Assembly at St John's Catholic Primary School, Camborne

It was so great to be back in school delivering an assembly - for the first time for two years as the pandemic stopped 'in person' work. Mirabela Robatzchi joined me to talk to 110 children about journeys and migration.  We were here exactly two years ago, delivering workshops on World War One.

Not for the first time in this school, we were overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and interest of the children when we were presenting the ideas and information involved in I PACKED THIS MYSELF.

Mirabela talked about her journey from Romania to this country: she now lives in Helston and runs a taxi firm with her husband. She was a lawyer back home in Bucharest.

We also showed our exhibition suitcase painted with items brought by workers from eastern Europe who came to this country to pick daffodils.  Mirabela explained the cultural background behind each item. We asked children to think about what they would take if they had to set off on a long journey. 

We left behind a cut-out cardboard suitcase for each student to fill with words and drawings, and will return in a couple of weeks to see the results.

And finally - questions - so many questions! How did you feel when you were travelling- did you feel sad?

You do feel sad, said Mirabela, because you leave behind people and things that you know well. But it's also exciting and on a journey like this, you're always finding something new.

Someone asked how old she was when she left Romania. The answer: 40.

Did Mirabela know any English when she came? Yes - she studied in Primary School and at High School.

The most difficult thing? Hard to say - perhaps learning to work in a completely different area.

And finally, a charming question from an eight-year-old Romanian boy in the class. He'd arrived only recently in Cornwall but already spoke good English.

"Will you come to my house?" he asked.

"Of course!" said Mirabela. "That's very  Romanian."

Homelessness on our doorsteps

Very good to have a long chat with Rev. Neil Potter of Camborne Church who does impressive work with the growing numbers of homeless in Camborne. 

We met up because it occurred to me that the experience of homelessness had resonances with the experience of 'leaving home' (and all related issues) that we're exploring in our work on migration - I PACKED THIS MYSELF.  There's so much to talk to about: we plan a second meeting in a couple of weeks.

Neil told me about the growing problem of homelessness locally as the months pass and ever more tenants in Cornwall are being evicted by landlords, keen to either to sell properties in the booming real estate market or convert them into Air B and Bs.

Cornwall Council is envisaging a crisis and providing pods (containers) to house an anticipated surge in homelessness this winter. After the meeting I drove round to Rosewarne Car Park in Camborne to see work in progress for myself.

It's a sobering - and shocking - sight.

Packing up postcards....

 ... to send off to Herefordshire where St Mary's Church in Almeley has expressed interest in using them for a service this coming Sunday.

Great to think that our I PACKED THIS MYSELF language postcards will travel 'up country' for further use!

This service - on 'leaving home'  - looks likely to be particularly relevant to the themes of our project, funded by Cornwall Council.

It's about migration and asks the question: 'What would you take with you if you had to leave home for a long time?'

 

Farmworkers urgently needed ....

Very few workers from overseas are available to work on the land here at the moment - because of the Coronavirus.
We're starting to see ads for workers .... like this one.

NHS Coronavirus guidelines in different languages...

A really good resource. Doctors of the World in collaboration with other charities has published Coronavirus advice in 43 different languages. The guidelines are based on the government’s updated advice and health information.
This one is in Romanian.

Here's the background to the project:

Doctors of the World are really pleased to be able to share with you Coronavirus (COVID-19) advice for patients in 43 languages, which were produced in partnership with the British Red Cross, Migrant Help and Clear Voice and a lot of wonderful volunteers (thank you!):The language files can be viewed in a browser or downloaded for free.The complete list: English, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Czech, Dari, Estonian, Farsi, French, German. Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Kiswahili, Krio, Kurdish Sorani, Lithuanian, Oromo, Malayalam, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Sindhi, Slovak, Spanish, Somali, Tamil, Tigrinya, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Wolof, Yiddish.
Videos of the information are being released here: www.doctorsoftheworld.org.uk/coronavirus-video-advice/

Journeys and destinations

I suppose there is a point in keeping notebooks - providing you do look back at them occasionally.
Found this one the other day that I'd been keeping about journeys. A scribbled note of a remark I'd heard on the radio by the journalist Ed Lucas - that during the Soviet era, Russians made 'interior' journeys - alcohol, close friendships....

