Interview – Pike & Hurricane

Hong Kong’s Protests and the reality of news

Nina Kolarzik — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 15:43:47 +0000

What do you think about when you read a newspaper, listen to the updates on the radio, the news app on your phone, the news programme on TV? For me, since it is far away, it often seems like a story, a myth. And I have to stop and take a step back to remind myself that these are things that are happening right now. The burning of the Australian bush. The plague of locusts in East Africa. The spread of the Corona virus from China. All the other news we list under Yesterday’s News, Today’s Reality. It continues while I read about it and people are affected by it.

And sometimes, you are one of these people and the events happen where you are. Be it a catastrophe, a surprising election, anything – there might be the moment when you realise that what is happening around you is a part of history, it will be in the news later. But how does it change our perspectives and focus?

A picture that changes

I have interviewed Maike about this topic, a student from Malmö University who was on exchange in Hong Kong from August until November 2019. Maike studied in Hong Kong during the time of some of the major events of the protests: when Carrie Lam withdrew the extradition bill or the protests during the anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. When police forces entered the university campus in November and students defended it, the confrontations between protesters and government forces caused big destruction of campus facilities and the university was unable to continue the semester and Maike returned home. Since she was directly affected by the protests that were going on in the city at that time, she could reflect on the difference between the news and reality and shared her experience with me.

Pike & Hurricane (P&H): The protests in Hong Kong already started in June and the media reported widely on it. Therefore, you were prepared about the situation of her host country. But talking about myths and the story media tell of an event, did the image you had change when you got there and saw what happened?

Maike: Yes and No. I think Hong Kong is very privileged in how it is being covered. I mean 2019 was a year of global protest, there were in so many different regions of the world protests between governments and citizens and very similar topics actually. And if you look at the coverage that Hong Kong got versus the coverage that Haiti or Ecuador for example got than it’s very different.

What I think changed about my impression of it is that, surprise!, it is not as black and white as presented. What I think for me really changed was that what the media really lacks is this human face behind it. So you see, there is the movement and there is the police, and the government and the protesters. And either you are completely for the movement or you are completely against it. But you don’t show the people that are super torn. And I think that for me was a very important acknowledgement to make. Because I recognised that I in the beginning judged people in terms of that they told me something about the protest and I tried to put them into a category: I think this person is for the movement, I think this person is against the movement.

The media coverage as I said is very extensive, but it’s also very sensation-led. So they look a lot on “this big event happened” and there are so many pictures of fires and the violence, but they show less about the personal struggle of people.

Maike said that after spending several months in Hong Kong, the picture of the events became less clear cut, because she got to know more about the context and different layers of the conflict. “What I didn’t really grasp before I got there, since it is missing from the coverage, was the different levels- that there are not only two parties in the conflict and that opinions are not clear cut. People might disagree with the government, but feel like being culturally Chinese. How does one deal with that? You know these kinds of things and I think it is such an important aspect since identity in general plays a big role in this conflict. And it is lacking in a sense from the media coverage in terms of that it is very categorised.”

P&H: How do identity and character influence your perception of the events?

Maike: I think I would have experienced it very differently if I would have been a Hong Kong local, whereas I am a European, who was there for half a year. I knew from the beginning that I would be able to leave at any point if things would get critical. And I think that is something that still now is very much there.

I know that sounds stupid, but I feel guilty. Because I know that I couldn’t have done anything as such and that it is not my fight to fight and I have no power whatsoever to help and I know that it is not my position to take. But it felt wrong to just be able to leave.

Maike is back in Malmö, but living in a place builds a connection. You know what certain events mean for the people. And at the same time the distance is back. “It is definitely weird now in that sense that I can literally turn off the TV or wherever I see it, Instagram or news outlet, I can just turn off my phone and it will not affect me in a sense.”

Stories we hear about

Media is creating a story, they tell an event in a certain way. And depending on the narrator, this story can differ a lot. “I don’t think the media is wrong in being critical when it comes to police violence and the government”, Maike says, “but you can definitely see that they are very West-centric. So they are very much tempted to make China look like the bad guy, no matter what they do. […] It is very striking when the Chinese government uses the words ‘rioters’ and ‘extremists’ for the protesters, but it is also striking when Western news outlets always use the words ‘democracy fighters’ and stuff like this, it is very much about this language aspect. I don’t say I think it is bad, but neutrality-wise… you could definitely see that a lot.”

