Scottish Refugee Festival all about creating hope and communities

The National

22-06-2025

I don't know what your week has been like but mine has been a ­dizzying, joyous feast and a heartsore agony of helplessness at one and the same time. In between, the constant struggle to hold back the gaslighting tides of propaganda, lies, and fake news, and always more bodies piling up as a result of Israel's genocidal campaign against the Palestinian ­people.
In between, a reaching out to terrified friends and students and ­colleagues in the illegally occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, in the ­Palestinian, Iranian and Israeli ­diaspora all horrified, isolated, and incandescent at the actions of the ­Israeli government, and the inaction of the UK.
Were the international order ­functioning in any way shape or form, those residing in Gaza would have long since been offered ­international protection and humanitarian assistance, according to the conventions signed by states.
But the international order has been shredded by Israel and the ­United States, and sadly also the UK, over the last months and is now a ­gaping, agonised wound into which the salt of helplessness is rubbed every day.
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Israel, with American and now G7 collusion, can bomb who it likes, when it likes, however often it likes, can create mass evacuations on the whim of a social media post, and can bomb hospitals, civilians, schools with utter impunity. Diplomacy is flaccid.
Human rights defenders and ­humanitarians are breaking down in tears unable to take any more.
Palestinians in Gaza exist in a state of what the philosopher, Agamben, terms 'bare life' – clinging on to basic existence. Our work has become palliative over these many months.
When the internet was cut, to these refugees, our ways of ­palliating were also removed from us. We were ­unable to care for those under a mass death sentence. The mass ­movement of goodwill is basically helpless, ­angry, grief-stricken, broken and ­defeated, waiting, indeed, as TS Eliot said, without hope. And yet, someone, also carrying on and a carrier of joy, showing us how we might live and thrive, not so much in hope, but in refusal of despair.
Refugee Festival, ­incorporating World Refugee Day worldwide, ­offers a space for an extraordinary ­demonstrate of how we can have life in all its fullness, despite the ­calculated criminal cruelty.
It's not glossy, or expensive, but it is glamorous, defiant, confident and insistently alive.
Refugee Festival Scotland this year is celebrating many milestones, from the 40th anniversary of the Scottish Refugee Council to 25 years of the festival itself.
Down south, the theme for the ­Refugee Week is 'community as a superpower'.
I've certainly felt as though I've been plugged into the life force by communities coming together this week. Here's a small sample from my festival so far.
On Wednesday last week, I was one of the judges awarding ­prizes in the Refugee Media Awards. It was ­brilliant to see Hamish ­Morrison, from The National, ­receiving an award for his news ­feature on the ­experience of racism of a ­Glasgow ­resident and the flashbacks.
But perhaps even more edifying was the award of the independent journalism, won by refugees who seem to ­embody superpowers for ­communities, from the runners up – Tabassum Niamat and Pinar Aksu, Greater Govanhill: 'These Are Our Neighbours': Three Years On From Kenmure Street, What's Changed? – to the worthy winner, Sadia Sikandar, Greater Govanhill: Facing Hatred With Hope – whose exhibition has been on all week at the Gallery Of Modern Art and also at Refuweegee.
Tabassum Niamat
Sadia SikandarIt's this independent journalism that has bravely ensured accurate reporting and grassroots responses worldwide, against censorship and is paving the way for responsible reporting in Scotland too, as our mainstream and legacy media appear increasingly wobbly when it comes to responsible journalism, with and about refugees.
And that was all before Refugee ­Festival even began, officially. On Friday, the Unesco RIELA team at the University of Glasgow ­embodied the values of Glasgow as a Unesco ­Learning City and brought the ­rituals of the Eritrean Coffee Ceremony to an open circle of around 150 ­people over the day, introducing the peace-making principle for families and communities who live in the rhythms of this beautiful mode of coffee-making.
Glasgow was unveiled as a ­Unesco Learning City in December 2024 in recognition of outstanding achievements in lifelong learning. The only city in Scotland bestowed this ­honour to date.
The ceremony was a model of ­life-long learning in the Byres Community Hub at the University of ­Glasgow – everyone sharing and learning from stories and languages, embodying the principles of the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy. In the circle were, it seemed, all the ­languages, and all the courage, and all the ways of tea and coffee ­drinking in the world – from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ukraine, Zimbabwe, Italy, China, Iraq, Yemen, Germany.
From there, smelling of coffee and incense, to the festival launch, with Equalities Minister Kaukab ­Stewart, which saw the opening of Syeda ­Sadaf Zaidi's Live In Art exhibition of artwork at the Centre for Contemporary Art, a ­curation of care and compassion, of beauty and possibility with art-work from Ukraine, Iran, Vietnam, ­Colombia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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Seeing refugee artists ­carrying ­bouquets of flowers, full of ­appropriate pride in establishing their work, after rupture, was not for the faint hearted and many a tear was shed in gladness and enduring struggle.
The commitment from the ­minister for £500,000 in funding for ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) is vital and will contribute to the work of integration for all. ESOL is a ­superpower in communities and without it, nothing works efficiently or well for those granted protection.
Community, as an ­intercultural ­superpower, was on display in ­Wellington Crypt and the New Scots Advisers, those who sit in the New Scots Core Group, with the Scottish Refugee Council, Scottish Government and Cosla partnership, to support the accountability for delivery of the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy.
We were treated to a fashion show, music, mint tea, dates, a BBQ, young and old, from adopted grannies to community gardeners, chefs and so much learning. Everyone bursting to tell about the things of their lives and culture that astonish, delight and bring us together.
I sat with a professional woman, with barely any English, living in an English-speaking country because of a mass evacuation was never in her life plan. She was formerly employed in a university, and as we stutter back and forth in the Ukrainian I don't have, and the English she doesn't have, we smile and nod our way to slow understanding.
She used the photos on her phone to tell me of her passions, teaching student music, and then she burst into song – her superpower – and goosebumps abounded.
"As welfare services struggle to respond to the challenges confronting refugees in terms of housing needs, potential destitution, racial discrimination and health inequalities, it is important to recognise how people might be sustained by mobilising community resources grounded in the arts, theatre, music, dance, food, faith groups, sports, and related activities,' says my colleague Professor Deirdre Ford.
'The path to integration is not easy,' says Doha Tahri, one of the New Scots Advisers. 'With courage and collaboration we can all have the chance to call Scotland home, ­changing the narrative about what it means to belong.'
'This is what we are wearing ­today,' says a woman, glittering and hennaed and defiant. 'This is ­Sudan.'
Sudan is, of course, a global ­catastrophe. It is the world's ­largest refugee displacement and on the brink of war-induced starvation. But it is also 'this' – a woman who lives on, lives in and lives with communities as superpowers, bringing hers – like a cape – to the glorious mix.
No wonder, on his visit to ­Scotland, the United Nations High ­Commissioner for ­Refugees, ­Filippio Grande 'came back ­glowing', and seeing Scotland as the ­antidote to ­hostility, as the UNHCR ­representative Lary Bottinick said at the Refugee Media Awards.
There is, of course, a raffle. There has to be a raffle. It's a strange one though, as we aren't allowed to buy tickets. So this a New Scots raffle. A Moroccan dress is the prize – green and silver and bejewelled.
'I'll make sure it's your size,' laughs our host, Tahri, mischievously, to all the women. The ­dignity of hosting, of amending the raffle rules in favour of generosity and ­absolute inclusion, a way of teaching us in communities that generosity can be our superpower too, and that we can share in it at every milestone and against despair.
Alison Phipps is Unesco Chair for Refugee Integration through Education, Languages and Arts at the University of Glasgow