Then for some reason I decided to try and draw what 'home' meant to me - my house without walls. (For some reason).

 All alongside a photo ripped out from a magazine of Lindisfarne - a fabled destination of pilgrim's journeys. Migrations of a kind.

Meeting with German diplomat

A very interesting meeting at County Hall, Truro, with a representative from the German Embassy in London this afternoon.  A briefing on the European Resettlement Scheme and how German nationals are engaging with it. (To drastically simplify: European nationals have to register with the Home Office post Brexit to make sure they can stay in this country - should they want to.)
It was on the level of a short information session at the London School of Economics - a great and much-needed opportunity to learn about what's going on.
Very many thanks to Cornwall Council's Brexit Officer, Carl Warom, who invited me to tell the gathering about I PACKED THIS MYSELF.
(Carl, before his current incarnation at Cornwall Council, has a background in philosophy  - and I always think this must come in useful in his current job).
It was great to pick up the newly printed cut-out cardboard suitcases on route. We'll be using them in our new workshops. Many thanks, as ever, to Derran at BJ Press for doing such a great job.

From Romania to Camborne

A day of great encounters, starting with the photographer Dragos Robatzchi and his lovely wife Mirabela at Helston boating lake. So much to talk about - including the fact that Dragos was once a stringer for Reuters in Bucharest (I worked for Reuters a very long time ago).  We also covered Romanian history and its churches... (Biertan, Richis, which I've visited... and Prince Charles, who has taken a keen interest in the rural Romania).
Dragos and Mirabela will be helping with I PACKED THIS MYSELF.
Then before driving on to Camborne to meet the tireless Andrew Yates from the Diocese of Truro. visited Sithney Church en route in search of a grave: that of Christopher Popham, local grandee in the mid 19th century who lived at Trevarno, the beautiful house and lake in the valley nearby.   Nothing to do with the project but I was passing and have been researching this history.
Popham's fortune faded fast. His family had long gone by the end of the century. The house is now owned (it's said) by a reclusive Russian oligarch. All that remains of Popham is this grave.

 The new Premier Inn in Camborne is a good place to meet Andrew: we discuss plans, just the night before endorsed by the Bishop of Truro, to roll out I PACKED THIS MYSELF in churches for World Peace Day this year in September.

Then to St John's Catholic Primary School, Camborne, to talk to Tamsyn Blount about running workshops in the school early next term. Tamsyn is so enthusiastic. It's contagious.  We've already done several amazing workshops at the school on other themes: it sounds as if migration could work as a theme, too.

And in the midst of our conversation a little boy breaks his arm in the playground. She keeps amazingly calm and is so kind and reassuring to the child.
It starts to drizzle on the way back. There's lots of water on the road. A tough evening to be picking daffodils. The workers are still out in the fields.

A good meeting at Treliske

The first of my meetings this week - talking about I PACKED THIS MYSELF and ways we might take the work forward. A huge thank you to Helen Taylor, Clinical Practice Educator at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Treliske, Cornwall.
We had a very good meeting with Joani Miller - it turned out to be a real brainstorming session!
Lots of ideas about how to tell the story of the vital role that workers from overseas play at the hospital - whether consultants, doctors, nurses, hospital porters or cooks....
Much to think about.
For me it was the first time ever I used the Park and Ride. Shameful, really. But how convenient. Makes sense on every level.

A wet St Piran's Day in London

Torrential rain - in fact it didn't stop all day. But thanks to Steve from the St Peter's Residential Association, the flag was flying over St Peter's Square, Hammersmith, London, on St Piran's Day today.

Latest Joseph Rowntree report on poverty in the UK

Click here - always worth a read.

News coverage the day after...

Yesterday's story was shocking - 27 Vietnamese brought in a delapidated yacht into Newlyn by people smugglers.
You'd think that there would be widespread press coverage of the case today as it is such an appalling story.  A 16-year prison sentence overall for the four men who did this doesn't sound much: they'll spend about half of this time actually in prison.
But - in fact - there isn't much coverage. This story is commonplace enough not to make national headlines in any significant way.
The Guardian  - Four jailed over 'cattle-like' Cornwall people-smuggling operation ... Whoever ran the operation overall remains unknown and at large, according to the report.
There's a short piece on BBC Cornwall -  Men jailed after 29 immigrants found in van
And the west country ITV report is interesting as it has a spokesman for the anti-slavery movement explaining just how common this is .... Four men jailed after smuggling people 'like cattle' into Newlyn

People trafficking...

