New report from Migrant and Refugee Communities Forum

... Migrant Communities and the Big Society

Returning the Relic Box

A Sunday morning drive to north London to return the Relic Box loaned to the I PACKED THIS MYSELF exhibition by artist Patrick Coleman. We've been hugely privileged to been able to show this box, packed with items from Patrick's father's life. It's inspired many and opened many people's eyes to the reality of migration.

Am sorry to say goodbye to it, but it is time that this amazing object returned to its owner and creator.

The drive is a bit of a challenge as Scotland is playing Brazil not far off. We miss the worst of the traffic, thank goodness.

Migrant Voice Conference - Bridging Arts presentation

'Who's telling our stories?

Unheard voices; mobilising migrants to speak up'

April 15^th 1-6pm -

April 16^th 9.30am-2pm

At: Amnesty International, The Human Rights Action Centre,

17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA

"Migrant Voice is delighted to invite you to our Spring conference examining public attitudes and media representation of migrants and exploring strategies for migrants' engagement in the public conversation on migration.

The conference is the first joint event of the newly established 'Migrant Voices for Change Network', with membership from migrant and refugee communities' leaders and professionals, media experts, academics and other stakeholders, from London, Birmingham and Glasgow.

The two day event will bring experts in the field of messaging, public attitude and migration to shed the light on the latest research and activities, including the Barrow Cadbury Trust, Oxfam, The Searchlight Educational Trust, Institute of Public Policy Research, Migrants Rights Network, Open Society Foundation, and others.

A panel of journalists from the BBC, The Guardian, Channel 4 and other media, will provide an insight into the British media perspective on the coverage of migration, and highlight opportunities for migrants to engage with and influence the media.

The conference will be a market place for exchanging innovative and inspirational projects and initiatives from across the three cities, and will see workshops facilitated by leaders in the art of communication, including Bridging Arts and Manifesta.

Day one will conclude with a reception.

Day two will engage members of the Migrant Voices for Change Network in hands-on media training and activities and facilitated discussions on strengthening the network and on developing and implementing communication strategies to get more migrant voices heard in the media and the debate on migration.

Please RSVP info@migrantvoice.org or call 020 8960 0121 indicating if you would like to attend day one of the conference only or if you would like to join the Network and participate in both days of the conference. Attendance is free but places are limited and will be given on a first come first served basis."

Camborne workshop and daffodil pickers

Jo Grace reports back on today's workshops at Camborne Community College.

"It was very interesting visiting Camborne Community College today. They had a migrant worker member of staff who very bravely stood alongside Konrad for the Q&A session, she said afterwards that she hadn't realised how stressful it would be to stand up in front of so many students, but I think it was great for the students to hear answers from someone they knew already. We even had a question in Polish. The students split into 8 groups to write their postcards/letters. It might be interesting to ask the school to forward us some examples of this work. We had some great questions and a dozen or so students hung around afterwards to chat to Konrad some more, and one helpful student then showed us the way back through school to reception. The student's knowledge of daffodil farming was the best we have encountered in any of the schools, and they recognised swiftly the new photos of the local pickers."

Excellent feedback from Penrice Community College

Assistant teacher Jason Wood writes a kind email following hard work by Jo Grace and Bartek earlier in the month. Both found the school very impressive and focussed on the issue.

"We were impressed by the way you adapted your assemblies to the different year groups and also responded to the different expectations of english and drama classes. We have a significant number of migrant worker families in school and you have helped improve students empathy for migrants.
Your workshops recieved a very good response from the students and teachers. You made us think and challenged perceptions of migrant workers in Cornwall."

Workshops at the Roseland

A beautiful sunny morning - it feels like spring, though there has been a bit of a frost overnight.
Pass daffodil fields on the way up to St Austell... yellow fields all over west Cornwall. A bad sign: the crop in once sense has failed (to make its way to the shops). It's because weather earlier in the month, and at the end of February, was unseasonably warm.

Two groups of around 60 at the school: some very lively and interesting discussions with Irina, the migrant worker from the Ukraine who has joined us.

At Paddington

On train back to Cornwall for this term's final workshops ....
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

Great piece in the Western Morning News

Excellent coverage of the exhibition at Cornwall College, Saltash, in the Western Morning News today.

