Refugee Wales: The Afterlife of Violence

Context

How does the experience of violent civil war affect refugees who are forced to leave their homes and to establish a new life in very different society? How does such experience change people's sense of who they are and where they belong? How do they cope with the processes of adapting to a new environment and eventually becoming citizens of their new country? How does this experience become part of family memory across generations? These are some of the questions that researchers from Cardiff University and the National Museum of Wales will explore by working with refugees at different stages of assimilation in Wales. We begin with the hypothesis that memories of the past shape identity and ask how refugees, traumatised by war and flight and who apply for asylum are affected by this experience. We look at how their sense of who they are is changed by new realities, new experiences, and new places. We compare and contrast the life stories of Sri Lankan Tamils, who arrived as refugees since the 1980s and now include second and third generations, with recent Syrian refugees in order to understand the challenges that they face and the transformations of identities from refugee to citizen. Using in-depth life story interviews and participatory workshops, we analyse memories of war, flight, asylum-seeking and settlement in Wales, looking at how these remembered experiences affect integration.

We draw on trauma, memory, refugee and diaspora studies and use oral history, textual analysis, and creative participatory workshops as our main research tools. We explore how oral history might intersect with trauma and memory methodologies to enable traumatised interviewees to develop a sense of agency. We explore how trauma and memory studies, which are Euro-American in origin, need to be nuanced when used with non-European subjects. We work collaboratively with refugees on creative projects that draw on the life stories and make issues accessible to a wider public including schools, government agencies and third sector organisations

Aims and Objectives
We aim to produce and disseminate knowledge relevant to 4 groups: the project participants, refugee communities, educational institutions, museum publics, and government, policy and third sector organisations. The project will address:
1. How refugees remember and remake their identities and sense of agency, previously formed by the experience of their countries of origin, in their new country.
2. How experiences are passed on across generations via family and community memories.
3. How knowledge of refugee subjectivity might enable refugees to be better valued by the host society which, in turn, might impact on refugee self-identities and coping strategies.
4. How creative research-based activities can be used to disturb the power relationships between researchers and subjects and empower the latter.
5. How the project might enable refugees, institutions and the broader host society, to learn from refugee experiences of trauma and memory and how to reach a better mutual understanding of refugee-host society relationships and integration.
6. How learning from refugee experiences can help Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales (AC-NMW) and other similar institutions become more aware of and sensitive to refugee histories and improve the inclusivity and diversity of their public programming and collecting?

Potential Application and Benefits

The project will contribute to the National Museum's oral history collection, helping to document life in Wales as a diverse country. We will produce an archive of data on the subjective experience of refugees for use by researchers, teachers, third-sector workers, and policy makers; a range of scholarly books and articles; a permanent oral history archive of the communities studied.

"Refugee Wales" has three aims: to give voice and space to refugees to articulate their changing experience or war, flight and integration into a new society; to nuance and expand trauma and memory studies by including non-Western subjects of trauma; and to produce knowledge that will contribute to better public understanding and policymaking and practice as regards refugee experience. Our project's combination of these aspects will have a strong cultural and social impact and provide a new model of the sort of research that can be conducted with the active joint participation of refugee communities, academics, museum professionals and third sector workers.

Who will benefit?
The following stand to benefit:
1. In Wales, users and future users of AC-NMW, teachers and social workers, policy makers, and third sector refugee charities (such as Diverse Cymru and Oasis).
2. Refugee communities participating in the engagement and impact activities (short plays and digital story-telling).

Both the Charities and the specific Refugee communities will be part of the Advisory Committee.

How will they benefit?
Individuals and communities: The Syrian community and Sri Lankan Tamils in Wales are likely to find the experience of actively participating in oral history empowering because it will break down barriers between refugees and experts and move them from object to subject status. Specifically, this project aims to provide participants with a voice with which to express their unrecorded history and give validation to their struggle and loss. The plays and the vox pop will allow them to define their own experience for wider audiences.
The linking of research between these two communities will give insights into strategies of resilience of benefit to all refugee communities as well as other end users. Outputs in the form of filmed short plays, vox pop and the archived oral histories interviews and transcripts will act as a permanent legacy to be used by scholars and refugee communities, the third sector and educational and welfare institutions. These outputs will give the communities involved a sense of being heard and a validation, which our previous project Migrant Memories indicates does not otherwise occur.
Third Sector beneficiaries: The creative process through which refugee stories are transformed into plays will enable Third Sector beneficiaries to gain additional insight into the lived realities of the refugee communities. Third sector organisations (Diverse Cymru and Oasis) will be part of the advisory committee. Our research and findings will be shared with them through our summary briefings. We intend our research findings to be useful in future government and Third Sector practices with refugees. By promoting a more nuanced understanding of refugee lives and affect, the project will invite critical reflection on organisations' practices and roles.
Policy: The findings of the research will be widely shared with policymakers in the Welsh Government and beyond through blogs, briefings, a final Network Assembly, and a project website. The Network Assembly will have focused discussions on practices of meeting refugee needs and the exchange of insights between all stakeholders.
Public: All engagement events will be open to the public and publicised through AC-NMW, social media and other fora. The aim of this project is to foster debate and increased participation with the public.
Summary of Impact
1. Facilitate greater public and policy understanding of refugee experience and refugee resilience.
2. Empower refugees as active participants in a project which will give them a voice and a platform for their stories.
3. Ensure wide dissemination of our research findings.
4. Build an archive which will be an important resource for all stakeholders.
5. Inform museum practice as regards minorities.
6. Leave a legacy of artistic projects for schools, third sector organisations and community group