Guest blog by Judith Robertson, Chair of Scottish Refugee Council from 2005 – 2015
I joined Scottish Refugee Council’s board ten years ago, not long after the programme to disperse asylum seekers to Glasgow began. At the time I was working as the Scottish manager of Oxfam’s UK Poverty Programme which was focused on tackling the burning issues around poverty in Glasgow.
In the early days of dispersal there was a sense that service providers in Glasgow were struggling to cope with meeting the needs of people recently arrived in the city, and generally coming to terms with the dispersal agreement. There were very few organisations in Scotland working with asylum seekers at that time and there was also a lack of public information about refugee issues and a fairly negative and hostile media response.
A lot has changed over the last ten years. Most impressive is the degree to which Glasgow City Council and services across the city have responded to meeting the needs of people seeking asylum here. It’s by no means a perfect response or perfect level of provision, but the quality and level of support has improved dramatically. A real effort has been made to understand the experiences of people seeking asylum here and to meet people’s needs and recognise the many challenges they face.
So there has been a real shift over the years. Services across the city, including Scottish Refugee Council, have ramped up provision so people are now able to receive integrated support that is sustained over time. Unfortunately we are now seeing this being eroded due to the impact of government cuts, policy changes and hostility around immigration more broadly.
I’m proud that Scottish Refugee Council has stuck to its goals and vision for a fair and just asylum system over the course of the last thirty years and consistently defended people’s right to protection.
Integration from day one
SRC supported the Scottish Government to take this positive approach to support people seeking sanctuary to integrate in Scotland from the first day of arrival here. This, cemented in the Scottish Government’s New Scots integration strategy, allows us to advocate for people’s rights at all stages of the asylum process
Other key achievements include developing Refugee Week Scotland into a major cultural event that celebrates the contribution refugees make to Scotland’s communities.
The Refugee Week Scotland media awards have had real traction in Scotland and do much to motivate journalists to look at refugee stories in greater depth and with a different eye. Partly as a result of this work we have seen a significant change in the media narrative in Scotland. Media coverage sets the tone for much of the debate around refugee issues and we need to work hard to continue to hold this line. Positive coverage of refugee stories shifts the dynamic, people feel less scared of each other and communities become more inclusive. But we can’t be complacent, progress made can be reversed so we need to maintain vigilance to make sure this does not slip.
Being a member of Scottish Refugee Council’s board for ten years I’ve seen first-hand the sustained commitment of SRC staff and volunteers, who are without doubt the organisation’s best resource. Scottish Refugee Council draws people to it and these people are what give SRC its strength. I am proud to have been part of Scottish Refugee Council’s journey over the last ten years and wish the organisation all the best for the future.
