Review

Go Home? The Politics of Immigration Controversies

Go Home? The politics of Immigration Controversies brings together voices against and surrounding the government’s tougher stance on immigration. We hear from community organisations, policy makers, migrants and citizens along with eight social researchers. As indicated by the title, this publication is in direct response to Operation Vaken in 2013, most associated with the Go

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Comment

What guarantees? The Brexit proposals on EU citizens’ residence 

The government’s widely-condemned post-Brexit proposals for EU citizens should be used to highlight the unfair and discriminatory immigration laws to which they will be subjected, particularly those limiting family reunification, which currently apply to British citizens and settled migrants.  Brexit secretary David Davis said the aim was to ensure EU citizens resident in the UK

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News

Calendar of racism and resistance (2-15 June 2017)

A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. Violence and harassment 25 May: A 71-year-old man and 69-year-old woman are racially abused in Irvine by a man who asks if they have ‘bombs’. Craig Sharpe, 45, is later charged with acting in a racially aggravated manner.

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News

Respecting the dead 

A statement from Last Rights proposing international legal standards for proper and decent treatment of migrants who die at Europe’s borders, and their families, is a vital campaigning tool.  As Europe’s leaders focus on border security and rescuers are criminalised, more migrants die. In the first five months of this year, the death rate among migrants

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News

Calendar of racism and resistance (18 May – 1 June 2017)

A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. Post-Manchester 22 May: Following a suicide-bomb attack at the Ariana Grande concert in the Manchester arena, which left 22 people dead, many young people, and hundreds injured, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham tells BBC News that Mancunians will not

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Review

Honouring Chris Searle: an afternoon in poetry

The unique contribution of teacher Chris Searle to education in London’s East End was celebrated at the launch of his autobiography, Isaac and I: a life in poetry, on 20 May.  There is some archive footage of Chris Searle, long-haired in corduroy jacket walking head, shoulders and torso above a sea of milling children, trying

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News

Calendar of racism and resistance (5 – 17 May 2017)

A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. Asylum and migration 2 May: The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) publishes a report: Racism and discrimination in the context of migration in Europe: ENAR’s Shadow Report, 2015/2016, download it here (pdf file, 3.6mb). 6 May: Two reception

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News

Spanish fire-fighters who saved lives at sea must not be criminalised

As petitions are launched to stop the criminalisation of humanitarians, calls for the European Commission to intervene to change the law intensify. The continuing threat of jail hanging over three Spanish fire-fighters, arrested in January 2016 on charges of attempted human trafficking and weapons possession, has led to the launch of at least two petitions,

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Review

Black, Brummie and British

IRR Chair, Colin Prescod, reviews a collection of poetry, Beginning With Your Last Breath, by Roy McFarlane.  Roy McFarlane’s reputation goes before him – Birmingham Poet Laureate, Starbucks Poet in Residence, poet in residence at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, just some of the accolades garnered. Beginning With Your Last Breath (Nine Arches Press, 2016) is

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Review

Who will defend the space to protest?

An insightful TNI discussion paper is a must read for anti-racist and social justice campaigners. Are you working for a human rights NGO or part of a social justice movement and are you worried about increasing restrictions, overt political interference and government de-legitimisation of your work? A short pithy discussion paper, the result of a

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