This is a terrible story for many reasons  - it's about people trafficking. Click here to read. Four men were sentenced at Truro Crown Court today for smuggling 29 Vietnamese people, including 17 children, into the UK on a delapidated yacht in April 2019. They sailed across the Channel to Newlyn from Roscoff in Brittany, and loaded the Vietnames into a windowless van.

They then drove off up through Cornwall. 

Several people had noticed the Vietnamese people coming off the yacht in Newlyn and phoned the police, who tracked the van and stopped it at Cullompton service station.

The men were arrested. One of the Vietnamese has been deported. All the rest - including the children who were taken into care - have disappeared after not answering bail. 

The judge said prison was the only option for the men:

"In the van, being carted around like freight were 29 living, breathing and desperate human beings, for whose plight you cared not one jot."

Travel broadening the mind ....

So - Dutch 17th century painter Aelbert Cuyp was inspired by his countryman Jan Both, who returned to Holland in 1641 after a stay in Rome.
Jan Both started to add Mediterranean light and colour to potentially dull northern landscapes.
And Cuyp was inspired to imitate him - resulting in masterpieces like the one below...
Just shows how travel can broaden the mind.

Aelbert Cuyp's painting of a landscape in his native Holland has a Mediterranean feel.
Herdsman with Five Cows by a River (1650-55)

A good thought from an Archbishop

The former Archbishop of Canterbury the Rt Rev Rowan Williams isn't the most quotable person. But I think he got this very right when he was reviewing a book on migration for the New Statesman.
(The Unsettling of Europe: The Great Migration, 1945 to the Present by Peter Gatrell)

It was a while ago but I saved up the cutting.
Why is so hard for us to see migrants as fellow human beings, he asks?
Imagination  - and artistic initiatives  - can help. He thinks, for example, that The Jungle  - play in London in 2018 weaving together migrants' stories with migrant actors - really showed what could be achieved.

"As in so  many areas, imagination - and the breakthrough into someon else's uinfamiliar persepective - is the beginning of political wisdom, the foundation of a politics that is about more than shifting problems around the board and finding new agents (usually victims) to blame."

A snapshot of plans for new immigration rules...

Finally - an idea of what the immigration rules might be in post-Brexit Britain.
A shapshot here on BBC News. A mixed response from employers - not surprisingly.
This has yet to go through Parliament but if it does - these are the main features, according to the BBC ....

• No visas for low-skilled workers - e.g. restaurant, care home and food processing plant staff.
• Visitors - from EU or non-EU countries - will be able to come to the UK for six months without a visa, but won't be able to work
• Overseas workers will have to speak English and have the offer of a skilled job with an "approved sponsor".
• They'll also need to collect points elsewhere - with certain qualifications, for example - in order to clear the 70-point hurdle.
• Some rules will be loosened to help those looking to recruit - for example, the scheme for seasonal workers in agriculture will be expanded. There will also no longer be an overall limit on the number of skilled workers allowed to come and the salary cap for them will be lowered.

Polish teachers give glimpse of post Brexit life

Great to see this article on CornwallLive: what a great initiative by these two women who volunteer at the Polish school which runs on Saturdays in Truro. They're aiming to support the Polish community with as much information as possible in these confusing days post Brexit.

One of them is Marta Przybyl.

“Quite a few families have either left or are planning to," she says. "The Brexit effect started last year and some of our parents don’t speak much English so didn’t feel confident enough to stay. Also nobody knows what is going to happen so many have felt returning home is the safer option.”

Click here for the full article - another good story from the West Briton's Chris Matthews.

A week of meetings ....

....ending in another this morning at Truro College to discuss delivering our first workshop this year at a local youth group..

