A misty morning in west Cornwall

A misty morning in west Cornwall for our first workshop directly with children of migrant workers and their friends. Children at Pool School have volunteered, in pairs, to attend.
We arrive first thing and work all day. Games first to break the ice. A prize for the pair building the highest tower.

People are so creative that we award a further prize for the most imaginative structure - architecturally.

Then we get to work, making cases of metaphorical journeys. Children have come from Poland, Latvia and Lithuania to the school. Ewa Cimochowska, who has been helping throughout, has come along to help

People draw pictures from their journeys to this country. We discuss problems faced - difficulties and how were best tackled.   
We've brought our map suitcases to help things along - here pictured with new cases.

One of the aims of this workshop is to come up with an Action Plan, that might be used in this school and elsewhere to help new arrivals - children who don't speak English, find it tough to make friends and experience difficulties.
All sorts of suggestions are made...
It is a very lively team.

Who have their own ideas of how to brainstorm! They draw a picture of an imaginary Greek girl, called Luella, who arrives at the school.

Then imagine her thoughts and feelings.
A good day. Lunch in the school canteen and the first time for ages I have had chocolate sponge and custard.

Later call in at SEF (Southern England Farms) Leedstown, to see the four filmmakers whose film premiered at I Packed This Myself in Truro in March. We discuss future plans.

It's a fairly chilly early summer evening - slightly damp and the trees (just) in full leaf.

Drive past daffodils fields that are now being prepared for the next crop.

A review of the week....

A busy week but time this morning to reflect and sharpen the real focus of the project - the impact of migration. Hazel Blears, launching the Migration Impacts Fund in March last year:

"Migration brings significant benefits for this country. But it is a complex area never far from heated public debate. That is why we need an honest discussion about it, that acknowledges the local pressures which migration can create in our communities and on our public services."

We've found that it certainly excites heated public debate. Community hysteria in Pool last autumn, for example. I hesitate to put a link to this repellent column written at the time - but I suppose people could write to the Editor and ask why it was ever published.
We've also found
 - we need to refer constantly to the definition of migrant worker reached after consultation with Inclusion Cornwall i.e. someone who has come from overseas to work in this country, for economic reasons, and has been here for less than five years.
 - it also important to calibrate our workshops, according to whether there are migrant worker members of staff and the children of migrant workers in schools where we are working
-  crucial, too, is the presentation of the work done by migrants in this country. Manual labour is vital to keep the economy ticking.  Any intimation that this work is of any less 'value' than professional work needs to be avoided at all costs. A blog reader wrote to me about this, stressing that the value of manual labour should be emphasised at all times - and reactions against it avoided.
She is angered by "the attitude that 'Those that do that kind of work just aren't as good as me.'... 'I don't need to get my hands dirty.'... 'These people have nothing to do with me.'... 'I  have nothing in common with them.'... 'These people don't count'."

"I worked as a migrant labourer for four years. As an American in America.  And the words I remember: 'There's nothing I hate worse than an apple picker that can read' . This is not a migrant issue - it's a human issue. It's acknowledging and respecting every human's existence and contribution to this amazing Life on Earth."

Particularly successful this week was Ewa's bag, with her selection of possessions brought to remind her of home. Ewa in fact has been an inspiration - she has embraced the project passionately. She clearly has a campaigning spirit. Her father was a Solidarity activist. One of her earliest memories is of him returning home with his coat drenched with tear gas, and the whole family crying.

Cold snap - does the daffodil picking begin? And more planning

The Western Morning News runs its annual photo of a smiling migrant worker daffodil picker in west Cornwall. The picking has started at long last, after the cold snap, it says.
However later in the day, the local TV news has a farmer near Truro as saying that the picking is slow.  Hear from local farming contacts that the cold weather isn't a bad thing for the crop - it extends the selling period, which is a good thing for everyone.  The Western Morning News says that Cornwall produces a fifth of the world's daffodils.
Ewa and I for the second time in a week drink coffee in a Tesco's cafe, this time in Pool after a meeting at the school where our planned assembly was cancelled yesterday. The migrant worker members of staff are reflecting on how they feel the issues could be tackled in the school, where there are several children of migrant workers. The message of I Packed This Myself is the experience of migration - it's a challenging message to get across, particularly to an audience that isn't particularly receptive.
Buy my own local daffodils (from the Scillies) from a petrol station in Hayle. They are Soleil D'Or and - apparently - sailors approaching the islands could smell them long before land was sighted.

