I won’t dwell on them.

I want to speak in more general terms – what are we trying to achieve when we write about this subject and, indeed, I would hope, any subject?

We are fortunate in that we live in a democracy, where our state institutions and our media, while flawed, do permit us freedom of expression within the constraints of the law and the limitations of the media’s thrust for circulation and profits.

Democracy can only thrive where there is an informed citizenry, where the institutions that are meant to serve us act in a transparent manner and are accountable, and where the members of the society can learn about sections of it they may never engage with in their own daily lives, as part of building a harmonious and tolerant society.

Writing about the issue of asylum and refugees is part of that. I use the word “issue” deliberately, because the key issue here, in my opinion, is process.

The media love a “human interest” story, and of course it is important to humanise what we write and ensure that the impact of public policy on real individuals is understood. But there are real dangers in covering the issue of asylum purely from a “human interest” point of view.

First, it tends to focus attention on the photogenic and articulate asylum-seeker, preferably with a couple of pretty children tagging alone - and I am not singling out any one individual here. There are several examples.

This individual then becomes the symbol of that particular category of refugee. Many refugees are not photogenic or articulate, and are no less deserving of protection for that.

Secondly, it reduces the issue to the individual story. The story might be heart-rending or heart-warming (the talented footballer who is the life and soul of the local GAA or football team), but the person concerned does not necessarily meet the criteria for protection under international refugee law. If the individual is refused asylum, this can cause confusion about the purpose of the asylum system.

Thirdly, and this needs to be said, we do not necessarily know whether the story is true. Checking the story of a person claiming to be a refugee is the task of the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, who have at their disposal staff with at least some training and access to international data, which is more than most journalists have. They still sometimes get it wrong.

Why should journalists, who normally (though there are many, very well-informed exceptions) have less resources available to them to check such stories, be sure the story is true?

The other side of this is the leaking by State agencies of stories aimed at discrediting the individual asylum-seeker to selected journalists, so that the person becomes the centre of a propaganda war.

Fourthly, if evidence does emerge that refutes the story, not only is the individual asylum-seeker discredited, but, by association, so are all asylum-seekers in that category or from that country and the argument for providing protection to those fleeing persecution is itself damaged.

None of this means we should not talk to refugees and tell their stories. Of course we should. But that is not, and cannot be, the whole story. We must give context. We must find out ourselves as much as possible about the countries they come from. We must know – and explain – what the criteria are for obtaining asylum. And we must not be afraid of saying when asylum is not warranted.

Not every asylum-seeker is fleeing persecution. We need only recall the total collapse in applications for asylum from Poland and the Baltic states following their accession to the EU. There was no sudden change in the character of their political regimes at home.

Telling the stories of individual asylum-seekers can only ever be part of the picture and, I would argue, a subordinate part. Our focus must be on the bigger picture – explaining why there are refugees, and what are our obligations to them, and examining how those who act in our name are meeting those obligations.

That brings me back to the issue of process. We, as tax-payers, are entitled to be sure that our money is well-spent and that our asylum process is one of which we can be proud.

Assessing claims for asylum is a difficult and complex task, involving both great sensitivity and extensive knowledge. It is of the utmost importance; people’s lives are at stake, and a wrong decision could send people to their death. We must do everything humanly possible to ensure this does not happen, while also ensuring that our system of protection goes to those who need it.

Thus the process of assessment must be transparent and accountable. We pay for it, and our reputation in the world depends on it.

Yet there is a culture of secrecy surrounding it. The institutions dealing with asylum applications, ORAC and the RAT, are not subject to Freedom of Information legislation and do not fall under the remit of the Ombudsman or the Information Commissioner.

The RAT fought tooth and nail against making its decisions available even to the legal representatives of those appearing before it, making a limited concession only on the eve of a Supreme Court case it was certain to lose, and where an embarrassing split in its members would have been revealed. Under the proposed Immigration and Residence Bill, disclosing previous judgments to an academic researcher, a journalist, or even to another lawyer will be a serious offence.

The issue of transparency and accountability in the system is a crucial one, and a fruitful one for journalists to explore, without losing sight of the human stories of those caught up in that system.

The following is the text of Colin Murphy's remarks at the launch of the guide, 'Reporting on Refugees'. Colin Murphy is the editor of Migration Matters and an independent journalist covering immigration issues.

I came into journalism relatively late. In early 2000, I found myself in Angola in Southern Africa, as an aid worker with an Irish NGO, where the main focus of our work was the people displaced by the Angolan civil conflict. When I came home, in 2002, and started writing, one of the aspects of Irish life that had changed most notably while I was away, and which I found most interesting, was demographics, and I gradually started to cover this as a journalist, initially with Village Magazine and, more recently, freelance.

