Join us and Divest Borders Leeds for a panel discussion event focused on the day-to-day reality of ‘hostile environment’ policies.
When: Wednesday the 20th of March – Arrive: 10.30am – Workshop: 11am-1pm
Where: Middle Floor, 23-25 Wharf Street, Leeds, LS2 7EQ
*Unfortunately, Middle Floor is not a wheelchair accessible venue
What: There will be a panel discussion followed by team workshopping activities based on the content of the discussion.
Grab your free Eventbrite tickets here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/panel-discussion-understanding-the-hostile-environment-tickets-856065855017
You will be able to enter the event without a ticket, but purchasing a free ticket beforehand will allow us to better manage our numbers and prepare for the event.
Meet our panellists:
- Reem ElKosseer:
I’m Reem, a fourth year business management and marketing student. I’m currently an international student here in the UK and a scholar at the University of Leeds. I spent most of my life growing up in Egypt and moved here just before accessing higher education, and I am still navigating the immigration system till this day. I have worked for different large corporates during my time living here, as well as smaller charities UK-based and internationally.
- André Dallas:
André Dallas is a Liverpool-based decolonial artist and activist of Afro-Jamaican descent whose work seeks to challenge the downpression of the Babylon systems which bound the ways we imagine the world and our place in it. Since organising with Rhodes Must Fall in Oxford, he has played a significant role in the development of People & Planet’s Divest Borders campaign, through which UK students are demanding that their universities sever ties with companies profiting from the persecution of migrating people.
- Holly Mogford:
I am a PhD student at Swansea University and Patients not Passports campaigner. My research is concerned with the function(s) and implications of immigration charging regimes which include visa, residency and citizenship fees, NHS (sur)charging, employer sanctions and landlord sanctions. The Patients not Passports campaign works towards ending immigration checks and charges in the NHS.
- Daniel Vincent:
Daniel is providing a lived experience perspective of the ‘hostile environment’.
Why is it important to attend events like these?
Attending events like this means you are able to hear and engage with the lived experiences of those who are subject to and affected by the Hostile Environment Policies, and re-centres migrants in migration justice. In a country where the government and media repeatedly criminalise and make false, harmful representations of migrants to the British public, it is important to hear stories from migrants which counter and debunk harmful rhetorics. Furthermore, at panel events like this you are also able to hear from researchers and activists which can guide you into reflection and action on your own daily lives, and what you can do to contribute to migrant justice on a community and political level.
