Blog

As I write, it’s exactly a year since our new Syrian residents arrived here on the Isle of Bute. The families celebrated the anniversary by cooking a fabulous lunch for everyone who has been involved in helping them settle, both statutory agencies and volunteers.  

The first 10 families were followed in February by 5 more and recently some relatives have been able to join their families under the reunification programme.   

I’m one of the volunteers who have sought to support our new residents.  It’s been a fascinating and at times challenging experience.  There was a huge response to Argyll & Bute Council’s appeal for volunteers.  We were asked to staff a pop-up community centre where the families could meet each other and be contacted by the various supporting agencies.  St Andrews RC church here in Rothesay offered the use of their hall. This proved invaluable as a meeting place and for the distribution of the generous donations which flooded in.   

The experience has been and continues to be a big learning curve for the statutory agencies and for the volunteers.  Intent on preparing as best we could by learning about the culture of the Syrians, we quickly realised - what is obvious when you think about it -  that our new arrivals did not constitute a homogeneous group. Encouraged not to offer a handshake to the men for example, we found that some cheerfully offered their hand.  On matters religious, some are more secular, some more observing.  

A few arrived with good English, some with a little, most with none at all.  What a challenge when you need to learn even the alphabet!   I found it hard to see someone who had run a business in his own country struggling to write his name in an unfamiliar alphabet and working across the page from left to right.  

   
We could only surmise what horrors they might have experienced.  Some have spoken about it, some not.  What we can know both from the news and from their own accounts is that they live with constant worry about the fate of those left behind.  But there is good news too.  Already four babies have been born to the families, a wonderful sign of new life.   One father proudly declared that his baby daughter was a Scottish Syrian.  

Most are settling remarkably well, one or two in employment, some in training and some volunteering for community projects.  Some families, inevitably, have struggled.   So too have the volunteers at times!  On an island such as ours, there isn’t an existing refugee support organisation so our volunteers are gathered from scratch without the framework of an existing agency.  

Communication is an ongoing challenge, even with improving language skills.   After the drop-in centre closed, some of us have continued working with the families, particularly in the area of language support and befriending.  Currently a new cohort of volunteers is being trained.  

The local community has been welcoming on the whole but there have been some instances of hostility.  It is easy to criticise those we may be tempted to label as racist or xenophobic.  What this experience has taught me is that so-called ‘liberal’ attitudes and indeed a Christian theology of inclusiveness should not preclude an honest acknowledgement of the challenges that being ‘inclusive’ brings.  If we are not able to say ‘this is difficult’ or ‘I don’t agree with such and such a cultural practice’, then either we retreat from debate or we speak in bland terms that slide over the real challenges of cultural diversity.  
 

Justice is sweet and musical; but injustice is harsh and discordant (Henry David Thoreau).

For over fifty years I have held the view that music has the potential to deepen knowledge and understanding of social justice.

On my first CD, A Long Way from Home (2005) there is a range of materials drawn from my work and experience in the field of using music to enhance the learning experience of pupils. From my research and practice I found that themes such as the Civil Rights movement in America can be brought alive through the medium of music. 

Many pupils find melody, rhythm and lyrics just the sort of mix to provide them with a gateway to understanding such topics more fully and deeply. Both students and teachers have told me that songs related to issues studied in class have enhanced the learning experience for pupils. 

Songs from that CD include A Long Way from Home about the experience of asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants in their new home of Glasgow. A song called Leave This City Behind addresses the issues of vandalism, graffiti, and violence. It has been used by schools studying the novel Divided City in conjunction with local art projects to discourage anti-social behaviour.

I have songs about past and present activists, such as Rosa Parks whose actions  led to a turning point in American civil rights : Montgomery, Alabama (1955)  - see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKRbBWuPpxQ. This song has been used by a number of teachers during human rights week when pupils were involved in making posters, and creating drama activities, silent protests, music and debating. The School of Education in the University of Glasgow and in a number of primary and secondary schools throughout Scotland have also used  this song as have Howard University in Washington, D.C. in its Black History course.

Rosa Parks being fingerprinted after being arrested for boycotting

In order to inform and develop attitudes about Myanmar activist Aung San Suu Kyi and the political situation in Burma, I used my composition The Jasmine Lady from the album Green Light To Freedom:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saHUGROCSyU

And What did we ever learn from History?  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z49ZIjzgY7Q  -  is a song concerned with a range of issues, such as women’s right to vote and racism. It asks what have we learned from groups like the suffragettes and people like Martin Luther King. 

