WITH the campaign now official under way, my first stop was at Glasgow University where student activists and a wide range of community campaigners came together to share their skills and experiences in responding to the refugee crisis.
Visiting refugee projects around the country has been a regular source of inspiration, seeing the work people are doing in communities large and small, in urban and rural Scotland, giving up their time, energy and money to reach out a hand of friendship.
That natural response, the empathy that people feel when we see another human being in crisis, is strong. We see it in everything from donating to a foodbank to people spending weeks away from home to provide emergency support in places like Calais and Lesbos. The thing I find most powerful is the fact that this natural human empathy remains so strong after years of vicious propaganda telling people to hate or fear immigrants and asylum seekers.
As a society we have been exposed to a relentless torrent of media messages, stereotypes and lies – and much the same from right-wing politicians too – seeking to stigmatise and dehumanise those who have managed to reach our shores. They want to stop people seeing them as human beings, each with a name, a face, a real life story. When we stop seeing others as human beings, terrible things become possible. This agenda has been far too powerful, and has allowed successive UK Governments to operate a brutal and humiliating asylum system. But it has still not overcome the basic empathy people feel, and when we act together to put a human face to the issue and to express our support for desperate people, we can make a real difference.
Just this week, when people stepped up to protect their friends and neighbours who faced the risk of detention or removal because of Kafkaesque bureaucracy or outright racism in the asylum system, we have seen how the collective voices of those who demand a humane response can at least force the UK Government to stop and think again. We can’t allow ourselves to feel all this is outwith our own control, even if the victories are limited. Scotland too, at national level, needs to assert the right to take responsibility and offer support to those who need it. Asylum and immigration powers are reserved to the UK Government and even on issues like post-study work visas, where there is strong political consensus, we’re still unable to make policy that’s right for Scotland. But housing, health, child protection, education, social care and justice are all devolved responsibilities, and it’s vital that we continue to assert our right as a society to ensure that everyone who calls Scotland home, for however long they are here, is able to access these basic necessities of life.
The housing of asylum seekers, farmed out to Serco by the UK Government five years ago, is to be reviewed later this year. In the wake of revelations about not only inferior and inadequate physical conditions but also racism and hostility encountered from housing providers, it’s essential that we demand a fundamental change. I see no reason why our social housing providers, voluntary sector, as well as national and local government shouldn’t work together to take on this responsibility and ensure that housing and other services are delivered to the standard we would expect for our own citizens.
And it’s not just about providing services either. Asylum seekers and refugees are strong, resilient people; they’ve had to be. They have a huge contribution to make to the life of our society, to our creativity, to our culture, to our entrepreneurialism, and of course to our food culture, which has been enriched by successive generations of new arrivals.
The humanitarian crisis we’ve seen in recent months and years is new to Europe’s shores, but has been growing for many years in our neighbouring countries. Now that we are faced with the challenge within Scotland, the UK and Europe, we must decide whether we will respond with that human empathy which is the natural response when we see other people as our equals, or whether we respond with fences, dogs and soulless bureaucracy.
Fundamentally, it’s time to reject the xenophobic rhetoric which tells us that to welcome refugees is to bear a burden. Nothing could be further from the truth. To be forced to flee your home, risk your life and your family’s lives, and seek a safe refuge in an unknown country – that is what bearing a burden looks like. To be in our position, able to offer refuge to people who are desperate is not a burden; it is a privilege. Scotland can be a welcoming nation.
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