Every story is just part of a bigger one. They give a context and meaning to it, describe the actors and their position, leave out bits and are rarely completely neutral. Most people in Hong Kong still lived their normal life. While the news showed a lot of conflict and smoke and fires, this is in reality rather isolated and just in a few parts of the city. And what was in Hong Kong news topic number one, it was for the world one of several news.

by Nina Kolarzik

Photo Credits

“Blätterwald”, Björn Seibert, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

“HONG KONG-INDONESIA-SOCIAL-LABOUR”, inmediahk, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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Why We Still Need Feminism in 2019

Merle Emrich — Mon, 31 Dec 2018 19:17:09 +0000

When I take a step back and look at my life, I have to inevitably realise that my gender has never been much of an obstacle. I cannot remember a single instance in which I was told I could not do something because I was a girl. And sure, I am aware of sexual violence which is directed mostly towards women. And yes, I am familiar with the terms ‘second shift’, ‘gender pay gap’ and glass ceiling. But I always – naively – assumed that most people in the society I live in share my principles of gender equality. A recent incident however made me realise that, firstly, I live in a social bubble. And secondly, while we have undoubtedly taken great steps forward, feminism is a matter as urgent as ever.

The Butt Incident

The incident I am referring to is the following: I was sitting at home, brooding over my minor thesis when I received a message from Ellen Wagner, a friend of mine. She asked me to read through a letter of complaint she had written because of a job advertisement in her town’s local newspaper. In their ad the company stated that they were looking for a plumbing and heating installer. The job description was accompanied by the image of a woman’s bottom in hot pants and holding tools in her hands.

Since the German advertisement council states: ‘Most of all statements or depictions may therefore not be used in commercial advertisement which, 1. discriminate a person on the basis of their gender […] 5. reduce to their sexuality or suggest their sexual availability’ and furthermore the advertisement council emphasises the consideration ‘whether there is a socially acceptable, non-discriminatory or degrading connection between the depiction of the human body and product/ service’, Ellen decided to write a letter of complaint, and has now agreed to an interview with Pike & Hurricane.

Job advertisment published by a local German newspaper.

P&H: What was your initial reaction when you saw the advertisement in your local newspaper?

Ellen: It took me some time to realise what was actually displayed, and why. When I first saw the ad, my subconscious mind probably instantly categorised it as distasteful, not worthy of any attention. But then, a few seconds later, as soon as I caught myself just reading over it, ignoring it, I got alarmed, and I still am. So really, I had to look twice before being able to reflect on it, which really shocked me. I started asking myself, how come my subconscious mind is so indifferent to seeing women’s bodies selling stuff? Has “Sex sells” become naturalised up to a point where we find it legitimate, and we relativise it by claiming it to be a matter of taste and aesthetics, something entirely subjective?

P&H: What reaction to your letter of complaint were you (predominantly) expecting, and what happened in reality?

Ellen: I sent my letter of complaint both to the company commissioning the ad, as well as to the responsible newspaper that chose to print it. I sent it just wanting to do something about it, not even expecting much of a response from them. I was surprised to find support from the mayor who responded to the letter the same day with a very positive message of support. Another interesting part is that I decided to also share it in one of our local facebook groups, to encourage other people to become active, too. I was aware that the same topic had been thoroughly debated a few days earlier within that group, with many people making some meant-to-be-funny comments about women’s butts, not seeming to understand the problem addressed. I guess at that point, I didn’t take it seriously enough. To me, it looked like they were few, maybe because I didn’t find any convincing arguments in their comments which made my brain just skip this whole debate. For my own post, I used the “disable commenting” function because I didn’t want to have to read the same angry ranting and raving again. I explicitly addressed those people interested in becoming active, those wanting to make a change. When I think about it now, I expected at least half of the people to share my concerns about this particular ad, and maybe even some of them to show interest in becoming active in criticising the ad industry. But that impression changed rapidly after I published the post, and I slowly realised that my expectation of a 50:50 distribution would actually rather turn into a 70:30 ratio, dominated by an angry virtual mob.

