Refugee Housing Association (RHA) commissioned the ‘Positive Contributions: Being A Refugee in Britain’ research project in early 2005.
One of RHA’s key strategic objectives is ‘to promote the positive contribution refugees and asylum seekers make to society’. Whilst RHA staff members have historically been collectively responsible for effecting this promotion within their job roles, in 2005 RHA’s Board noted how the notion of the ‘positive contribution’ had become synonymous with large-scale economic analyses and high-achieving individuals’ achievements. ‘Being a Refugee in Britain’ was commissioned in response, to emphasises the experiences of individual refugees and asylum seekers and provide a space where their views, observations and aspirations for the future could be recorded and communicated.
The research team worked with 20 refugees and asylum seekers across the UK, using in-depth interviews, journal entries and photography/photo-elicitation techniques. Key to the project was the provision of photography training and equipment to all participants, who were asked to create images of places and locations of interest and importance to them. The submitted photos lent themselves to categorisation by three themes – ‘interiors’, ‘exteriors’ and ‘churches’ – and are presented here, together with journal entries, according to these categories. Accompanying the images are quotations from participants explaining the context of the images.
The research was carried out during June-July 2005, and so was able to incorporate participants’ reactions to the London bombings and their aftermath.
The full report can be accessed on the webiste http://www.refugeehousing.org.uk/ or you can download the report here:
The exhibition is available for loan/hire from RHA - for this or any further information on the project, please contact Rachel Westerby (020 7501 2247 / rachel.westerby@mht.co.uk).