Background
Housing has always had a close association with refugees and the settlement of refugees is, at its core, a housing issue. Refugees move from their home, perhaps through other places, to finally arrive in a nation-state which provides them with security of status and the promise of assistance to continue their lives. At the foundation of this promise of refuge is the provision of a safe and secure home. Yet refugees tend to experience the worst housing outcomes out of any migrant group.
There are two main routes to acquiring refugee status in the UK: one is arriving via a government-organised resettlement scheme such as the 2022 Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme or the resettlement programme for refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s. The other is travelling to the UK on your own initiative and claiming asylum once you are in the country. Either route brings with it a very different experience for people settling and rebuilding their lives in the UK, as the stories and experiences we were told show.
The title of this Interactive Documentary, Homeward Bound, might initially evoke a sense of moving ahead despite adversity and forming a new home in a new country, or indeed it might evoke a sense of return to a reformed home in exile. For us it speaks to the recognition that refugees are often caught in a position of ‘two-ness’ where they attempt to reconcile or assimilate the opposing forces of their exile experience. Despite leaving their home under the worst of circumstances they are often attempting to forge ahead and remake home in their new countries. However, at the same time they often face restrictions and barriers in their new place and are such ‘bound’ by the situation they find themselves in and freedom they are afforded. It is at this intersection that this documentary was created.
This interactive documentary has been produced with the financial support of the European Union Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund. The contents of this are the sole responsibility of the creators, and in no way reflect the views of the funder, the European Commission or the United Kingdom Responsible Authority (UKRA). Neither the European Commission nor UKRA is liable for any use that may be made of the information in this interactive documentary.
Credits
| Director | Matthias Kispert |
| Camera, edit, sound | Matthias Kispert |
| Music | Bashar Alhana, Raghad Haddad, Maryhill Integration Network’s Joyous Choir, Pablo Rodriguez |
| Design | Matthias Kispert, Oscar Cass-Darweish |
| Web Development | Oscar Cass-Darweish |
| Research | Philip Brown, Santokh Gill, Jamie P. Halsall, Akosiwa Agbokou, Sameerah Mahmood |
| Participants |
| Akosiwa Agbokou (Migration Yorkshire), Dave Brown (Migration Yorkshire), Diane, Katie Fawcett (NACCOM), Fatima, Grace, Neal Heard (Abigail Housing), Tom Macpherson (NACCOM), Mohammad, Najat, Najma, Dasha Pluto, Rosemary, Hossain Saeedi, Samuel, Nick Scott-Flynn (Scott-Flynn Consultants), Riad & Asima Terzic, Bridget Young (NACCOM), Yvonne Some names of participants have been changed at their request. |