The Angry Virtual Mob

The comments of this ‘angry virtual mob’ included remarks as to how ‘[w]hat this woman has written is hard to surpass in ridiculousness’, that ‘she can very well wear a burka during summer’ and ‘must be really bored’, as well as assumptions about the body hair of women criticising this type of advertisement. I imagined this to be the result of the (stereo)typical ‘fragile male ego’ but to my surprise – and utter horror – a considerable amount of the comments showing incomprehension for Ellen’s open criticism of this clearly objectifying and over-sexualised advertisement were posted by women.

Facebook reactions to the letter of complaint ranging from incomprehension to comments such as ‘[s]he can very well wear a burka during summer instead of running around in a bikini’.

P&H: Do you see the issue of or need for feminism differently now in comparison to before the incident?

Ellen: After this incident, I see it as especially urgent to reach out beyond our own, comfortable bubbles. When I think about it now, it’s no surprise that I completely underestimated the negative reactions – because most of the time, I am surrounded by people who share my perspective on many issues. That’s why I think we should never jump to the conclusion that the fight for justice – including feminism – isn’t topical anymore. If we only get out of your bubble, we’ll witness how different other people’s realities are from ours. And then, really, it is just about confronting others with the problems we see. Despite all the negative reactions I am receiving at the moment, I do hope that the anger of the mob turned into food for thought for them. If only few of them start reflecting on the problem, this whole initiative was so worth it. Spreading this personal experience with as many people as possible will definitely be one of my goals in 2019, just to make people aware of how we are taking for granted what we had to fight for throughout history.

P&H: Do you have any explanation for the overwhelmingly negative reactions you received?

Ellen: Of course, the scene where all of this happened was quite a rural area, a small town in Bavaria, where people tend to think less critically about politics and how their lives relate to it. People live in their cozy little worlds – of course they feel under attack if somebody comes and turns it around. And once they saw their conceptual world endangered, I think it was mostly the feeling of anonymity online that encouraged people to join the mob and to start making discriminatory remarks. The barrier is lower online than it is in real life, and people enjoy the kind of anarchy they feel to be given in social networks. Though I have to mention that facebook deleted approximately ten comments because they were considered either hate speech or sexual harassment – so it might not be as anarchical after all…

P&H: What changes in society regarding women/ changes in the debates about women’s/ feminist issues would you like to see?

Ellen: Not seeing feminism as a “women only” club, but as an inclusive movement, driven by empathy and togetherness. In the end, for me, it all goes back to the question of how we want to live together on this planet.

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

Job advertisement published in Blickpunkt Pegnitz (Nordbayerischer Kurier), Dez 7, 2018

Facebook Screenshots, Merle Emrich & Ellen Wagner

Slutwalk Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, 04.06.11, Ben Ponton, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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David Cairns, the United Kingdom Ambassador to Sweden, Tells Us How He Got There

Yaroslav Mikhaylov — Tue, 28 Feb 2017 10:47:26 +0000

On January 25th, Malmö högskola hosted His Excellency David Cairns, the United Kingdom Ambassador to Sweden. Mr. Cairns has had a long career with the British Foreign Office and shared some of his insights and experiences with the students. Pike and Hurricane also had a chance to sit down with the Ambassador and ask him about his career, the latest developments in world politics and, most importantly, how to get a job doing what he does.

He has nothing but good things to say about a career in diplomacy, calling it “pretty unrivaled in the variety of things you get to do and the places you get to go and, of course, the people you meet.” Though, he is quick to mention, it is not exactly the path to political power: “you are not the big boss. The bosses are politicians.” And there are other drawbacks to working in the public sector, he concedes, “you’re never going to be rich. But, as I said, the quality of what you get to be involved in far and far outweighs the material side.” Nonetheless, he absolutely recommends the diplomatic track to students close to graduating who are considering their options. Cairns considers it especially important to reach out to people who, for one reason or another, are not commonly represented in diplomatic circles, since they are also among the people that the diplomatic corps represent. “We are a very popular employer, but a lot of minority communities and sometimes women as well, might think that it is not for them. And actually, we want to represent the Britain of today, and that is a very multicultural society and we have to represent that to be relevant,” says he.