I have found that the medium of music acts as a powerful stimulus to social conscience in students, as well as deeper understanding of the issues and the development of attitudes and values. 

I have observed from the enthusiastic reaction of pupils that when I have the confidence to share the products of my own musical creativity, this motivates them to be more confident in their own creativity. They are enabled to share their poetry, lyrics, compositions, artwork and other examples of creativeness with me and their peers. 

To promote independent learning and self-directed study, I have given responsibility for the learning to individuals and it was their remit to create a series of visuals to accompany the songs. The result was most encouraging and facilitated discussion and debate around concepts such as freedom, democracy and human rights. The pupils said they enjoyed and benefitted from having ownership of the topic and that their intrinsic motivation was inextricably linked to the extrinsic motivation provided by the finished product and the peer assessment of that product. 

I am sure that music has the potential to deepen knowledge and understanding of a variety of topics, as well developing attitudes related to social justice in an engaging, imaginative and intrinsically motivating way.

The photo shows Justice and Peace activists at Dungavel

Once it was a hunting lodge and summer retreat for the Dukes of Hamilton and then the 13^th Duke’s home. After the Second World War, the South Lanarkshire building took on less glamorous roles. It was sold on, first to the National Coal Board before the government took it over as an open prison.

Then in 2001, Dungavel House opened as a detention centre for up to 249 asylum seekers whose applications had been turned down. Shortly before the first detainees were taken there, a community activist in Irvine heard that children's toilets were being installed. It was realised that this information could only mean one thing – children were among those who would be incarcerated there.

Reaction was immediate: a meeting was arranged in Irvine and the Bishop of Galloway asked the Justice & Peace coordinator to attend and keep him informed of the situation. This led to Justice and Peace activists, primarily from Lanarkshire and Stirlingshire, becoming involved in what became a long-running protest campaign.

Vigils were held, with campaigners gathering outside Dungavel Removal Centre. Over the years, they kept up their peaceful protest as mothers, babies and young children were held there, sometimes for over a year, before being deported.

The group in Ayrshire became known as FREA (Friends of Refugees Ayrshire). They were given names of people who were detained and were able to go and visit them. Once we had visited, we gathered the names of others who were detained.

It was a harsh system. Detainees received £1 per week to buy personal items and make phone calls to their lawyers. Through the generosity of friends we were able to buy them phone cards and we became go-betweens when people wanted to speak to a lawyer.

As protesters, we saw the site racist and inhumane and lost no opportunity to say so..

We campaigned for the provision of schooling and got the EIS (Education Institute of Scotland) involved. We were also were lucky that one of our main supporters was Linda Fabiani, a local MSP. Support also came from the Bishops of Motherwell and Galloway and of a group of lawyers in Glasgow.

Asylum and immigration are matters reserved to the UK parliament, and so the detention centre has been a preserve of the Westminster Government. 

That isn’t to say that official voices north of the border have not been raised. The Children’s Commissioner for Scotland called Dungavel  "morally upsetting" and threatened to report the situation to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. The SNP Government protested that such a place existed in Scotland, but did not have the power to close it down.

We hoped to stop children being detained, but our protests only resulted in families being taken to England. The Coalition Government established after the 2010 election announced it would end the detention of children under 18 at Dungavel. In September of this year, the Home Office said that the centre would close this year..

The follow-up plan is to build a short-term 51-bed holding facility at Glasgow airport. Most ‘removals’, as Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill calls the expulsion of asylum seekers whose applications are turned down, leave from London airports. This new facility would cost less and provide ‘easy access’ to London.

Renfrewshire Council has refused planning permission but I have no doubts that the Westminster Government will appeal and try to push through the plan.

Like the Scottish Government’s Communities Secretary Angela Constance, I fear this new centre would make it more difficult for asylum seekers to pursue their cases, and the stress would impact on their mental health.

The journey since 2001 has been difficult. I am of course happy that Dungavel is to close. But moving the problem to a soulless concrete building at the airport, which supporters will find difficult to access, is not a welcome alternative.

The hardening of hearts against refugees and asylum seekers gives us little cause for hope, but our prayers continue to be with the asylum seekers and we remain proud of our history of protest