Part of the Festival of Migration collection

About this event

Art27Scotland is bringing together a panel conversation on Migration and Brexit – and its impact on artists and communities with a special focus on Central and East European migration in Scotland. The panel discussion will explore the following themes: Place & Belonging Brexit and EU Migration Migrant host and encounters/relations Migrant city making ‘Economical migrant’ and stereotypes of migrant communities The ‘Boats’- the deliberate exclusion of the human and migration by the current government and media language. Speakers: – Alicja Kaczmarek – Director of Polish Expats Association cic – Centrala, Birmingham; – Dr Taulant Guma – Lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University – Dr Anna Gawlewicz – Lecturer in Public Policy and Research Methods at the University of Glasgow – Dr Sharon Wright is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Glasgow Alicja Kaczmarek – Director of Polish Expats Association – Centrala in Birmingham. Centrala was launched in 2012 and has established itself as a Nationally and Internationally recognised centre for Central and Eastern European Art and Artists. Centrala started in 2009 as a Voluntary Organisation and then registered as a Community Interest Company in 2012. It came as a response to the need of creating a space and offering support to the newly arrived European Migrant Communities. Dr Taulant Guma is a Lecturer in Human Geography at Edinburgh Napier University. His research interests lie in the field of migration studies where Taulant has more than 20 years research experiences involving various migrant groups in different parts of the UK, including Scotland. His longstanding work on EU migrants has explored a range of topics including Brexit and belonging, welfare and EU citizenship, transnational forms of healthcare, online networks and participation etc. More recently, Taulant completed an ESRC-funded research project investigating the use of temporary accommodation to house asylum seekers and refugees during the Covid-19 pandemic. This was a collaborative study with Migrants Organising for Rights and Empowerment (MORE), a grassroots migrant organisation, that led to the production of a research documentary, I’m Still Here, a film that uses asylum seekers’ visual diaries to capture their everyday life in Glasgow during the pandemic and under the ‘hostile environment’. Overall, Taulant’s work is underpinned by an ethnographic perspective and participatory methods that foreground migrants’ own views and everyday live experiences. Dr Anna Gawlewicz is Lecturer in Public Policy and Research Methods at the University of Glasgow. She researches migrant integration, responses to hostile immigration regimes, and how urban and rural communities are shaped by migration. Her current research looks at the health, social, economic, and cultural impacts of Covid-19 on Polish migrant essential workers. Dr Sharon Wright is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Glasgow. She researches migrant essential workers, Universal Credit, welfare conditionality and poverty. Her current research explores how the Covid-19 pandemic affected Polish essential workers in terms of health, finances, social and cultural factors.