Feedback from Saltash

Great feedback from Cornwall College, Saltash, where we have been running workshops all week. Pat Lloyd, head of Student Services, writes:

"... the exhibition and workshops have been very well received here this week. They have created quite a stir and have really highlighted the issues facing migrant workers and the fact that we are all migrants if we trace our origins back far enough....

A few of the comments from students:

‘ I now realise why migrant workers may leave their country for a better life. Also I realise now it’s not all unskilled migrants, you do have some with degrees who become doctors or lawyers. Very good presentation and it has changed my point of view.’

‘ It was very interesting and I didn’t know how hard it is for people to work in a foreign place and learn a new language. It was packed with information on things I didn’t know’

‘ It was very interesting and educational to hear about migrant workers’ ways of life It was also nice to talk to migrant workers and hear about their personal reasons for coming to the UK.’

‘ I enjoyed the talk because it has given me a different opinion on migrant workers and why they come to this country to work and that they don’t only come to this country to work, they also come to learn the language and get an education.’

Thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to have the exhibition and workshops and for raising awareness of the issues behind migrant workers.

Picking up the exhibition from Saltash

The exhibition, just before we took it down...

Our poster, laminated for corridor use

A day on the road whizzes by with Mike Matthews. Up and down to Saltash to pick up the exhibition...

Looking at the mirror suitcase

A fabulous photo from a workshop at Cornwall College Saltash. The mirror suitcase in the I Packed This Myself exhibition begs a question: what would you take with you if you had to leave home to find work?
This student called her friends around the case and took a photo with her mobile phone.

Second day of photo shoot

A second day of the photo shoot with Tom Pilston. We start off near Praze (in a daffodil field), then move to the Portuguese cafe in Redruth.... to a pub in St Blazey, a Portuguese care worker's home in Bodmin and finally Wetherspoon's in Bodmin. Wetherspoons in Bodmin is in a converted chapel - the pews are still there (now as bar seats). Always find this a bit of a shock.

The pub in St Blazey where we photographed local fado singer Sophie Moura

First workshop in Saltash

A long drive from Camborne! But Jo Grace, our workshop leader, is up early. Picking up Irina, a migrant worker from the Ukraine, en route.

Jo says it proves useful to have the exhibition at hand when presenting the workshops. Pictured here are students, visiting.

On the road .... the photo shoot

A day on the road with photographer Tom Pilston...starting at St Ives with Bartek and Konrad who work at a hotel there... Then to Cornwall College, Camborne, where Bartek is studying Maths... then to Mabe to take photos of Colombian artist Carlos Zapata's extraordinary sculptures...

Planning the photo shoot

A day of sunshine in Cornwall - and a day of planning for the photoshoot later this week. Always difficult to co-ordinate people and places. This is - too - a difficult subject to photograph.
Plus some admin to catch up with. En route to and from Camborne Post Office see fields full of workers (picking daffodils and cutting spring greens.) Also hear Polish and Russian on the street.

A review of the week from Bartek

Bartek Lorbiecki has been helping us with workshops over the past couple of months. Born in Poland, he now lives and works in St Ives in a hotel - all while studying accountancy.

He's been a very thoughtful co-worker - witness his detailed review of last week's workshops at Penrice School, St Austell.

