This may be a fictional text, but the world it conjures feels perilously real. El Akkad, an Egyptian-Canadian novelist and journalist, takes readers on a boat journey across the Mediterranean that has become all too familiar in recent years. 

With a bit of a twist, we view this voyage through the eyes of Amir, a young Syrian boy, and Vänna, a teenage resident of the island he reaches. 

https://www.omarelakkad.com/

Short story: “The Wanderers” by Guadalupe Nettel. Translated by Sophie Hughes.

Nettel brings us this brief tale of two children growing up in Mexico, one of whom fled Uruguay with his family in the mid-seventies. Using beautiful imagery of bird life, she produces a lovely meditation on the nature of migration.

https://granta.com/the-wanderers/

Poem: home by Warsan Shire

Many of you will likely be familiar with these lines: “no one puts their children in a boat/unless the water is safer than the land”. It’s well worth reading the entire poem and, if you can get your hands on it, her 2011 collection Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth. The link we’ve provided gives a great brief biography of Shire and an interview extract in which she discusses her personal connection to her writing. 

https://www.facinghistory.org/standing-up-hatred-intolerance/warsan-shire-home

Article: “2021 in review: Migration and forced displacement” in The New Humanitarian

Since we’re still relatively new to 2022, this brief but comprehensive overview of migration-related trends and events for 2021 might be of interest! At the bottom of the page, you can find relevant articles that expand on topics mentioned throughout the article.

https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/feature/2021/12/22/2021-in-review-migration-and-forced-displacement

Children’s Book: My Name is not Refugee by Kate Milner

Something for the young ones! An accessible book to help you explain the idea of being a refugee to a young child. We have attached a YouTube link from The StoryTime Family for this one!

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/book/m/my-name-is-not-refugee/

Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9n1plse2K4

For those who requested a nonfiction book - this one’s for you! El-Enany tackles the mammoth subject of the British immigration system. In the words of reviewer Lisa Matthews, “El-Enany’s work goes beyond the oft-argued but not oft-accepted position that immigration control is implemented in a racist way, or that the policies of control such as detention and forced removal are racist. Instead, she sets out how immigration law itself is a means for the continuing assertion of British colonial power.”

Read more of the review here: https://righttoremain.org.uk/book-review-bordering-britain/ and consider attending this upcoming event featuring the author herself: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/bordering-britain-law-race-and-empire

Essay: "We Refugees" by Hannah Arendt

“We lost our home, which means the familiarity of daily life. We lost our occupation, which means the confidence that we are of some use in this world. We lost our language, which means the naturalness of reactions, the simplicity of gestures, the unaffected expression of feelings.”

Arendt’s essay asks: When you lose your family, home, employment, language and everything in between, what kind of identities are created? Read the full text here: https://www.jus.uio.no/smr/om/aktuelt/arrangementer/2015/arendt-we-refugees.pdf

Poem: My Brain is an Immigrant by Senait Hagose

Born from a Freedom from Torture writing group, this piece comments on the mindset of an asylum seeker. More here:  

https://www.freedomfromtorture.org/real-voices/six-refugee-poems-a-unique-insight-into-the-life-of-refugees-and-asylum-seekers

Article: “End the Tokenism. Give refugees a voice on our own futures” - Mustafa Alio and Rez Gardi in The New Humanitarian

I know our last article was also from the New Humanitarian, but I couldn’t resist including this piece for February’s edition! Alio and Gardi from Refugees Seeking Equal Access at the Table (R-SEAT) argue that refugee voices must be included in all conversations about the global refugee system. https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2021/12/15/give-refugees-a-voice-on-our-own-futures

Check out their work “Just Me and Allah: A Queer Muslim Photo Project” here: https://queermuslimproject.tumblr.com/

And here is a video of Habib speaking about the memoir at the Ottawa International Writers Festival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXE8K3Tf8fU

Nadia and Saeed are a new couple dealing with the pressures of living in an increasingly unstable country. As those around them begin to flee the danger, they start hearing of strange doors that lead to entirely different countries - portals that can instantly transport them anywhere from New York to Beijing. 

“Exit West” was a pleasure to read - accessibly written but still packing a punch. Recommended for anyone interested in reading a tale of migration mixed with a bit of otherworldliness. 

Read an interview with Hamid here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/11/mohsin-hamid-exit-west-interview

For April’s Read of the Month, we visit the work of female education activist Malala Yousafzai, the world’s youngest Nobel Prize laureate. In “We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World”, Yousafzai presents the tales of girls who have been displaced from their homes in Syria, Guatemala, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and others. Best placed for younger readers, the book is nonetheless a touching piece for those already familiar with its themes of migration, displacement, and what it means to be a refugee.

Malala’s tips for taking action:

“Acts of generosity both big and small make a difference and help the world heal from its wounds.”

If you would like further information about this, or any of our other programmes, please contact Najimee Parveen (najimee@pathscotland.org.uk or 0141 332 9477) or Tracey Young (tracey@pathscotland.org.uk or 07947 494070).

If you can’t get your hands on the book, here is a video of Caplan and others discussing his theories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0thLaWMhLmA