Early morning  at Redruth traffic lights

Have previously been at the Premier Inn, Helston, to talk to Andrea Gilbert of Inclusion Cornwall, and to Starbucks for a fascinating chat with Beata, originally from Lower Silesia but now living in Blackwater.

Starbucks, Chiverton roundabout....

 And in between a quick visit to look at stained glass windows in Crowan that I'm researching. Saint Cecilia, patron saint of music, and St George. Both here looking very late Victorian and British.

Dots on a map

A map for visitors to St Mary's Church, Penzance....
People pinpoint where they've travelled from.  It's interesting to see the clusters - so many from Europe!
It's an idea we might develop in I PACKED THIS MYSELF - breaking down prejudice against people from overseas who come to work here (there's too much prejudice, we hear about it daily.)
Watch this space.

Many thanks to Keno Toriello of St Mary's for forwarding the image to me.

Liberation by Keno Toriello

Keno Toriello, who lives in Carbis Bay and comes originally from Chile, has contributed this article to our I PACKED THIS MYSELF project. Keno works three days a week at St Mary's Church, Penzance as parish administrator

On Monday 27th, as we were celebrating 75 years of the Liberation of Auschwitz, the Cathedral of Truro helped to organised a Remembrance Service and a series of displays about the Holocaust. Jewish people living in Cornwall were invited to present their stories. The Service was well attended, and after each presentation a different candle was lit.



I was invited to participate in one of the stands presenting the experience of migrant workers in Cornwall, as I am helping with the project run by the charity Bridging Arts and the Diocese of Truro called I PACKED THIS MYSELF.

When people approached our stand, I asked them to reflect on how welcoming we are towards foreign labour. In Cornwall we are blessed with large numbers of people coming from Eastern Europe that come to work in temporary jobs, picking flowers and harvesting farms with vegetables. Also, some from Portugal or Romania, who have come to settle with their families, and work in factories processing food, where the temperature is kept extremely low.



On our display we were showing pieces of arts made by students at Falmouth College, that looked like suitcases. One showing what the migrant workers said they carried with them when they came. Which makes us think, what would you take with you if you had to travel light to another country for few months?

Different experiences 

A young Cornish Student made a small statue of himself to show his experience of working in one of these factories during his summer holidays. Everybody around was speaking in different languages, and he found himself completely isolated and alone in his own country. Languages, customs, traditions, they all create barriers among us.



A police officer came to speak to me. He explained that Cornwall Police has a special team of officers working with foreigners, dealing with calls where local people living in Cornwall accuse them of stealing or assaulting people. He explained to us that it might be very few cases, but the word spread around quickly and it has created the perception that there are lots and lots of cases.

A statement from Devon and Cornwall Police says: Equality, diversity and human rights are central to the Police force providing an excellent service in preserving life and protecting our communities from harm. A fairer society benefits everyone, and the police service has a key role to play in promoting equality and human rights and tackling discrimination. Promoting equality, and human rights and respecting diversity are the foundations to creating greater community confidence in the police.

My thoughts

My reflection for this day was: How are we making foreign workers feel welcome? When we see them in groups at the Supermarket, how do we look at them? Are we pleasant towards them or do we have an antagonising look?

Are we happy with them as long as they stay out of sight in their caravans in the hidden farms? Or even better if our country makes so difficult for them to come, that we don’t have to see them at all.

Changes in people's attitudes

Although I have been in Cornwall since 2001, there are changes that I have seen in people's attitude towards me, since the Brexit Referendum. One of the narratives in 2016 was very clear: foreign workers come to England to steal our jobs.

Cornwall has a very high unemployment rate, and it is thanks to foreign workers that come from Eastern Europe and work for nothing, some people argue. It was at this time that I was unable to find an office job for almost two years, and coincidentally I lost the status of permanent resident due to a change in law. It was a very difficult time indeed.

From 2001 until 2016 local people were always friendly and welcoming, and all of a sudden, some people’s views and attitudes were different. Now they had an opinion on foreign labour and several times I was told: Go back to your country.

My answer has not changed… I am home.

My final reflection is to think on how we let radio talk programs, marketing advertising, and political narratives, to influence and change our own thoughts and attitudes towards other people.

God bless you.

This article first appeared in the Penlee Cluster Shout newsletter, February 2020.