In Refugee Festival Scotland Week, and Every Other Week, We Stand With Refugees
When the group of New Scots we supported to produce a radio show won runner up at the Refugee Festival Media Awards, it was one of the proudest moments for Greater Govanhill – and a reminder of how important it is to pass the mic and provide a platform for new voices.
By Jack Howse | Photo by Rhiannon Davies
“Being a media practitioner back in Sierra Leone, and now winning these awards after being in the UK for only three years – oh my god it’s amazing”. This is what Ibrahim told the packed hall at the Scottish Refugee Media Awards last Thursday after being part of both the runner-up and winning teams in the radio category.
I first met Ibrahim after we ran radio journalism skills workshops last year with the aim of producing a radio show presented and produced by New Scots to be aired on Radio Buena Vida during last year’s Refugee Festival Scotland. Robbie Armstrong, the course leader, and I nervously waited in the Govanhill Neighbourhood Centre, breadsticks and juice in hand, for the participants to come along. And then Ibrahim and Arij and Jaafar and Virgine and everyone else slowly trickled in; we messed around with recorders, shared stories over the mic with each other and ate those breadsticks I bought. We created a radio show together that was broadcast on Buena Vida and told the stories that mattered to them.
Fast forward one year and many of the folk who made the radio show still come along to our events. Arij and Ibrahim have continued making radio – first with Robbie on a Radio 4 Food Programme about finding refuge through food (which was the winner of the radio category at the Scottish Refugee Media Awards) and now as part of the official Refugee Festival Scotland podcast. I seem to bump into Jaafar everywhere, most likely with his chef’s bandana in hand as he makes his way to a Kin Kitchen cook-up. They also have come along to other community reporter training events and have all been a part of our workshops this year and made some short films for Refugee Scotland 2023 – in the process introducing us to others like Mary and Amir and Mujidah.
Back at the awards, Arij mentions in her speech something that Robbie said to her on the first day she ever picked up a mic: “ I was so nervous because I hadn't done radio before, I didn't know how to do it. And Robbie, he said to me, just say it as you say it, just be yourself. Don't say another person’s words that you don't feel. And I did that.”
This sentiment is really the reason Greater Govanhill was set-up – to amplify the voices that are usually margnialised and underrepresented by the mainstream media and to create a magazine written by and for the community it serves.
This is not to say that New Scots should only tell stories related to their asylum journey – but that they have a platform from which to talk about whatever they like. Take Arij’s basbousa recipe she wrote for the magazine, Virginie’s video about post-Brexit food shortages, or Jaafar’s radio package about Scottish folk music.
Large sections of the media here in the UK have treated refugee and asylum seekers appallingly.When the Ethical Journalism Network published a 100-page report on refugee reporting in Europe, they listed sensationalism and falling journalist standards as two of the main tenets of this type of reporting. Language choice matters and when people fleeing trauma, seeking refuge and wanting a better life are dehumanised, the media is complicit w in spreading xenophobic and anti-migrant rhetoric.
And it is not just how the media reports on refugees and asylum seekers, but who gets to have a say. Research has shown that politicians are four times more likely to appear in a news story about refugees and asylum seekers than refugees and asylum seekers themselves. Many New Scots express how they are scared about sharing their stories with the media. Brilliant organisations like Migrant Voice, Voices UK and the Scottish Refugee Council provide support on how people can make their stories heard.
Human rights activist, Alvina Tamara Chibhamu summed up why it is so important for refugee voices to be heard: “By sharing your personal stories, you remind us that forced displacement is not just an abstract concept, but a reality that affects real people. A strong reminder that behind the statistics, behind the headlines are human beings with real hopes and dreams for a better future, and a deep longing for peace.”
But of course we need to acknowledge that it shouldn’t just be about people who are willing to share their stories, or fall into a trope about the ‘good’ refugee or ‘economic migrant’. We want to amplify and respect the voices of those who might not want to share their stories for whatever reasons, and make room for every experience, and the intersections that affect this experience. All we can do is keep making space, and championing it.
In Refugee Festival Scotland Week, we stand together with all refugees.