No place for hate

No place for hate

Migrant Voice’s series of meetings, Migrants and Migration Post-Brexit; finding our voice to influence the new landscape, is an urgent response to the rise of hate crime and of the far Right.

When we held meetings on these topics in Glasgow and Birmingham earlier in the summer the landscape was already disturbing, with the police, politicians, unions, activists, migrants and various minorities reporting verbal and physical attacks around the country.

Intemperate language and wild claims targeted migrants during the campaign for the referendum on membership of the European Union, and the subsequent failure of the government and parts of the media to insist that there must be no deviation from the principle of fairness and the tradition of tolerance left a vacuum that hate speech has greedily filled.

Since then, the landscape has deteriorated further. Attacks on human rights were a feature of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, followed by a post-election surge in hate crime in the USA.

The rise in hate crime and the far Right is gaining ground on the European and international stage, and this must be vigorously challenged. Fortunately the response has been an even greater outcry and determination to re-assert core values that generations have fought for.

The values have to be accompanied by practical action, individual and collective, on many fronts: the Internet, local government, Parliament, media, trades unions, sports clubs, the arts, women’s groups, educational networks. It will not be easy, but there is a pool of goodwill and examples on which to draw. Even the handful of organisations represented on the Migrant Voice conference panel – the Eastern European Advice centre, the3million, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, Unite, Hope not Hate – have experience of past actions which can be repeated, built on and, where necessary, replaced by more effective measures.

We ourselves will continue to press for more migrant voices to be heard, because we believe these voices are a vital component in what must be a huge national drive against hate crime, and we will work alongside all who prefer a landscape of respect, dignity, tolerance, fairness and diversity rather than a landscape of intolerance and hate.

In addition, we are launching – as part of the Collaboration House organisations* - the #StandTogether campaign in a week of action 12 - 18 December against hate crime and all forms of racism and discrimination. The campaign invites people across the country to stand together in sending a message that our communities are welcoming and inclusive and our migrant and ethnic minority neighbours are welcome in our streets. It will culminate on International Migrants Day on 18 December. But this is just the beginning of the long continous fight against hate crime and all forms of discrimination.

Collaboration House member organisations:  Migrant Voice, Faiths Forum for London, Women’s Interfaith Network, Christian Muslim Forum, Council of Christians and Jews, Faith Based Regeneration Network, Integrity UK, International Debate Education Association, London Borough of Faiths Network, Islamic Society of Britain, Nisa-Nashim, Sadaqa Day, European Network on Religion & Belief UK