We recently held two project workshops: one in Birmingham and the other in London. These were designed as opportunities to thank the participants for their contribution, to disseminate the data to participants, and to share the key themes that emerged from the analysis. The focus was also on policy recommendations – the workshops gave us an opportunity to reflect collectively on the issues we want to pursue with those who might be able to make a difference, particularly at the local level. The Birmingham workshop was held in October 2019, and the London workshop took place in January 2020.
Smethwick, Birmingham
The Birmingham workshop was attended by participants from the dyad interviews, the interviewees over 60 with whom we conducted the narrative interviews, and civil society members including local activists. The workshop was held at the Community Connect Foundation where we carried out the majority of the interviews. It was an engaging discussion where we covered a variety of themes. These included discrimination in education and employment, shifting generational attitudes, the maintaining of the Bengali language, issues around gender, the Prevent strategy, Islamophobia and racism.
Introducing the project again and the key findings
We had a very stimulating discussion around the last three themes in particular. Many felt the vilification of Muslims in Birmingham during the Trojan Horse Affair and Operation Champion has left the community feeling vulnerable. The continuous representation of Muslims as a ‘threat’ locally and nationally was something many spoke about passionately. There was also a particularly animated conversation around the hijab and how the community felt women were still being treated as people who needed or required ‘saving’.
Discrimination in education and employment were considered issues that required a more rigorous response from the community alongside the council. Many expressed their frustration that so many young Bangladeshis were attending Russell Group Universities but were unable to access the best jobs. Civil society members in the audience spoke about the need to galvanize as a community and build up networks to help young people tackle discrimination in the job market after university.
A theme that emerged from the Birmingham data was that of ‘protective transnationalism’. Data suggested that a particularly ‘hostile environment’ in the UK was altering some people’s relationships to the subcontinent, incentivising investment in land and property in Bangladesh. The interviews in Birmingham took place after the EU Referendum (Brexit), which we argue triggered the presence of this theme in our work. Many of the respondents spoke about how they would consider moving to Bangladesh permanently if racism and Islamophobia increased in the UK; thus, feelings of safety and security were of grave concern. Here local experiences of citizenship seemed to be having an effect on transnational practice.
Dr. Victoria Redclift and Dr. Fatima Rajina
Tower Hamlets, London
In Tower Hamlets, London, the audience was made up of the research participants as well as local politicians, activists and researchers. The workshop took place at the London Bangla Press Club. The key themes that emerged from the analysis of the Tower Hamlets data in relation to experiences of citizenship included: discrimination in employment, discrimination in education, housing, local resources (lack thereof), and the Prevent Strategy was a prevalent theme.
Workshop held at the London Bangla Press Club
A local politician audience member noted how some of the issues reflected not a legal barrier to equality in education or employment but a lack of understanding of public sector duties under the Equalities Act. He also mentioned that this political barrier was in part a product of the fact that talking about racial and religious discrimination has come to be framed as ‘communal politics’ rather than ‘community politics’.
Another local politician in attendance raised concerns around political power and representation and how young people are engaged with the issues and themes we raised during the discussion. The conversation around ‘protective transnationalism’ was lively. Many had different perspectives as to why it was not as prominent a feature in our Tower Hamlets data as it had been in Birmingham and Luton. Several suggestions were made, and one of those was from another local politician who suggested that Tower Hamlets was such a large and settled community that the kind of insecurity that might prompt a renewed interest in land and property in Bangladesh were less likely to occur. Others felt that ‘protective transnationalism’ might be more emotional than it is practical; it might be more of an emotional response to the discrimination the individuals have encountered, and therefore have value as an fictive back-up plan, rather than a real one.
Discussion around the lack of funding available for ESOL classes in Tower Hamlets
There was an animated discussion about the decline of the restaurant business and the strategies local restaurants were adopting to diversify and adapt to current challenges. One female member of the audience commented on her own growing feelings of insecurity in the wake of Boris Johnson’s Islamophobic slurs and felt that Tower Hamlets was becoming less safe.
Research participants and local activists, researchers, and politicians
Conclusion
Both workshops provided us with helpful thoughts and ideas which will focus our engagement with policy-makers. We are planning a round-table event with policy-makers in June where we will explore some of these issues further.