I’ve covered various insidious aspects of the asylum system, such as the iniquities of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, the situation of unaccompanied minors, the disappearance of children from HSE hostels, and the direct provision system. I’ve also covered the exploitation of migrant workers and the denial of full rights to immigrant married couples. It can be tempting, covering these areas – particularly when meeting people whose lives have been terribly damaged through their suspension in the limbo of the Irish system – to be overwhelmingly negative about that system.

More recently, however, I spent some time on the canvass with immigrant participants in the local elections. Just three were elected but, more importantly, 40 or so put their heads above the parapets and announced that they believed their communities were worth representing, and that they could and should participate in Irish politics. And wearing another hat, I spend a lot of time at the theatre, and there I’ve seen further evidence of cultural integration and enrichment.

Despite the injustices and some desperately sad stories, I think the Irish experience of immigration and demographic change in the last ten to 15 years has been very positive, for both sides. I think the Irish state, and the people as whole, n the media have done pretty well. I think it’s important to acknowledge that. It could be a lot worse. It’s a lot worse elsewhere. Acknowledging the positive is an important part of fighting to make sure it doesn’t get worse here.

Reporting on asylum and immigration issues has its own challenges and its own rewards. It is a great privilege to be invited into people’s homes, and to have them tell their life stories. Because there are many amongst immigrant communities who lack a voice in Irish society, or feel excluded from public discourse, and because there are many injustices being suffered by people, there is the potential to do journalism that actually impacts upon people’s lives in a tangible, positive way. On the other hand, issues that are often tricky for journalists – making contacts, getting access, gaining confidence, verifying information – can be even more so when dealing with people with whom you don’t share a first language, or cultural norms, as may be the case...

On a sheer practical level, this area of reporting can be slow, and difficult to fit into the hectic schedule and overbearing expectations of a news desk. Add to that the challenge of dealing with a chronically secretive and unaccountable bureaucratic-judicial system.

But on the whole, I don’t think this area of reporting is fundamentally any different from any other area where you’re dealing with issues of legal and emotional sensitivity. Treat everybody with respect, but don’t be credulous towards anybody. Make your own contacts. Don’t rely on mediators, though they can be invaluable. Be wary of received language. Avoid jargon, and clichés. Allow people to speak for themselves. Be precise. Seek detail. Strive for balance. Be clear about the difference between on and off the record. Interrogate. Don’t sentimentalise. Lastly, don’t reduce people to ‘victims’.

Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle recently rewrote ‘The Playboy of the Western World’, to feature a young man arriving in Dublin from Nigeria in the central role. He walks into a pub in West Dublin, and starts rumours flying. One of the locals refers to him as a “refugee”, but another corrects him – clearly, if this man has just arrived, he must be an “asylum seeker”.

There is a crucial, legal distinction between the terms refugee and asylum seeker, and the joke Bisi and Roddy were making was that Ireland had become so au fait with these terms that any auld fella in a pub would know the difference. That’s perhaps a good thing. It perhaps reflects a growing awareness of these issues amongst the media, and a more accurate treatment of them.

But there is a deeper resonance of the term ‘asylum seeker’, and it’s an example of how language works to shape people’s perceptions of reality, not just describe them.

When I worked in humanitarian aid in Angola, the word we habitually used to describe the people we were trying to help was ‘beneficiaries’. ‘How many beneficiaries does your project have?’ somebody might ask. We thought it was a neutral, factually accurate way to describe those people, like the number of ‘passengers’ on a train. But it wasn’t. It is a deeply ideological term, which suggests that the native population of a poor country inherently benefits from the interventions of the charity of a rich country.

‘Asylum seeker’ is something similar. In legal terms, it is a way of describing the place one has within the system. But the deeper meaning of the term is reflected in the way these people are treated in the system: their nature is defined by the fact that they are ‘seeking’ something – they are cast as mendicants, dependent on the largesse of the system and the state that has the power to award asylum or refuse it.

This is reflected in a real sense in the recently revealed circular from the Department of Justice to accommodation centres for asylum seekers, prohibiting political activity or canvassing in the centres – implying that asylum seekers need protection from politics, when in fact what some, at least, want, is more participation in politics.

It’s difficult to know what to do about this precise linguistic issue as a journalist. If I’m reporting on a hunger strike by a man from Iraq, say, who has been refused asylum, do I start my report by referring to ‘an Iraqi asylum seeker’, or to ‘a hunger striker from Iraq, who has sought asylum here’, or to ‘a member of the Iraqi opposition who was refused asylum in Ireland’?

Words matter. And the words that matter most in an article are the words you start with. Is there a way of reporting on his actions, and his predicament, without casting him as the helpless seeker of our sympathy? Because, though there may be some truth in that portrayal, it is never the full truth.

So, how can your use of language, as a journalist, both avoid perpetuating the alienation and marginalisation of people in the asylum system, and present the story vividly and coherently to the public?

More generally, when investigating or reporting on perceived injustices or abuses within the system, how can you do so in ways that do not sentimentalise the people involved, that recognise their agency as well as their problems? Or in other words: when is somebody a survivor, or even simply an individual, and not simply a victim?

