Urban citizenship and transcontinental lives: Crisis, connection and policy coherence through the lens of 'Somali Britain'

城市公民身份和跨大陆生活：“索马里英国”视角下的危机、联系和政策一致性

• 批准号: ES/X010848/1
• 负责人: Thomas Goodfellow
• 金额: $ 92.11万
• 依托单位: University of Sheffield
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FX010848%2F1
• 关键词: Urban; citizenship; transcontinental; lives; Crisis

Recent years have further revealed the depth of inequality in UK cities, including in relation to race and unequal access to the elusive identity of 'Britishness' in the context of polarized attitudes towards migration, asylum and the UK's imperial past. The experience of Somali diaspora - among the UK's most stigmatized and misunderstood but resourceful communities - throws these issues and the broader challenges of post-Brexit, pandemic Britain into sharp relief. The UK Somali experience sits at the intersection of local and global challenges in ways that are emblematic of contemporary questions of race, refuge and unequal citizenship in the context of problematic ideas of 'integration'. Moreover, the lives of UK Somali communities are often highly transcontinental, with patterns of investment and political engagement in the 'homeland', and the reality or aspiration of 'return', shaping their relationship with the UK and the British state. The Somali experience of life in UK cities is thus intimately connected to development processes in Somalia, and vice versa. Consequently we need to think about policy in more connected ways too, spanning the divides between local communities policy and international development policy. This project will analyse these intersections. It frames the British Somali experience of urban citizenship in relation to the varying 'faces' of Britain both locally and globally, through research in three very different cities that illustrate diverse aspects of the UK's urban political geography and have different roles in Somali migration histories: Sheffield, Bristol and London borough of Camden. This is supplemented by research with returnees and transcontinental communities in Somalia/Somaliland. It combines an interdisciplinary approach drawing across urban studies and development studies with a collaborative, partnership-based design, drawing in civil society partners including the Refugee Council, City of Sanctuary, the Council of Somali Organizations and local Somali community-based organizations in all three cities. The research aims to explore: i) the experiences of multigenerational Somali communities in UK cities in terms of exclusion, representation, service access, aspirations and inter-community engagement; ii) how this relates to changing transcontinental networks and developments in Somalia; iii) how UK policy both globally and locally feeds into the Somali diasporic experience and capacity to manage recurrent crises; and iv) how a better understanding of these dynamics could foster enhanced urban citizenship and solidarity, and improved policy across a range of domains.Through engaging local and national partners and government at different scales, the project will generate new avenues of cross-sectoral dialogue, practitioner guidance and opportunities for research-led civil society activism. Moreover, as Somali refugees were the first significant incoming refugee group in the post Cold-War era, a long-term view on their experiences holds important lessons for present and future refugee experiences. The project will therefore put the research findings relating to the experience of Somali diaspora in conversation with the needs of more recent refugee arrivals, taken forward through project partnerships with the Refugee Council and City of Sanctuary.The overarching vision of this project is to deepen knowledge on the interdependence of global and local challenges through this focus on the urban experience of multigenerational Somali refugee diaspora, in order both to build inter-community solidarity and contribute to improved coherence across relevant policy domains. It offers fresh lenses on interconnected problems through a transcontinental research programme involving sustained inter-sectoral modalities of working, novel forms of multi-sited and interdisciplinary research, and a collaborative plan for impact and knowledge exchange predicated on deep community engagement.

近年来，在英国城市的不平等深度，包括与种族有关，并在对移民，庇护和英国帝国过去的两极分化态度的背景下无法获得“英国性”的难以捉摸的身份。索马里侨民的经验 - 在英国最受污名和误解但足智多谋的社区中，派出了这些问题，并带来了脱欧后，流行英国的更广泛的挑战。英国索马里的经验以象征当代种族，庇护和不平等公民身份的当地和全球挑战的交汇处，在“整合”问题的背景下。此外，英国索马里社区的生活通常是高度跨大陆的，在“国土”中的投资和政治参与方式以及“返回”的现实​​或愿望，塑造了他们与英国和英国国家的关系。因此，英国城市的索马里生活经验与索马里的发展过程密切相关，反之亦然。因此，我们也需要以更具联系的方式来考虑政策，涵盖当地社区政策与国际发展政策之间的分歧。该项目将分析这些交叉点。它通过在三个截然不同的城市中进行研究，构成了英国索马里城市公民身份的经验，这些城市在本地和全球范围内的各种“面孔”，这些城市说明了英国城市政治地理的各个方面，并且在索马里移民历史中具有不同的作用：谢菲尔德，布里斯托尔和卡姆登的伦敦自治市镇。这是由索马里/索马里兰的返回者和洲际社区的研究补充。它结合了跨城市研究和发展研究的跨学科方法，以及基于合作伙伴关系的设计，在民间社会合作伙伴中绘制了包括难民委员会，圣所，索马里组织委员会，索马里组织委员会和当地的索马里社区组织。城市。该研究的目的是探索：i）英国城市多代索马里社区在排除，代表，服务访问，愿望和社区间参与方面的经历； ii）这与索马里的改变洲际网络和发展有何关系； iii）英国在全球范围内和当地政策如何融入索马里流散的经验和管理反复危机的能力； iv）如何​​更好地理解这些动态可以增强城市公民身份和团结，并改善各个领域的政策。通过以不同的规模参与本地和国家合作伙伴和政府，该项目将产生跨部门对话的新途径，从业者指导和研究主导的民间社会行动主义的机会。此外，由于索马里难民是冷战后时代第一个重要的难民团体，因此对他们的经验的长期观点是目前和未来的难民经历的重要教训。因此，该项目将使与索马里侨民的经验有关的研究结果与最新的难民到达的需求进行对话，这是通过与难民委员会和庇护所的项目合作伙伴关系来实现的。该项目的总体愿景是为了加深知识。关于全球和地方挑战的相互依存，通过关注多代索马里难民侨民的城市经验，以建立社区间的团结，并有助于改善相关政策领域的连贯性。它通过一项跨大陆研究计划提供有关互连问题的新鲜镜头，该计划涉及持续的工作组间形式，新型的多人和跨学科研究形式，以及针对深度社区参与的影响和知识交流的协作计划。