Migrants' comics in London

The last page of "Baz'" story on his Palestinian-Syrian nationality, which is not recognised by the authorities.

A group of migrants in London made comics about life in the UK. The comics were made in a project by the Migrants Resource Centre, an organisation with a vision of a society where migrants are valued and able to contribute. The comics were made at four evening workshops as a part of My Journey, a multimedia storytelling project which also includes photography, radio, audio-visual slideshows and film (see www.my-journey.org.uk). My Journey is run by Migrants Resource Centre and funded by City Bridge Trust.

The stories have a very wide range of approaches as the migrants come from five different continents - the only thing in common is that they are now Londoners. These comics open windows into their lives and their views on the situation of migrants. This is particularly important as the public debate all over Europe has become more anti-immigration in the last years.

The workshops were run by Lindsay Pollock, the artist who co-created the “Meet the Somalis” comic book (see our blog January 14, 2014). Pollock is a part of the Positives Negatives -organisation (www.positivesnegatives.org), which creates comics about social and human rights issues.

I was very excited to see these comics. They clearly show that comics is medium which can stretch quite far and which is readily accessible also to non-artists. If the comics were redrawn and redesigned by a professional comics artist, their poignancy and vibrant street credibility would be lost. 

So, if you have something to say, say it with comics! You can!

(Post by Leif Packalen)

Read the comics on this link: http://myjourneymrc.tumblr.com/tagged/comics

Sandra's story tells about how to battle bureaucracy for a whole year.