Treading that fine line is perhaps the key challenge in reporting on asylum issues, and I have been privileged to be guided around it by various people who have come to live here.

The following is the advance text of John Horgan's remarks at the launch of the guide, 'Reporting on Refugees'. John Horgan is the Press Ombudsman and is Emeritus Professor of Communications at Dublin City University.

I am honoured to have been asked to formally launch this leaflet containing guidelines for reporting on refugees. The reasons will be obvious to everyone here. The first is that issues connected with the reporting on refugees will continue to arise, and may well arise even more sharply in a world increasingly characterized by financial meltdown, democratic deficits, and real threats to the life and limb of individuals and ethnic groups in an ever-increasing range of countries and regions.
The second is because this is a leaflet offering guidance not only for, but by journalists themselves. It embodies, therefore, reflections based on the practical experience of those at the coal-face, and is not simply a wish-list compiled by people with the best of intentions in the hope that everyone will sit up and pay attention. It is therefore both detailed and practical.
The third is because it comes with the imprimatur of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The UNCHR deals with the poorest of the poor, those whose grip on a viable existence is the most fragile, and those who are most deserving of our help. Even if there is little we can do to help, they deserve, at an absolute minimum, our understanding and our sympathy.
From the point of view of best professional practice, which is what my Office is about, there are also three points I’d like to make.
The first is that precision, always important in journalism, is absolutely vital where critically important distinctions need to be made, to help prevent the creation of stereotypes, and as part of the public education function of professional journalism.
The second is that guides and codes, even the best of them, are at the end of the day just that – guides and codes. They can assist, but can never be a substitute for, the exercise by all journalists of a deep sense of personal responsibility, of their allegiance to truth and fair dealing, and of their vocation to public service.
The third is that the responsibility for responding adequately to the kind of problems with which the UNHCR is dealing, and to which this guide relates, does not rest on the shoulders of journalists alone. You don’t have to shoot the messenger if you can pretend that you didn’t hear what he had to say, or that he is the only person saying it. So the message has to come not only from journalists but from community and political leadership, and from individuals and social institutions at every level.
We do not have to be flag-wavers: but journalism, in the face of this constant and enormous human tragedy, should take special care to be neither complacent nor complicit, but to be critical and constructive. Our fellow human beings deserve no less.

The latest edition of the e-newsletter from Statewatch, 'Statewatch News Online', contains various items of interest to people working with migration issues. The full newsletter is here. You can sign up for it here. Statewatch is a NGO dedicated to 'monitoring the state and civil liberties in Europe', and attempts to fill the gaping hole in media coverage of the European Union as a political and institutional entity with rigorous analysis of EU documentation. Asylum issues feature regularly in Statewatch's commentaries, and the organisation published a useful study, 'Border Wars and Asylum Crimes', a few years ago.

The newsletter is essentially a selection of links to new material on the Statewatch site. An excerpt follows.

1. EU: Major report on the: Criminalisation and victimisation of migrants in Europe (255 pages, pdf) directed by Salvatore Palidda.

2. EU: European Commission: Tracking method for monitoring the implementation of the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum (COM 266 2009):

3. EU: Council discussions: "State of play": Proposal for a Council Framework Decision on combating the sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children and child-pornography, repealing Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA - State of play and: Proposal for a Council Framework Decision on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings, and protecting victims, repealing Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA - State of play (EU doc no: 9892/09):

4. UK: The BNP's success reflects the new racism of our political culture (IRR News Service, link):

5. UK-N IRELAND: Guilty until proven innocent (Between the Lines, Paul Donovan's blog, link):

"The arrests of 12 Pakistani students in April on suspicion of terrorism hit the news headlines. Two weeks later there was less fanfare as all were released without charge. The pattern of arresting people under anti-terror legislation and then releasing without charge is familiar to Irish people who experienced the tactic during the conflict in the North."

...

20. Council of Europe: The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) releases its Annual activity report for 2008. It highlights the main trends with regard to the presence of racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance across Europe.

22. UK: How MI5 blackmails British Muslims: 'Work for us or we will say you are a terrorist' (Independent, link):

________________________________________________
Statewatch: Monitoring the state and civil liberties in Europe
PO Box 1516, London, N16 0EW. UK
tel: +44(0)20-8802-1882; fax: +44(0)20-8880-1727
http://www.statewatch.org

This Saturday, June 20, is World Refugee Day. Below is a selection of links provided in the e-newsletter, 'Humanitarian Heads Up'.

World facing new displacement crisis, says UN refugee chief - Emma Batha, AlertNet
FACTBOX: Latest U.N. figures for refugees and displaced
Viewpoint from UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres
Countries to mark World Refugee Day with a dizzying array of events - UNCHR
UN refugee chief cites pressing needs as those uprooted tops 42 million - UNHCR
Insecurity prevents more refugee returns - UNHCR

'Humanitarian Heads-Up' is a very useful weekly bulletin provided by Reuters AlertNet as a service to journalists covering humanitarian crises and related issues. You can subscribe to it here.

