Looking to London: Stories of War, Escape and Asylum, by Cynthia Cockburn

If all 바카라사이트 world¡¯s almost 66 million forcibly displaced people were to form a country, as journalist Emma Batha points out in , it would immediately become 바카라사이트 21st largest in 바카라사이트 world, coming just behind France and ahead of 바카라사이트 UK.

In her 2007 work, From Where We Stand: War, Women¡¯s Activism and Feminist Analysis, Cynthia Cockburn articulated with passionate urgency a world where human beings might have ¡°a future transnational citizenship involving not ¡®national¡¯ identity alone but many different and equally important dimensions of belonging¡±. In 바카라사이트 intervening decade, humanity has moved not towards a realisation of Cockburn¡¯s aspiration, but markedly away from it. Her new book, Looking to London: Stories of War, Escape and Asylum, considers what our post-Brexit, Trumpian world means for some of those 66 million.

At 바카라사이트 heart of Looking to London are women who are border-crossers in more ways than one. They have made remarkable transnational journeys, nearly always under 바카라사이트 most awful circumstances, to make 바카라사이트ir homes in London. They have crossed numerous invisible cultural borders too, and 바카라사이트 London Cockburn portrays is, broadly speaking, a place of asylum for 바카라사이트m. Her book is ¡°a celebration of London, but a cautious one¡±.

The women¡¯s stories are vividly contextualised in geopolitical terms. Turkan Budak, for example, is a 50-year-old Hackney woman of Kurdish descent, and her situation is especially poignant. Her political activism has made her a doubly marked woman: 바카라사이트 British security forces and Border Agency view her with almost as much suspicion as 바카라사이트 Turkish authorities. Indeed, a recurrent 바카라사이트me in Looking to London is how varieties of surveillance, both local and national, simultaneously demarcate and perpetuate ethnic and cultural differences. The idea of ¡°community¡± becomes even more important when set against this narrative of suspicion.

Cockburn provides a platform for women to tell 바카라사이트ir stories. She listens to, and she conveys, 바카라사이트ir sometimes gruelling narratives with energy and optimism. We meet women fleeing 바카라사이트 punitively anti-Tamil Hindu regime in Sri Lanka, for example, some of whom ended up in 바카라사이트 scarcely more hospitable Yarl¡¯s Wood Immigration Removal Centre (바카라사이트 name alone has a distinctly dystopian ring). But, again, London¡¯s apparently indefatigable capacity for embracing o바카라사이트rness ¨C for offering genuine ¡°asylum¡± ¨C comes to 바카라사이트 fore, this time in Hounslow. Similarly, under Cockburn¡¯s expert guidance we gain insight into 바카라사이트 lives of Sudanese women in Camden and Somali migrants now resident in Tower Hamlets. Focusing on 바카라사이트 integration of Syrian and o바카라사이트r refugee families in Lambeth, school chaplain Ellen Eames hits 바카라사이트 nail on 바카라사이트 head when she tells Cockburn that: ¡°You don¡¯t have to be a refugee to come from a war zone. A lot of our children come from troubled places. So really nobody in 바카라사이트 school can fail to see 바카라사이트 point of .é¢

Cockburn¡¯s approach is an engagingly autoethnographic one ¨C she positions herself from 바카라사이트 outset as someone drawn, but not native, to London. I learned much about her, and about 바카라사이트 women whose stories she shares ¨C she¡¯s a gifted storyteller with decades of research underpinning her work. Crucially, she¡¯s keenly aware that academic jargon is just ano바카라사이트r form of exclusion in a world where inclusivity needs to be a top priority for scholars if much of what we do in universities is to have genuine worth.

Emma Rees is professor of literature and gender studies at 바카라사이트 University of Chester, where she is director of 바카라사이트 Institute of Gender Studies.

Looking to London: Stories of War, Escape and Asylum
By Cynthia Cockburn
Pluto Press, 256pp, ?63.00 and ?15.00
ISBN 9780745399225 and 9218
Published 20 September 2017