Another Matosic show, repositioning in Pool and a meeting off the Liskeard bypass

Paul Matosic writes to tell me of another show - Ephemeral States.  These things come in bunches, as he says!
A tricky start to the day as our planned assembly in Pool, Cornwall, is cancelled. We had been invited to run four assemblies, one every morning this week, but two migrant worker members of staff (Polish and Lithuanian) expressed concern. The cancellation is a  blow - as this was one school where we had particularly wanted to work. It's an area where incidents of prejudice against migrant workers are well documented. There are several children of migrant workers in the school.
We plan a meeting for tomorrow to reassess our approach.

Then on, up the A30, to Liskeard for a meeting with  Judith Cook, who is monitoring the project funding (from the Migration Impacts Fund).
Then back to Roche for a meeting with Ewa to review the day's events and plan for the week and beyond.

Trip to Pool police station, a Polish shop and the daffodil season on ice

To see Bev Faull, the recently appointed police officer dealing with migrant workers in the west of the county. She is inspiringly focussed and interested in the subject - consult her ahead of our assemblies at Pool School next week. There was a minor skirmish in the local press about migrant workers in the area last autumn - the West Briton carried a front page story. Again, so far from the truth that it is not worth repeating here but it can be read via the link. An example of local hysteria, whipped up against migrant workers. This was not the West Briton's finest hour. This front page story was based on quotes by un-named local residents. Not one named source.  In reality there were no evidenced examples of 'bad behaviour' by migrant workers and because of that the story inevitably died down, thankfully. Local hysteria has now turned against planned social housing for single mothers. Regrettably though, the West Briton story has left a legacy - people thinking that there is a 'migrant worker problem' in Pool.

Bev is based in a station that is not open to the public - it is almost romantically bleak ... What I imagine 'safe houses' in John Le Carre novels look like.

Then to the Polish shop in nearby Tuckingmill to stock up with goods for the Eastern European suitcase. It is a fusion of Cornish and Polish. A sign for pasties outside. And (how ironic!) West Briton advertising...

Fairy liquid, Polish sausage and Chupa Chups inside.

Then back home via the daffodil fields. The daffodil season has stalled because of the icy weather last month. Very much behind schedule. The big local flower grower, Nocton, has hundreds of workers poised to pick. But few flowers as yet. Crows are enjoying the empty fields.

The week's final meetings

At the Victoria Inn, Roche, with Ewa, a Polish worker, for a late morning meeting to discuss plans for I Packed This Myself. There is a cheerful funeral wake in the conservatory/restaurant. Someone is buying a bottle of champagne at the bar as we order coffee.
Then to Pool School, for a meeting to plan a small exhibition we plan there for next week.

Getting to proof stage and calling the UN

Deadlines creeping up very fast. Our printer in Preston is closing over Christmas. We are in a rush to finish off the materials that go with the new suitcases. Am looking for up to date statistics on migration to include. After googling fruitlessly decide to pick up the phone. An extremely helpful press officer at the Home Office finds many positive stats. Migrants contributed an estimated £6 billion to the economy in 2006. Call the UN in New York for up to date figures on global migration. Again, someone has facts at his fingertips. We get the red hot off the press estimate for 2010. Talk to Nigel Costley, regional secretary southwest TUC. He sends me a link to their excellent publication Who Makes Up the South West? - facts and figures about migrant workers and in particular debunking tabloid scare stories... "They're taking our jobs' etc. Arrange to have some copies to take into schools with the exhibition and workshops.
Talk to the head at Pool School, book dates to go down for assemblies. We'll also produce materials for discussions in classrooms in the days after the assemblies during registration periods. Will be consulting Michal Kirstein, a psychology graduate currently studying for a Masters in Denmark, on the content. Michal worked in Cornwall for several seasons, labouring on farms.
Am very glad that we will be working in at Pool. Pool is an area where migrant workers were recently in the news.
Hopefully we can link up with community police work in the area while we're there... A new policeofficer dealing with migrant workers is actually to be based there, funded by the Migration Impacts Fund (as are our materials.)

Torrential rain and meetings at schools

A stormy week - torrential rain and meetings this week at Penair School, Truro and Pool School with teachers rolling out a Citizenship and RE agenda. All inspiringly keen to be involved. We plan exhibitions for February and March and assembly sessions. Also meet Maureen Twose of Cornwall Libraries at Redruth (where it seemed to be raining the most!) and plan a migrant worker reading list. And Andrew Yates, Social Responsibility Officer at the Diocese of Truro, which funded the first suitcase in I Packed This Myself. Andrew is a fountain of knowledge with a very full contact book. Not to mention Bridging Arts volunteer Mike Matthews.