Cairns’ own journey to the British Foreign Office started at university, where he was studying Japanese. During his third year, he went on exchange to Tokyo with the intention of not just studying, but working as well, so he reached out to the embassy. “I wrote to the British Embassy in Tokyo, asking: ‘Can I have a job?’. And they said ‘No, you can’t have a job, but we will send your letter to some of the British companies who are there in Japan.” One of these companies hired him for the duration of his time in Japan, but he was still a regular visitor at the embassy, playing squash and attending holiday parties. Despite that, even though he applied for a job with the Foreign Office after graduating, he did not have high hopes. He instead got a job working for a securities firm. When he finally heard back from the Office a year later, he went into the interview with no stress or pressure. “I had a job, I was doing quite well, I was very relaxed and so, of course, it all went very smoothly. And they said ‘You are through.’ and ‘You want to join?’ and I said ‘Sure!’ and that was it,” he recalls. There were a few hiccups along the way, such as the language aptitude test – “On the basis of that actually, I wasn’t very good.” – but soon a position opened up and Cairns was on his way to Tokyo.

This was the part of a long career that took him to Japan twice, Geneva once and even to a British research base in Antarctica. He considers the latter to to be one of the memorable highlights of his career: “We spent a couple of days out on the ice, in tents, seeing the staff. And that is quite memorable I must say.” Now, Cairns is about a year into his four-year rotation in Sweden and is not spending too much time worrying about where he will be sent off next. “I try to enjoy the day, and enjoy being here in Sweden, which I am doing,” he says, “I’ve had a pretty lucky run so far, to be frank. We’ll see what comes up and how it comes up.”

In terms of the key skills necessary to be a successful diplomat, Cairns singles out three most important ones: analytical skills, communication skills and people skills. “You, as students,” says he, “absorb a lot of information and then you distill that down into answering questions on, I don’t know, why were the Taliban successful, or what is happening in Syria. So we do the same, but with a slightly different angle, which is ‘What should we do?’” He mentions his own first-hand experience with that question, when he was invited to sit in on an office meeting with the top Foreign Office staff, including Foreign Minister Douglas Hurd, as a junior staffer writing down the meeting’s minutes. They were discussing whether to purchase American-made Tomahawk missiles when the Minister turned to him and asked his opinion. “That was pretty scary,” remembers Cairns, “I mumbled some rubbish, completely. It was terrible. But it was a super good lesson, because of what I learned from that was actually that this is what it’s all about. On this particular issue of ‘Should we buy this?’, the answer is ‘What do I think? What should we do?’”

That anecdote goes hand-in-hand with the second set of skills that he recommends budding diplomats to practice: communicating your ideas. He recalls that in his first year with the Office, he was already expected to attend meetings and conferences and articulate the UK’s point of view on relevant issues. Even today, communication remains a big part of the job for him, as a big part of his job is appearing on Swedish radio or television to give the UK’s take on relevant issues. Cairns also reminds that it is always important to have good interpersonal skills, “Enjoying being with people, being happy to get out and meet them, trying to be a good listener to them.”

Cairns brings the same positivity and optimism to questions about current events in the world as well, focusing on finding solutions that work best for everyone. “There is a lot of discussion about what to do about Trump,” he says, “Well, the answer for us is the same as what to do about Obama or what to do about Bush or what to do about Reagan: be involved, work with him as close as we can, so that we can further our interests as best we can.” He likewise appeals to the long history of engagement with Europe that Britain had when discussing the withdrawal from the European Union. “We’ve had an ambassador here in Sweden since 1535. We have had a relationship with the continent forever, and we will continue to do so.” he says, before elaborating that it is now up to the Europeans and the British to figure out the way that this new relationship will look. “It will be different, but it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be bad.”

However the events unfold, Cairns urges people, especially students, to get involved by either joining the foreign ministry, a non-governmental organization or going into politics. “I think the important thing for people like me and the next generation thinking about it is that the future isn’t written and you can be passive and let somebody else make it happen or you can get involved and try to make it as you think best.” So let’s sharpen up those analytical, communication and people skills and get out there, shall we?

Yaroslav Mikhaylov

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The Humanitarian Lifestyle

Laura Korte — Tue, 06 Dec 2016 09:38:22 +0000

The idea of aid and development is grand. So grand that people tend to think of it in abstract terms and forget the aid workers and their families behind it. My own mother is one of these workers, and time and time again I know that my family and I have to wish her good luck on her endeavours in faroff lands and hope that she will return. It has been both the greatest gift and the greatest challenge.