"I was impressed that head teacher’s assistant (Mr Woods) was waiting for us (not only on Monday but every other day accompanying us and having a nice chat while drinking coffee). As we have learned, he was a Geography teacher so if anybody he should know quite a lot about migration.
Entering the school, I noticed a big suitcase and he explained that he did set a competition where students had to make a big poster showing what they would take going for a long time abroad. What was surprising comparing to other schools was a discipline at Penrice...it was palpable in the air that there is great respect for the teachers in that school (you know I like it).
On Tuesday ...year seven had a very unique assembly – thinking of what they would take for a long journey and checking what was in a Portuguese suitcase and then asking me what I had in mine when I came to England). There were quite a few really good pieces of writing saying something like that: ‘my life in Cornwall is ok and I will be back home after I pick another 400 000 cabbages:)’.
Wednesday was completely different as it was a drama group (apart from the fact that we were late a few minutes having satellite navigation frozen and missing our left turn). Again, that teacher did a great job starting assembly by asking the students to think of how it feels to live in a foreign country. I was more than surprised seeing no desks in a classroom and when I expressed that to the teacher she said they usually don’t use chairs either (they did only because we were there)! They were a really nice and friendly group and we had lots of fun there.
On Thursday we had another drama group. Driving there I discussed with Jo a small change as instead of telling them a story about two fingers I wanted pupils to perform this situation with me in front of everybody. However, before I could do it we (6 students from this class and I) were taken to the library for a brief photo session with suitcases of travelers. The photographer said that it will appear next week in ‘Cornishman’ or ‘West Briton’. After coming back to the classroom we performed a short role play and it worked perfectly well!!! A girl with red hair sitting next to us burst laughing really loudly and even those few students who seemed to be a bit negative about foreign workers at the beginning suddenly became really interested in what was going on. At the end they had to prepare a small play showing their lives as people who came to work on a farm. I have already seen somebody chopping his finger off but this time a person has lost a leg!!!
After seeing that I said to Jo on our way back that tomorrow I will take my digital camera so we can record some of them. However, on Friday I had to get up much earlier as we had a fire alarm at 5.30 in the morning and we had to evacuate the guests (at the hotel in St Ives). When it started ringing (not knowing what was going on) I had to dress myself in a minute as I was not sure If I come back before catching a bus to Camborne. Because of that I completely forgot to take my camera!
At school we had year 11 during assembly and then year 10 drama group for a workshop. I thought that they were very stressed sitting there, but I think that they were much more brave than me having my Maths exams. Before taking Mechanics I was like a huge jelly! Our workshop group on that day was really demanding and thoughtful (I have to mention that a drama teacher we had on Wednesday and Friday was a real deal! I don’t mean that the others were not good but that lady was a genius!). When we were talking a few of them seemed to me much more mature intellectually than just 15 years old. Actually, 6 or 7 of them in a few weeks time are going to visit Poland (their partner school in Plock) so I taught them a few words in Polish they can use and gave a list of good chocolates and a few dishes which in my opinion they should try. Well, they were a lovely group and I am sure kids in Poland are going to love them!
Apart from the trip and discussion about what they may see in Poland that group will stay in my memory for one more reason. Their performances were simply brilliant!!! The opening one, where three girls started in a strange position, looking more like turned to stone, and one of them started performing as a foreign worker getting up in the early morning and then after getting up and eating she touched her friend who suddenly came to life and she became a stone was a masterpiece!!! When the girls finished the applause just emerged out of nowhere and was really loud and wild! In another performance a girl, who asked Jo what time people working on the fields get up to work was pretending to be a huge clock alarm and when she reached five am a boy who was behind her (he was shorter so you could barely see him) started jumping as a symbol of a ring (they had to be voiceless while performing, I am sure Jo has some pictures of it). Their imagination was endless! It is a pity they didn’t do classes like that in Poland when I was in secondary school! We had a really good time and the Penrice school seems to be a nice place to be in.    

Racist attack in Liskeard

A deeply depressing - and disturbing - news story this evening in Cornwall ....http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-12660866

Setting up the exhibition in Saltash

An early start for Brian Andrew who picked up the plinths and suitcases from Praze.
Everything needed to be up in Saltash for 930-ish. It's an hour and half drive, at least.
Our workshop leader Jo Grace and volunteer Mike Matthews set up the show.

The Portuguese cafe, Penrice and Penryn

An alliterative day.... the team has been on the road.
Mike Matthews and I went to Redruth to visit the Portuguese cafe.

Redruth always seems to me to have a huge potential for gloominess ... but then, I would say that - my heart's with Camborne. (A huge local rivalry, traditionally, between the two towns.)
But despite the deeply grey and granite environs....
the cafe - on close inspection - proves to be a delight.

Mike knows that as he is already an habitue.
But how wonderful to see roses and a blast of Portuguese colour.

The coffee is good too. And someone is eating a very substantial English breakfast.

The coffee is good.

