Relationships with Local Residents — Antagonism, Racism and Belonging

Abstract

Research has found that public attitudes in the UK towards asylum-seekers and refugees are characterized by ambivalence and can include open hostility (Kushner, 2006; Lewis, 2005, 2006). More worryingly, many refugees and asylum-seekers in the UK have experienced discrimination or harassment (Bowes, Ferguson & Sim, 2009; Mulvey, 2011), including some high-profile murders, such as that of Firsat Dag in Glasgow in 2001 (Coole, 2002). However, there have also been instances where members of the local community have come together with asylum-seekers and refugees and advocated on their behalves (Bates & Kirkwood, 2013). As reflected in the quote above from Valentino Achak Deng, a refugee from Sudan, those fleeing persecution would hope to find peace and happiness in their place of asylum. So what do our interviewees have to say about relations between asylum-seekers, refugees and local residents?

We expected a land without war and, I suppose, a land without misery.

(Eggers, 2006, p. 13)