AlertNet is a 'humanitarian news network' established by Reuters as a philanthropic activity. Read about it here. It provides a suite of online services aimed at journalists. Amongst these are this YouTube video giving an introduction to crisis reporting, and an e-learning site with a range of online self-training packages. These include one on 'Reporting on refugees and displacement' - getting the facts right and explaining the stories behind the numbers'

There is more on the background to AlertNet here. According to AlertNet, the site 'attracts upwards of ten million users a year, has a network of 400 contributing humanitarian organizations and its weekly email digest is received by more than 26,000 readers'.

And on the background:

'During the Rwanda crisis of 1994, the Reuters Foundation became interested in media reports of poor coordination between emergency relief charities on the ground. It surveyed charities on what could be done to remedy this. The conclusion was that there was a need for a service that would:
* Deliver operation-critical information to relief charities worldwide
* Encourage relief charities to swap information with one another
* Raise awareness of humanitarian emergencies among the general public.

Migration Matters has just stumbled across NowPublic, a 'participatory news network', or citizen journalism site, based in Canada, with a comprehensive array of content tools and an attractive and seemingly user-friendly interface.

A search for 'asylum' on the site produces this list of stories, amongst them the story of a Sudanese asylum seeker who was murdered after being deported from the UK.

According to NowPublic, the site 'mobilizes an army of reporters to cover the events that define our world. In twelve short months, the company has become one of the fastest growing news organizations with thousands of reporters in over 140 countries... By harnessing the wisdom of crowds and tapping into the news creating potential of the hundreds of millions of Internet users, bloggers and photography enthusiasts, NowPublic is changing the way news is made and distributed.'

NowPublic was recently acknowledged as one of the top 20 Web 2.0 sites in Canada. According to the commendation: 'NowPublic is a crowdsourced media outlet. Sign up for an account and the site promises “You’re seconds away from publishing your news, your way.” If you’ve heard the term “citizen journalism” it’s because of companies like NowPublic. “This is a superbly thought-out and executed approach to crowdsourced news,” O’Connor Clarke said. “There are a lot of players in this space, but the way NowPublic have put things together, the way the site operates and their success in securing major partnerships with traditional media companies are all well worthy of recognition. NowPublic is a superb example of how 2.0 thinking can bridge the old and new media worlds to create something wholly new.” Other judges also raised the competition flag. Shuttleworth said there is “too much competition in this space” and Moffitt felt that “given its success already and its international scale, NowPublic could be creating an interesting form of new journalism, but it could also raise the hackles of well-moneyed competitors — but they have the head start.”'

A press release from South Africa alerts me to a new advocacy and public information project on trafficking, and to the role in it by a Cameroon-born South African musician, Wax.

According to a recent article in the Sowetan, Wax began his humanitarian work in Hillbrow and Yeoville in Joahannesburg, areas of the city that are largely black and are now notable for their large numbers of African immigrants. He is now involved in anti-trafficking awareness work with the International Organization for Migration, which publishes 'Global Eye on Human Trafficking', available here. (Or you can download an issue directly here.)

Wax says: 'I did a lot of work in counter-trafficking on a personal level working in places like Hillbrow, were I had contact with women who were victims of commercial sexual exploitation.

'My new album is 'African Dream', and that is what it’s all about. The fact that you could see a child on TV and this child is desperate and hungry. Yes the child does need food, but it doesn’t end there, that child has a brain that could produce a business idea like Facebook, that could build a plane, that child could be anything because a child has that ability.'

Wax's own website, with ample downloads and videos, is here. The 'bio' section contains an account of a fascinating life story.

(Incidentally, in the course of researching this item, I came across the advocacy blog, 'The Human Trafficking Project', which may also be of interest.)

This week is Refugee Week in the UK (June 13-21), and amongst the events, theatre company iceandfire is bringing its play 'Asylum Dialogues' to seven cities across the UK in collaboration with City of Sanctuary.

Drawn from real life conversations, 'Asylum Dialogues' explores the everyday encounters between asylum seekers and British people. According to the company's patron, Juliet Stevenson, "We regularly hear about the terrible hostility that asylum seekers and refugees face. But we rarely hear the stories of British people who are standing shoulder to shoulder with those seeking sanctuary in the UK. Asylum Dialogues tells these inspirational stories and shows how small gestures of welcome can make a big difference."    

There is some video of the play here. Note that the company performs the play, as with their earlier 'Asylum Monologues', as a reading, with volunteer actors, with scripts in hand.

There is a selection of reviews of the company's other work (all similarly political) here. Tour details are here.