We arrange to return for a photoshoot next week. On April 2, Sophie Goncalves will be singing - not to be missed - she is certainly Cornwall's top fado singer. This cafe is licensed and open until 11pm daily. Cannot believe that I never discovered it before.
En route back to Praze (to pack up the exhibition, ready for Saltash at the weekend), we pass daffodil fields which are disconcertingly yellow. This is a bad sign: the crop has come in too fast.

Then to Penryn, where Jo Grace (our workshop leader) and Bartek (migrant worker from St Ives) are ready to deliver two assemblies. The pictures will tell the story...

This has been an exceptionally busy day for them: they started at Penrice College (St Austell) very early indeed. And took things in a rather different direction - role playing in drama workshops.

We have a de-brief meeting in the cafe at Asda's afterwards - in the great tradition of I PACKED THIS MYSELF debrief meetings. They are usually in the cafes of major supermarket chains - only because they are quickest to get to and easiest to park at. And everyone can shoot off in different directions afterwards - as happened this time.
Me to the station and a train back to London - alas. Cornwall was calling today. The sun was out - at last! - and spring seemed to be on the way.

Logistical difficulties

It's not all that easy delivering workshops in Cornwall! A tree on the road can cause havoc - as happened last month en route to Falmouth. Even Jo Grace, our very experienced workshop leader, can be caught out.  Here ... the traffic jam that built up after a tree fell on the road....

And then  - very bad luck - Jo's car broke down....

A week at Penrice, St Austell

The second workshop this week at Penrice College, St Austell.  This is a busy week for Jo Grace, who is leading the workshops. And also a busy week on the land. Am caught up with other things but cannot but help notice the crowds of workers in the fields, picking daffodils or cutting spring greens etc.
Jo says that Penrice has been an extremely rewarding school to work with. She reports on her day:

 

"Today was our second day working at Penrice college. It is noticeable how different the students opening opinions about migrant workers are at this college compared to the other schools and colleges we have been working in. Penrice is a language college and they pride themselves on looking outwards, this shows around the school, where things like signs for the toilet are written in four different languages.

We are delivering workshops and a series of assemblies throughout the week. Yesterday we showed the Portugese suitcase in the year 7 assembly, today we talked to year 8 about who they think of as being a migrant worker. We focused on the UN's estimation that one third of the world's population are migrant workers.

In the workshops we have been pleased with the range of questions students have come up with to quiz Bartek with. Today I think we had at least 5 questions that we haven't been asked before.

   I thought you might like to read some examples of the student's work, so here are two letters written by yr 7 pupils, imagining themselves in as migrant workers on a farm in Cornwall.

 

By Jenna-

 

    Dear Mum and Dad,

                                I've had my first week at my job cabbage picking with the most wet cold weather. But don't worry the farmer gave me a coat to wear to keep warm. My caravan is cosy but slightly run down, but I don't really think about what it looks like when I get home because I am so tired! My back is aching from bending over for hours on end. The food here is better than Dad's cooking but not as good as Mum's. Sometimes I get homesic, but I've got used to it now. I have met loads of new poeple like Zoe the girl in the opposite caravan, she's really nice and we are good friends now. Granny would love it here with the water and the sea and the birds singing in th emornings. Maybe Phil can come and work with me when he finishes school to keep me company. Hope to see you soon, only 400,000 cabbages left to pic and I'll be home! Lots of Love, Jenna

 

by Kyle

 

Dear Mum, Dad, Brothers and Sisters,  I am writing home today to tell you about my job and what it is like. 1 week ago I started work as a cabbage picker, so far I am one of the only ones that are doing this job so we are having to pick lots so we can earn the money we deserve. I have a sore back because 75% of the time you are bending down to pick the cabbages up. It isn't easy and you don't get paid a lot but it's enough to have dinner so I am happy. Also it is cool because you get to meet new people and make new friends. The reason I moved was not to get away from my family but to meet new people from a different culture and so I could learn different languages and different styles of how to act.

          Yours sincerely, your son,

                           Kyle.

 

These students along with their classmates made a big effort to imagine how they would feel in this situation. After the workshop we had a glimpse at one of the entries into the competition the school are running in which students have to imagine what they would pack in a suitcase if they were going away."