Henna Korte, 55, picked up her phone to receive a call for an interview after a long day at work. The time difference is +2 hours to Sweden. She lives in Erbil, Iraq. Currently working as a Danish Red Cross Country Coordinator for Iraq, she has been away from her family and friends for 15 months. Trying to reminisce about how she ended up as a humanitarian worker, she really could not come up with a clear answer.

“I suppose it came with the different jobs I had, and the fact that I had joined Red Cross when I was young…” Korte says, while still trying hard to think. Finally she says: “I don’t want to work for just the money, the pay should be something more than that.” The balance between humanitarian work and a so-called normal life can be difficult. As Korte starts to contemplate this, she jokingly questions if she even has a life. She then goes on to elaborate on the need of keeping in touch with family and friends while abroad, and emphasises the ease the internet has created. Not only do you want to hear how your family is doing back home, talking to friends and colleagues really helps you to stay strong and get through the hardest of times, Korte says. When she starts to go through her education, it becomes clear how not only well-educated she is in the field, but also how much passion she has towards it. She has received close to all training possible and keeps training even after more than twenty years of experience. She started off as a nurse, specialising in intensive care, but accentuates the fact that a nurse trained for Finnish hospitals will not have the readiness required for a job in a crisis zone.

Henna Korte

“I have the technical skills and the experience, but the other side, the psychological side, could have been taken better care of…” Korte says. “The training of staff could be elaborated. We always get a briefing pre-mission, and debriefing when we come back home. But neither of these really focus on anything else except the technical side of the job. In Iraq, [the International Committee of the Red Cross] has organised a system to look after the psychological wellbeing of employees, frankly my first mission there was a need for psychological care and now has been acknowledged. I have to say, there have been missions in which no one could ever be prepared for, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.”

Every humanitarian worker goes through different experiences, some more demanding than others. Korte counts the more difficult missions in her head, but ends up coming up with an answer: “there are many.”

The ones that stand out to her, she lists as her 18 months in Thailand, two months in Jordan, and now her 15 month mission in Iraq. Why? “The difficulties often come with the culture. It takes time to change your way of working while still holding onto your own values and working ethic. You need to learn how to work with the new culture and still be effective. As Red Cross always works with the national society of the country, we are there as guests and to support their work. We are not in the position to rule them.”

Even though Korte lists her long mission in Thailand as one of the hardest ones, the same mission makes the cut for the most rewarding ones, too. “When you are somewhere for so long, and you can see progress, it feels gratifying. Also, my mission on Saint Vincent and Grenadines was a personal success, due to the national society’s cooperation and willingness to work with me. Everything ran so smoothly in a small place”, Korte explains.

So what happens when a mission has come to an end? “When returning home, that’s when the culture shock normally hits you… It can be very difficult to come home after a mission. I remember after getting back home from Iran, I woke up in the middle of the night. I panicked when I saw that there was a man in our tent and this odd blue lamp. Had to shake myself awake to realise that the man next to me was my own husband, and the lamp was my own reading light.” Working 7 days a week for five weeks straight, how Korte lived in Iran, leaves its marks on the body as well as the mind.

Korte continues to explain her last weeks in Thailand, describing an attack, a jungle knife on her throat, beaten up in a bush. “I was lying there thinking if my family would ever find out why I didn’t come home.” No wonder dark alleys in the quiet suburbs back home can then be frightening. Every humanitarian aid worker has their own ways of returning back to the normal lifestyle that awaits at home, for Korte the way to do this was to get straight back into work. “I have never had a holiday after a mission, through my daily job I reset myself. When you face new challenges, you don’t have to think about the old ones.”

“Now I often get asked how can I work in Iraq when everyone is a terrorist… People don’t see a crisis happening, if they have got things so good themselves in a safe and stable country. Too often people think that the people who need help now have brought this onto themselves. People question my whole job through their own prejudices and stances. It frustrates me how people do not use their eyes enough to see that not ‘all Arabs are terrorists,’ ‘a woman could not possibly work in Iraq.’ Erroneous preconceptions are rarely cleared.”