Playwright Sonja Linden has a thoughtful piece on how she became a writer, and one motivated by such stories, on Open Democracy, here. She writes:

'What sustains oppressive regimes such as Hitler's Germany, is not just the machinery of terror that holds them in place, but the disempowerment of an entire people through ignorance and poverty. It is this that allows a lumpenproleriat to build and bulwark such regimes. Access to information and humane living conditions alone set people free, enabling them to disengage from oppressive ideologies. In a society as ‘liberal' as ours in the UK, if we are to maintain more than lip-service to a just and cohesive society, this is still what is needed.'

The City of Sanctuary movement aims to build a culture of hospitality for people seeking sanctuary in the UK. 
 
The theatre company iceandfire explores human rights stories through performance. Asylum Dialogues is performed by members of their national outreach network, Actors for Human Rights, made up of over 300 professional actors dedicated to drawing public attention to a range of contemporary human rights concerns. The actors and musicians involved volunteer their performance skills and public profile to encourage public acceptance of human rights laws and principles and to give voice to people whose basic human rights have been violated.    
 

The FOMACS digital stories, 'Living in Direct Provision', will be screened at the Guth Gafa Documentary Festival in Donegal this weekend (Saturday June 13, 5pm). Full details are here.

The nine digital stories were made in the context of a six-month (2008-9) participatory media workshop run by FOMACS, in partnership with Integrating Ireland and Refugee Information Services. The nine storytellers participated in a collaborative process that integrated storytelling, group and individual reflection, creative writing, photography and the use of multi-media technologies, in order to make a three-to-five minute story about their own experiences as asylum seekers and refugees.

A previous digital stories series produced by FOMACS, 'Undocumented in Ireland', can be viewed here.

The Guth Gafa festival takes place every year (this is the third) in Gortahork, Co Donegal.

'What the Bible says about the Stranger. Biblical perspectives on racism, migration, asylum and cross-community issues' is a booklet by Kieran J O'Mahoney OSA, first published in 1999 in response to the then-new trend of immigration to Ireland, and republished this week in a revised and updated version, by the ecumenical Irish Council of Churches. It can be downloaded here.

Eamonn Walsh, Catholic auxiliary bishop of Dublin and chairperson of the Irish Bishops Immigrant Council, launched it on Monday  at the long-running Vincentian Refugee Centre in Phibsboro, Dublin. There will be a Belfast launch on Friday at 4pm at Edgehill Methodist Theological College.

Amongst the points Eamon Walsh made were that “Any reference to people seeking asylum as irregular or, worse still, illegal migrants cannot be permitted or tolerated” and that recent changes to the work permit regime raised “major concerns”.

The full text of his speech follows.

A few days ago I noticed the “Wet Paint” sign on the door of Maynooth Church – it was in three languages – English, Irish and Polish! Just one of the signs, and not all limited to print on paper, of the new times in which we live and of the new people with whom we live. This has also found its way into Irish humour where I saw the ‘w’ of a sign on a Telecom van changed to a ‘v’: “Vorking for Telecom”.

While the composition of the Irish population was beginning to change in 1999 when the first edition of ‘What the Bible says about the Stranger’ was published, few of us could have foreseen the changes which have taken place in the past decade. Changes which have resulted in our living in a country where over 160 languages are spoken by people coming from countries as distant from us, and from one another, as Croatia is from China and Estonia from Ecuador.

But the pattern of change in the past ten years has not been along a straight line. At first it was people seeking asylum, people searching for a place of refuge, who made up the majority of newcomers to the country. In a relatively short time, their number was overtaken and far surpassed by people who came here to fill the growing jobs market. And now for a variety of reasons, some of which are very evident and others much less so, we witness a downward trend in figures of incomers to this country.

If reflection from a Christian faith perspective on living in a multiethnic, intercultural society was a need in the late nineties, it is an even more urgent challenge as we come to the end of the first decade of a new century. At a time when migration to this country – in all its forms – is no longer in its initial phase, when we in Ireland now have significant experience of inward as opposed to outward migration, what is the vision which is now needed to guide our living together? We know only too well that, “Without a vision, the people perish” (Prov 29.18).

As people who live in a common space, how can we share life in a way that contributes to the building up of a community? A space in which each one is valued, not according to external criteria like ethnic origin, language or religious or cultural background but, first and foremost, as a person created in the likeness of God, with the inherent dignity which that confers.
 
Matching the vision and ideals of individuals with action is a challenge for all regardless of creed or none. This challenges us to ask are we learning from the dear lessons of the past or are we repeating them in another context? The context for us here is in how we “welcome the stranger”.
 
While a vital aspect of welcome for the stranger is expressed in the interpersonal sphere, this welcome must be promoted and safeguarded too in the social, public arena. This is the arena of Government policies, procedures and practice. In all that relates to the right to seek asylum, it is essential that as a country we honour our international commitments by translating these into domestic legislation while, at the same time, putting in place effective mechanisms to ensure implementation.

