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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?

  • Femonationalism, migration and colonial legacies

    Migrants’ Rights Network x the Decolonial Centre for International Women’s Day 2024. International Women’s Day is about recognising the steps made in the fight for gender “equality”, and the barriers that still exist in dismantling systemic sexism. However, equality should not be the final “destination” in this struggle: we must work towards complete liberation. Furthermore,…

  • The policing of transness and migration

    A joint blog by MRN and Gendered Intelligence for LGBTQ+ History Month. Content warning: this article contains content pertaining to the asylum process and the process of receiving gender-affirming care. An invasive and dehumanising culture of disbelief, and a reliance on stereotypes by decision makers, contributes to the increased marginalisation of people seeking asylum, trans…

  • There aren’t any ‘no-go areas’ in Tower Hamlets, only years of government neglect

    Representatives of 14 organisations based in Tower Hamlets respond to comments by the Tory MP Paul Scully that it is a ‘no-go area’ for non-Muslims

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