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Who is welcome project
WHO IS WELCOME?

After a series of successful online events which explored the intersections of different identities with migration status, we have expanded this work into a wider campaign.

Building on the themes explored in the Who is Welcome event series, which included the relationship of racism, Islamophobia and queerness with migration, we are pleased to launch the Who is Welcome campaign alongside our Words Matter campaign.

Migration is often looked at as a siloed issue. Campaigning and policy work rarely looks at the construction of migrants through an intersectional lens or how racism shapes our idea of who is welcome in the West. At the Migrants’ Rights Network, understanding the role intersections of identity play in shaping migration, including refugee, policies is central to our campaigning work. We must understand and be honest about who harmful migration, including asylum, policies are aimed at, and why.

The language of ‘welcome’ also has hidden meaning. A ‘welcome’ places the destination country as a hospitable ‘host’ that welcomes ‘guests’ (in this case migrants) who in turn are expected to be grateful. This rhetoric reinforces the problematic ideas that migrants, including refugees, must contribute, integrate and exhibit gratitude thus creating a hierarchy and the notion of conditional belonging. By calling this campaign ‘Who Is Welcome”, we are also questioning the inherent nature of migration and belonging that creates the host/guest relationship.

Who is Welcome events

The recording for the first event can be accessed here.

Our reflections on our second event can be accessed here.

The recording for the third event can be accessed here.

The recording for the fourth event can be accessed here.

Podcast

Episode 1: Patriotism and Migration

Episode 2: Queerness and Migration

Episode 3: Masculinity and Migration

In this project:

Updates

Our latest articles about WHO IS WELCOME?

  • Restrictions on international students are a disability justice issue

    While the Government has decided to accept the Migration Advisory Committee’s (MAC) recommendation to retain the Graduate Visa Scheme (GVS), it has also announced a number of restrictions on international students. This includes ensuring that face-to-face teaching is the primary mode of teaching, restricting remote learning. Before the pandemic, the visa rules for international students…

  • Inadequate training, barriers to healthcare and the burden of proof: Home Office FOI Responses

    Earlier this year, we received responses from the Home Office to our Freedom of Information (FOI) requests regarding the treatment of queer and trans+ migrants, including people seeking asylum, in the UK immigration system. It has been disappointingly difficult to get any real answers from the Home Office – many of these responses revolved around…

  • Letter to Prime Minister on far-right violence

    With 80 anti-racist and migrant rights organisations, we’ve written to the Prime Minister asking for Parliament to be recalled to address far-right attacks spreading across the country. The Government must address the rampant racism, Islamophobia and anti-migrant hate fuelling this violence. Thank you to our friends at Runnymede Trust for coordinating this letter.

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