Any reference to people seeking asylum as irregular or, worse still, illegal migrants cannot be permitted or tolerated. Similarly, legislation in relation to in-migration, whether it be for work, study, to join one’s family or whatever, must be in line with the relevant international conventions and other agreements to which Ireland is a signatory. In Ireland - as, indeed, everywhere - immigration policies must be located in a rights framework and be humane, transparent, sustainable and non-discriminatory. And while legislation alone, even when comprehensively implemented, is never sufficient, it is, nonetheless, an essential part of the foundation on which an intercultural society is built.

While Government policies and practice are on the one hand, a reflection - partial, at least - of societal values, on the other, they create and shape values. In forming public opinion through underscoring attitudes and actions that are acceptable - and, by implication, those that are unacceptable - legislation has a key function. This, for example, is why recent changes to the work permit regime raise major concerns.

I wish to highlight the requirement that a vacancy must be advertised for two months and no local or European Union applicant found before a work permit application from a non EU candidate can be considered. The condition applies equally to new applicants and to work permit holders already resident here who lose their jobs. Many people and their families who have made Ireland their home will be forced to leave or will have no other choice but to stay and work informally with the potential for exploitation that can accompany such working circumstances. This measure should be reconsidered urgently and not await a possible autumn review.

It is the call to Christian life – indeed, to human life – that ‘What the Bible says about the Stranger’ addresses from a wide variety of perspectives. Its breaking open of the Scriptures gives us a window into the mind and heart of God, made explicit in so many ways by the words and actions of Jesus. Discussion questions invite us to grapple with the difficult issues, not just intellectually but, more particularly, in a search for life-changing responses. The prayers included in each section, and a new feature of this edition, remind us that welcoming the stranger is, in essence, a task we share with God who is the One who first welcomes each of us and so enables us to welcome one another.

Addressing the deep-down questions is too profound a task for our heads alone. That is why the wide-ranging and very practical suggestions for dramatization offered in this publication are invaluable. They offer possibilities for participation, beyond language, age or acting ability, which allow for the involvement of everyone.

At a time of serious cutbacks for several agencies which worked to ensure that the human rights of all who live in Ireland were respected and upheld, not least in relation to racism, the mission of faith communities and of the Christian churches, in particular, is more crucial than ever and more urgent. At this time, in the face of the challenges which we face both globally and nationally, I am delighted to launch this publication. May it be widely distributed and, especially, widely used, and may “Wet Paint”, and every sign in our society, whatever its medium, be in a language that recognises, values and welcomes the Stranger.

And to end… an old Jewish tale told of the Rabbi and his students. The rabbi asked ‘How can you determine the hour of dawn – when the night ends and the day begins?’ One of the students suggested ‘when, from a distance, you can distinguish between a dog and a sheep’. ‘No’, was the answer of the Rabbi. ‘Is it when you can distinguish between a fig tree and a grapevine?’ asked the second student. ‘No’, the Rabbi said. ‘Please tell us the answer,’ pleaded the third. ‘It is’, replied the wise teacher, ‘when you look into the face of a stranger and have enough light within you to recognise that person as a sister or brother. Up until then, it is night, and darkness is still within you.’

It was a disappointing election for most of the 40-odd immigrant candidates who stood in Ireland's local elections on Friday. Despite a surge in the vote for independents generally, independent immigrant candidates, such as Paddy Maphoso in Dublin, largely failed to take advantage.

As Ruadhan Mac Cormaic in the Irish Times reports, 'former mayor of Portlaoise Rotimi Adebari was one of just three immigrant candidates to secure local authority seats at the weekend.

(In fact, there was a fourth immigrant candidate elected: Anna Rooney, originally from Russia, took a seat on Clones Town Council for Fianna Fail. Rooney was one of those featured in the recent FOMACS print syndication articles for the Sunday Tribune and Le Monde Diplomatique. Her election was declared after the deadlines for Mondays' newspapers.)

The Irish Times continued: 'Mr Adebari was joined by Dutch former aid worker Jan Rotte, who retained his seat for the Labour Party in Lismore, Co Waterford, and Kristina Jankaitiene, a Lithuanian school teacher who took a seat for the Green Party in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan.

'Taiwo Matthew, an Independent from Nigeria, lost the seat he won in Ennis, Co Clare, in 2004.'

Various other candidates came close to seats, notably Elena Secas, from Moldova, for Labour, in Limerick East. In Mulhuddart, three rival Nigerian candidates appear to have split any immigrant or Nigerian community vote, polling 15.4% in total but each failing to get elected, as the Times reports.

The Irish Independent also reported on this issue, however that paper incorrectly reported that Katarzyna Gaborec, originally from Poland, had been elected for Fianna Fail to Mullingar Town Council. That article is here.

Canadian investigative journalist Victor Malarek will be guest speaker at a seminar entitled, 'Sex Trafficking and Prostitution: The Dilemma of Demand' being jointly hosted by the Immigrant Council of Ireland and the Irish Human Rights Commission at Trinity College Dublin on June 23.