“I have had opportunities to talk to volunteers, and what keeps me going and truly touches me is that there are people wanting to help in every corner of this planet”, Korte explains. She continues to elaborate on stories from villages and camps, where people are kind and kids are full of life. The smile can be heard from Korte’s voice as she talks about all the various encounters she has had with people along the years. “That’s the best part of this job, meeting people.”

“What you see will have an affect on your own thoughts. I find someone to talk to quite promptly, normally I resort to the help of a colleague.”

“August 31, 2005. I do not think I will ever get over it.”

But now I can talk about it. I was joining a group of officials to send the caskets of three Finnish children home, eight months after the Tsunami.”

The children were five, nine and twelve. Korte was observing the last identification before their last journey home began.

Korte has two children herself. And at the time, her children were aged 10 and 13, and the whole family lived in Thailand.

“The pain from this I took out on my husband, I waited until the kids were asleep of course.”

“People always understand natural catastrophes better. I myself have a hard time accepting violence, that is why I haven’t applied to work in conflict zones before. Even today I was visiting a camp, and out of curiosity I asked how far away we were from Mosul. 25km.” But how is it possible not to be scared all the time when you are situated in a crisis zone? “I believe in people and their inner good. I come to help and I am confident that I will be fine”, Korte says.

Wherever you go, on a holiday or for work, you will come across different things which can be dangerous. Never underestimate the power of efficient vaccination and wellthought behaviour. “The greatest physical danger I had to go through, actually happened to my child when they got sick with Dengue-fever while my whole family lived with me in Thailand.” Korte stayed next to her child every night, making sure she got the best care.

“What people have to remember is that aid workers end up leaving, the people who need help, will stay.”

Laura Korte

Photos by John Nissen

This interview has been translated from Finnish.

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Brexit from a New Perspective: British-Bangladeshi Reactions to the Discussion of Immigration

Emilia Henkel — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 13:06:46 +0000

Complex questions and important decisions

On the 23rd of June, the British people voted on a very important decision, a decision that would determine the country’s future: Leave or Remain in the European Union. Even though this is an incredibly complex question, touching on all parts of social life and organisation, the Vote Leave campaign managed to steer the discussions to one single omnipotent problem: immigration. It seemed to be addressing a need to talk in the British society. In the past decades Britain has taken a multicultural approach in its policies dealing with immigration. However in the mid-2000s the discourse about culture, cultural differences and the cultural heritage of immigrants changed, with Gordon Brown opening up a discussion on Britishness.

Journey to England

Questions of national belonging and identity continuously resurfaced during my journey through England in June 2016. I was meeting with British-Bangladeshis to talk about their relation to their country of origin in the context of their life in England. The month of June was, from a wider political point of view, a very interesting time to travel, since issues of immigration and assimilation discussed by people in the streets, in pubs and at academic lectures related to the topic of my journey. While I was in England, I interviewed British-Bangladeshis in Manchester and London about their perception of and relation to Bangladesh transforming over the years in the diaspora. My interviewees were very different in terms of their age, gender, profession and their relationship with England. Inevitably, we came to talk about Brexit and the related discussion about immigration, even though I didn’t ask any structured questions about it during our interviews. In this article, I want to share the opinions of people I met during my journey and add to this edition new perspectives, that rarely make their way into the mainstream media.

Access to the discourse

Many of the people I interviewed were immigrants to Britain and therefore explicitly concerned with the impact that changes to immigration would have in case of a secession from the EU. The Annana Community Centre in Manchester, which is run by British-Bangladeshi women, provides advice for navigating the British system and everyday many newly arrived migrants from Italy, Spain and France meet there. Interestingly, many of them are unaware of the political changes ahead even though they have plans to invite more relatives to Britain.

Dipu

A striking example is the following scene I experienced in the Annana Office: Dipu, an Italian-Bangladeshi volunteer, who has settled in England three years ago, asked her British born colleague Hasina about the meaning of some flyers she received in her mail. Hasina quickly explained to her why the hateful information sheets of the “Out” campaign were very bad and advised her to throw them away as quickly as possible. While Dipu is going to be directly affected by changes in immigration laws for European citizens, her knowledge of English is limited and therefore she is excluded from the discussions on immigration to England, which concern her very much. While she is the central object of the discourse, her possibilities to take part in it and influence her own future are limited.

Sujit and Shumon

Sujit and Sumon on the election day.

