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Some thoughts on the Anxious Middle, Deportation and campaigning:
Is it helpful to categorise like this in relation to migration? The only base that seems useful is that the majority of the population does not like migrants. It's largely people who are pro vs everyone else.
Is it helpful to categorise like this in relation to migration? The only base that seems useful is that the majority of the population does not like migrants. It's largely people who are pro vs everyone else.
At some point we have to accept that we can't reach the AM where they are because we don't *know* where they are. The pandemic has surely changed what little understanding we had - 1 million UC apps, deaths and economic impact. We should be aiming for where people could be.
People's identities are far more complex than "persuadable", even within the anxious middle, different messages will have a different effect. We should stop accepting their daily lives/values as fact, and start asking people *why* they don't like migrants. https://twitter.com/ZoeJardiniere/status/1336572097783607296
You can't do that if you're solely reinforcing their existing value system and not trying to change their minds more generally. This doesn't have to be a big, existential revelation. We're trying to get from A-B not A-Z. It's about moving people one step at a time.
But that doesn't mean compromising on what you're asking for it. It means being smart about what you're asking for and why you're asking for it. Knowing what your strategy is. It's about long-term vision, not trying to win things for sake of winning things.
This is where we're currently failing on deportation. Two strategies taking place - to get people immediately off a flight and another to make people more aware. The last two flights to Jamaica also had the important factor that the community affected said hell no.
As a sector (formalised rather than community) we're not yet asking for the right thing, we haven't had time to work out which bits of the last 2 flights cut through and which didn't. We have no evidence apart from the response from the right about the impact.
You cannot treat the response from the right as the opinion of the middle and therefore change everything you're asking for. They shouldn't dictate our terms - we don't dictate theirs. Patience is a virtue. Getting our head in the game and organised takes time.
With limited resource, we have to answer questions like how do we support other impacted communities to draw attention to flights to Pakistan, Nigeria, Albania? How do we challenge "do-gooder" lawyer narratives? How do we work with media? What is the political context?
We can't throw the baby out with the bathwater because we didn't "win" - although a win counts as getting people off the flight. That's not how campaigning works. You don't say "it'll never change" and stop trying. I'd be lucky if I see significant changes I want in my lifetime.
Things like citizenship are important campaigns. Support them all the way especially where they are led by those who have been through the system i.e. @WeBelong19. But that does not have to come at the expense of talking about things like deportations.
Do people have to choose between campaigning for a public NHS or better cancer treatments? No. They're part of the same system, totally different outcomes, campaign spans, messengers. They affect each other but they can be treated quite separately.
Campaigning on citizenship alone does not move people from where they are in terms of migrants. In some ways it reinforces the value system that people hold about being British vs other. If we do that alone, we will be trapped for another 100 years.
A multitude of campaigns is a welcome thing, it is the breathing heart of a movement. As @NMRLPH @AyeishaTS would say - you cannot control a movement but you can be aware of what's happening elsewhere. Not getting in each others way is a useful approach.
Deportation is the end goal of the Hostile Environment. I'm not a migrant but half my family + my community is. It is embedded in my identity. It means I can never compromise on my ask but I can adjust my strategy. Remember that if you are not part of those communities.