There's an interview with Malarek here and a profile here.

Victor Malarek is the author of “The Natashas” and “‘The Johns: Sex for Sale and the Men Who Buy It”.  Other speakers include co-author of the ICI’s recent research report, “Globalisation, Sex Trafficking and Prostitution”, Patricia Kelleher; Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission Policy Advisor, Rebecca Dudley; IHRC Commissioner Rosemary Byrne and ICI Senior Solicitor Hilkka Becker. For further information or to book a place at the seminar, please contact ICI Anti-Trafficking Coordinator Nusha Yonkova at nusha@immigrantcouncil.ie or call 01 674 0202.

A short animated film by Siobhan Twomey of FOMACS has been shortlisted in the inaugural ICCL Human Rights Film School Competition, run by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. Her film, 'Team Spirit', can be seen here.

In the film, Sadiq, like so many refugees in Ireland, grapples with the fact that he must wait two years for his family’s visas to be processed, while his Grandmother has to remain in Darfur as she does not qualify under Irish law as a family member. All this while also being the star player in a football game against his team’s brutal arch rivals, the Bashers...

Online viewers can vote for their favourite shortlisted film here. There's also a short documentary on the making of 'Team Spirit' here and more on the FOMACS animation project, run by Siobhan, here.

Migration Matters is delighted to publish the following guest contribution from Charlotte McIvor on the intriguing recent theatre production by Upstate Theatre Project entitled 'Journey from Babel'.

Upstate Local’s first community-based initiative through their Louth International Theatre Project, ‘Journey from Babel’, was mounted from May 21-23, 2009, in Drogheda in the old Weavers’ Factory. This site-specific piece was written by a company of community members comprising eight nationalities who are currently living in Drogheda. ‘Journey from Babel’ was developed over a period of nine months in workshop rehearsals through the facilitation and, ultimately, direction of company founders Declan Gorman and Declan Mallon.

‘Journey from Babel’ led its audience members on a trip through time and space, addressing themes of migration from multiple perspectives. Audiences were issued a boarding pass with their programmes, and received a summary stamp as they hesitantly crept up a narrow stairway into an uncertain experience. Contemporary Ireland served as the anchor for the majority of the storylines, whether as origin point or final destination. Yet the play’s stories ranged from WWI-era Austria to the roaring 1920s in New York to 18th century Ireland. A hilarious and ribald Drogheda tea lady (Nicola Devine) shares performance space with lesbian newcomers to town from London and Quebec (Cara Brock and Shannon O’Donovan), while a French pilot (Sylain Pastor) threads his way through the crowd contemplating the philosophical reasons for flying at all, whether in the air or imagination.

The plight of a pregnant new immigrant to Ireland named Anna, who is about to give birth in the airport, is considered (Maria Copley), as a childless woman named Marguerite (Jenny Thompson) is made redundant after 30 years of work and wonders why she has never been able to go anywhere at all, finally settling for at least leaving her husband behind. Multiple generations of women writing to lovers away at war are presented through the story of a German woman named Alicia, who experiences loss and rebirth as a new immigrant to the US (Doris Genner), while the global traffic of sex workers is briefly and boldly explored through the competing perspectives of an Irish woman in London, Rose (Bianca Browne), and a Hungarian woman in Ireland, Florka (Alexandra Pap).

The whole show finally ends up on New York City’s Broadway, with the Drogheda tea lady, Alicia, and Anna sharing the stage space in hauntingly different roles before the cast appears for a candlelit vigil in honour of all those who have migrated to a new life for many different reasons.

This dizzying collection of narrative threads and intersecting geopolitical issues would tire any theatregoer, especially one who has stood for the better part of an hour and a half, winding their way through a maze of rooms. ‘Journey from Babel’ engages with a litany of push-button issues, most extensively the recent furore over pregnant immigrant women coming to give birth in Ireland, which resulted in the 2004 citizenship referendum.

At Anna’s first appearance, a scene in immigration control in which she is asked to hand over her visa is enacted over and over again without sympathy. By the time the audience is present at her delivery in the hospital, her pleas for an epidural turn into a plea for a free epidural, then social welfare, then a buggy, then designer shoes for her baby and so on. The scene ultimately dissolves into a pillow fight between the staff over whether this scene ever really happened, and whether the recession is the fault of the bankers or this woman and her baby. Meanwhile, Anna’s cries for help for her distressed baby are drowned out by the row.

When Anna reappears with her baby buggy, it is to sing ‘Pirate Jenny’, from Brecht’s ‘The Threepenny Opera’, on Broadway. She belts out the haunting song about a female worker who dreams of being rescued by pirates who will kill her unjust employers. As the actor cradles her baby and sings to the audience, “And they pile up the bodies/ And I'll say: 'That'll learn you/ That'll learn you,'” it is unclear whether the piece is revising stereotypes of aggressive and violent women of colour, or using the Brechtian context and the song’s history as a US civil rights anthem via Nina Simone.