A very different example is provided by the British-Bangladeshi brothers Sujit and Sumon. Sujit came to London 11 years ago with a student visa, succeeded in his professional career and recently acquired permanent residency in Great Britain. His brother Sumon´s student permit has expired after seven years in Britain and without a new visa he faces expulsion from the country, where he built himself a life in the last seven years. The British immigration law has toughened over the last years and Sumon was refused a new visa several times. Sujit started looking for alternative paths and found a loophole in the confusing interrelations of EU law. He made plans to move to Ireland to apply more successfully for a visa for his brother. On the night of the 23rd June, the brothers followed the results of the referendum with great tension. When it became clear that Britain voted to leave the EU around 5 in the morning, it meant for Sujit and Sumon that their space to act was shrinking and they would have to be quick to realize the plans. Sumon and Sujit had access to the discourse and cast their vote, however their perspectives are rarely discussed in the public discourse.

Diverging opinions

Jesmin

Jesmin sitting for a conversation.

My British-Bangladeshi interviewees, among them many who already acquired British citizenship or were born in the country held all kinds of attitudes towards the referendum. Jesmin, a Mancunian cultural activist and translator in her forties, who has lived and raised her kids in England for 20 years, expressed her great distress about the vote to leave the EU on Facebook in the following comments, posted within the hours of tension when the results of the referendum were published: “In in in in!”, “If leave wins, it would be down to the inaction and complacence of the remain supporters. Going to bed with an uneasy feeling; I don’t like breakups, especially ones that we’re not so sure about.” “Only 4% majority shouldn’t be enough to leave the EU. Feeling apprehensive about the future.”

Dr. Renu

Dr. Renu, who spend her whole adult life in England and currently works for the local authority in London, expressed similar distress about the decision to leave the EU: “I feel so sad, depressed and shocked because of Brexit. The Bengali people in London faced a lot racism in the 70´s and 80´s and I thought those days are over. This intolerance is terrible”. At the same time she expressed critical views of immigration, paraphrasing slogans of the Vote Leave campaign about eastern European immigrants “ They never stand in the queue and are very uncultured. It is probably because of they are used to communism. They cannot deal with their freedom here. They are also very racist. They don´t like other skin colours. They bring a lot of children from Romania because they are earning more on child benefit than they could otherwise. One woman told me in a whispering voice that she is from Romania, she didn’t want anyone to know.”. A very interesting discrepancy in her discourse emerges, as she negotiates her ideas of tolerance with images of the other prevalent in the British media at the time.

Faisal

Her distress about European immigration was shared by Faisal, a 29 year old London born British Bangladeshi, who is an activist for Palestinian rights and sympathises with left and anarchist politics. To explain his stance against European immigration he told the following story: When he was a teenage boy, he used to earn pocket money by delivering papers. A few months ago, he contacted his old employer again in order to ask for a job for his younger cousin but all the papers were delivered by an adult Polish man now. Faisal was unhappy with this development which he found contributing to problems of young people with migrant backgrounds in London. For him immigration from Europe presented competition for limited access to jobs, education, public spaces and other opportunities, which should be open first and foremost to local youth. It is interesting how he negotiates personal experiences of racial discrimination and migration in his family with the right wing anti-immigration arguments he supports in the Brexit discussions. Faisal argues for example that EU law favours European immigrants over those from Britain´s former colonies and consequently is euro-centric and neo-colonial. When I met Faisal, a fervent supporter of “Out” before the 23rd of June, again some days later, he deeply regretted his own and his country’s vote, abashed by the racist violence springing up all over England.

A Majority for Remain

Next to the people presented above, who were following the political development with great interest, some interviewees were more on the surface or not so much concerned with the referendum. However, they also shared the opinion of the majority that the Vote to Leave would negatively affect Britain and especially immigrants and people with non-English heritage. They feared increasing racism and discrimination in public spaces and the job market.

Conclusion

All in all, the diverse approaches of my interviewees towards the questions on immigration raised by the Brexit campaign reflect their very different social attributes. Next to personal political opinion and the environment, age, gender, profession, length of stay in England and level of English determined their access to the discourse as well as their opinion. There was no general consensus but rather multiple, even opposing opinions shaped by own lived experiences as well as “greater narratives” promoted by politicians and media.

Emilia Henkel

Image 1: Jeremy Weate Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic

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