At Calderdale Valley of Sanctuary our mission is to create a culture of welcome for refugees and people seeking asylum, making Calderdale a safe and inclusive place for all. As part of that mission, we have created ‘Refugee & Asylum Mythbuster’ wallet-sized cards which we see as “a pocket full of facts to challenge common misconceptions”.
When we first had the idea to make these cards, we didn’t know about the research which has shown that repeating falsehoods can end up strengthening them (thanks to Hannah Green from the City of Sanctuary UK team for alerting us to this research). By the time we found out about this research we had already printed our first batch of cards, so we decided to go ahead and use them but make sure we paired them with in-person conversations as much as possible.
One of our trustees, and their primary-school-aged-child, have been doing a fantastic job of distributing these cards and starting conversations around Halifax town centre, the Pellon area of central Halifax and the Lee Mount area of north Halifax, where they live. While Halifax town centre and Pellon are quite ethnically diverse, the Lee Mount area mostly comprises white British and British South Asian residents.
The cards were distributed in shops, restaurants, a boxing club, a cinema, a GP surgery, a church, a community radio station and a community kitchen. They were also given out to parents at a primary school and at a playground, as well as to taxi drivers.
The reception for these cards has been unanimously positive, with many recipients becoming visibly emotional, commenting that they had no idea about the situation people seeking sanctuary are in, expressing their intention to share this information with others and offering smiles and hugs to the people who were handing out the cards. Importantly, the two people who were handing out the cards shared that they never felt unsafe while having these interactions.
What we learned from this experience is that:
- most people have no idea about the conditions that people who seek asylum in the UK are forced to live in;
- most people genuinely want to learn more about this topic;
- most people are nice, empathic human beings! (Well, we knew this already, but it’s always good to have confirmation!)
We are now preparing to launch a new ‘Sanctuary Champions’ programme to equip more people in Calderdale with the knowledge and confidence to challenge misinformation. Want to join us? Email Blake for a chat with no strings attached!