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:
- Who is Welcome: Gender, Queerness and Migration
- Who is Welcome: Disability and Migration
- Who is Welcome: Islamophobia and Migration
Updates
Our latest articles about WHO IS WELCOME?
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PRIDE 2024
Pride has a radical history. Let’s honour it. The first Pride was about queer liberation. It was a revolt by Black and Brown, trans and queer people against White supremacy and queerphobia. But colonial legacies of queerphobia, alongside the mainstreaming of Pride, means that radical Black and Brown queer histories are sidelined and erased. Colonial…
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Trans+ History Week
This week marks Trans+ History Week. As part of our Who Is Welcome, Gender Queerness and Migration campaign, we have been continually reflecting on the intersections of border violence and transphobia, and how these histories of oppression continue to animate our present. Trans and GNC migrants and radicalised people face the most acute end of…
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Diaspora Dyke Manifesto
To mark Lesbian Visibility Week 2024, we’re proud to launch our Diaspora Dyke Manifesto as part of our Who is Welcome: Gender, Queerness and Migration. In the UK and in many parts of the Western world, attacks against marginalised people have increased. Whether this is by rolling back on trans rights including reducing access to…