This tension is the strongest feature of Upstate Local’s work here with ‘Journey from Babel’, and this section, as well as the stand-out performance from Nichola Devine as a well-meaning tea lady, who is continually frustrated by her straight talk being taken as racism when, “sure isn’t me daughter dating a black fellow, and he’s a lovely lad,” save the piece from pedanticism with their humour and striking theatricality.

The successes and shortcomings of ‘Journey from Babel’ dramatise anew the problems that community-based performance presents for theatre criticism. The performances here are uneven, the transitions often tedious in a small space with many audience members, and the piece frequently feels strained by its epic scope.

Yet, the staging of the piece manages to be site-specific in more than name only, utilising the unique architecture of the Weavers’ factory to not only create a world, but multiple worlds in the same rooms. And, most significantly, this piece is brave enough to push the audience literally into the same space with many issues that have received far too short a shrift in Irish performance spaces in the wake of the Celtic Tiger. It is also a piece that evolved through nine months of continuous contact between a group of community members with diverse opinions and points of origins, many of whom had never set foot on a stage before.

Upstate Local’s work with ‘Journey from Babel’ makes a strong case for more flexible models of theatre criticism in Ireland that can accommodate appreciation and support for this kind of work. ‘Journey from Babel’ ultimately demonstrates an impressive willingness to use a theatrical process to interrogate the questions most commentators agree Irish arts should be asking, as well as take risks aesthetically and theatrically.

Charlotte McIvor

Charlotte McIvor is a PhD candidate in Performance Studies at University of California, Berkeley where she teaches courses in acting and writing. Her dissertation explores contemporary Irish performance that engages issues of race, immigration, and cultural belonging. She recently worked with the City Fusion Project as part of the St Patrick’s Festival in Dublin. A further article by McIvor, analysing actress Ruth Negga’s performance in Neil Jordan’s 2005 film, 'Breakfast on Pluto', is here.

'Journey from Babel' ran from May 21-23, 2009, at the Old Weaver’s Factory, Drogheda, and was presented by Upstate Local: Louth International Theatre Project.


 

Ireland's leading research institute has just released a new report on how schools are adapting to diversity. 'Adapting to Diversity: Irish Schools and Newcomer Students', published by the ESRI, is the first national study of school provision for newcomer (immigrant) students. It draws on a survey of 1,200 primary and second-level schools as well as detailed case-studies of twelve schools. Its main findings are as follows:

• The vast majority of second-level schools have newcomer students. In contrast, four in ten primary schools have no newcomers while there are a number of primary schools with quite high concentrations of newcomers.

• Newcomers are more likely to attend urban schools and those already catering for more disadvantaged student groups. This reflects the interaction between residential patterns, availability of school places and school admission policies.

• Newcomer students are seen by teachers as motivated and hard-working, placing a high value on education.

• Most newcomers do not have English as a first language. Language needs, if not addressed, are seen to hinder the academic development and social integration of newcomer students. Language needs among newcomer parents make it difficult to involve parents in their child’s education since few schools have access to translation services.

• Schools most commonly withdraw students from class for additional language support. However, newcomers spend most of their time being taught by mainstream classroom or subject teachers, few of whom have received training on teaching English as an additional language.

• Many schools have built up a team of committed and enthusiastic language support teachers. However, principals and teachers would like to see more training for teachers, guidance on best practice and access to teaching materials suitable for older students learning English.

• Two-thirds of second-level schools and half of primary schools have put formal measures in place to support the social integration of newcomer students. Relations between newcomer and Irish students are seen as broadly positive. However, there is some evidence of segregation in friendship patterns and incidences of bullying based on nationality or ethnicity.

• A positive school climate (that is, good relations among teachers, parents and students) enhances the academic and social development of newcomer students.

The report can be downloaded here.

Launching the report, integration minister John Curran noted that 'the majority of principals - and especially those from DEIS (Department of Education & Science) schools - report that academic achievement levels among newcomer students are at least as good as those among Irish students'.

He concluded by saying that newcomer students were 'a very positive addition to our schools, presenting an opportunity to enhance outcomes for all students and an opportunity for society as a whole. While there are challenges to be addressed, this report shows that with a positive school climate, it is possible to meet these challenges.'

'I'll be counted among those who tried to make a difference,' said Paddy Maphoso, an independent candidate in the local elections in Dublin, from South Africa. 'In 2009, I stood out and tried to make a change.'

Maphoso spoke to me for an article for the FOMACS print syndication project, which was published on Sunday in the Sunday Tribune. (An international version will shortly be available in the June issue of Le Monde Diplomatique.)

The Irish Times also had an article on immigrant participation in the elections this weekend. Ruadhán Mac Cormaic's article focussed on the parties' strategies for involving immigrants.

Metro Eireann has a good archive of articles on various immigrant candidates.