Why RAP?
Asylum misunderstood
Once upon a time...
It is the year 2000 and the government has introduced a shiny new policy to the people of Britain. In order to cope with the influx of people fleeing war and other nastiness, ministers have dreamt up a scheme to move asylum seekers to areas outside London and the South East.
Known to friends and foes alike as ‘dispersal’ , this new programme sees asylum seekers plonked into neighbourhoods where the locals have had absolutely no previous experience of living with them.
At the same time, as Europe starts to grow and embrace new states, lots of people get very jittery about getting new neighbours of any sort.
Suddenly, anything to do with new folks in our country is at the top of the public agenda, making asylum and immigration big, bad news in Britain.
74% of people agree that refugees come to Britain because they think Britain is a soft touch (2001)(MORI/The Mail on Sunday)
54% of people agree that there are too many immigrants in Britain (2001) (MORI/The Mail on Sunday)
63% of people agree that too much is done to help immigrants (2000)(MORI/Readers’ Digest)
A very British hoo-ha
And what a noisy old time it was. It began with understandable worries about the number of asylum seekers coming here. Were they getting treated better than us? Were they all would-be criminals? What damage would they do to good old Blighty’s culture and economy?
The trouble was, it became pretty clear that folks just didn’t have enough information to help them make up their own minds. Someone had to fill the gap. Sadly, extreme right-wing groups were only too happy to oblige, posting some very nasty leaflets through letterboxes in order to manipulate these fears to their own advantage.
Fear and loathing in middle England
The refugees and asylum seekers Refugee Action was working with also reported increased nastiness towards them in their neighbourhoods.
Attacks in the street and harassment on their doorstep became part of the daily grind for people seeking sanctuary in the UK. Many told us that they had become scared to go out and meet British people even though what they wanted most in the world was to set up home in a safe, friendly place and meet nice, friendly people.
Volunteers and refugee voices
By 2002 Refugee Action knew it had to do something to help untangle this mess. It seemed that the only way that people were going to understand what was really going on was by being given the proper information.
Refugee Action had learnt an awful lot about public attitudes since it was set up way back in 1981, so it decided that it would try out a project to help the general public work out exactly what was what.
The Volunteer Advocacy Project - aka VAP
The Volunteer Advocacy Project was created in Nottingham in 2002 and ran for a year. It set out to help locals understand the whys and the what-fors of asylum through a programme of talks delivered by a bunch of eloquent volunteers , many of whom had first-hand experience of seeking refuge in the UK.
Their presentations tackled some of the popular misconceptions about refugees, letting people see both the asylum system and the area they live in through the eyes of an asylum seeker.
The mighty volunteer
Making refugee voices heard has been the engine driving Refugee Action’s work since 1981, but this project was the first time that we developed a formal volunteering role for refugees brave enough to share their stories with the public and speak up for others in their area.
We saw that it was brilliant in building trust and credibility, and asylum seekers and refugees were finally being seen in a professional capacity. And no-one can say to a volunteer who’s kindly giving up their time “Well, you’re just paid to say that…”.
Didn't they do well?
With 82% of the people we talked to saying that their understanding of the situation facing refugees had changed , the project seemed to have done its job inspiring people and services to be refugee friendly .
So we got bold, we got brave, we decided spread the word as far and as wide as we could.
RAP grows up
From 2003, the feel-good factor of changing hearts and minds reached many more Refugee Action offices as a host of new projects brought the reality of seeking asylum to local audiences. Check out the map below for a whistlestop tour of Refugee Action’s public awareness projects, past and present…
The map of RAP lovin'
2005 – From VAP to RAP!
Then a breakthrough. In 2005 Refugee Action finally secured funding for a national programme of awareness raising . At last we could realise our masterplan and test our approach in different cities. Call it a social experiment if you like.
And seeing as we’d decided to go for the big-time, we decided to change our name too, from VAP (Volunteer Advocacy Project) to RAP (Refugee Awareness Project) . Yup, we really went for it…
Community group hug
This time the new team wanted to move beyond the presentation-based approach of the pilot (what’s known on the charity circuit as ‘talk and chalk’), and try for a more interactive, workshop-based approach. And because the project is all about increasing understanding between newcomers and locals, it seemed only right that volunteers from different backgrounds should work together.
We have a dream…
Refugee Action is nothing if not ambitious. Our big, big hope is that one day refugees and asylum seekers will feel comfortable taking part in all aspects of community life - from joining toddlers’ groups, trade unions, parent associations and Rotary clubs to dropping into their local museum, library or leisure centre.
Generally projects like ours tend to get a bit over-excitable and try to be all things to all people. With our new project however, we tried to be smarter and targeted RAP at key people who can make a real difference to how people seeking asylum are viewed and treated locally.
Movers and shakers – A cunning plan…
Research on attitudes to migrants has found that there are a number of local big cheeses that have a huge influence on how newcomers are accepted. These neighbourhood big-wigs include local councillors, politicians, teachers, clergy, religious leaders, youth workers, police, social workers, and business leaders. And not forgetting the local rumour and gossip mills…
So RAP decided to harness the mighty power of chitchat to positive effect, by targeting these six key audiences over three years:
voluntary groups
groups working with young people
sports and leisure groups
membership and representative groups
business groups
faith groups
These groups are the gate-keepers to the sorts of services and institutions that can sound the trumpet for integration. Through their social networks and influence , we believe that people in these groups are perfectly positioned to pass on positive messages and facts to loads more people than we can ever reach ourselves.
RAP does intellectual
Don’t be fooled by our laid-back chat. Behind our cuddly charity exterior lies a serious commitment to research and theory .
The theory of change behind the project has been informed by:
Contact theory: Social network and social capital theory: And a whole lot of research on what people think about asylum.
Here’s just a small sprinkling of facts about recent public opinion on asylum to give you an idea of the climate that the project operates in.
In a research study by IPPR in 2005, most people overestimated the number of asylum seekers or refugees living in their area. For example, in Norwich, nearly one third of respondents estimated that between 2,000 and 5,000 asylum seekers and refugees live in the city. The actual figure was less than 150 dispersed asylum seekers.
In a research study by IPPR in 2005, 32% of young people thought that asylum seekers increased crime .
A Mori poll in 2003 found that on average people thought that Britain hosted 23% of world’s refugees – it was actually 2% at the time of the poll.
In 2005 ‘immigration and asylum seekers’ was most frequently selected as one of the three most important political issues for the country, with 49% of people selecting this issue. (YouGov/Mail on Sunday survey, February 2005).
You can read more about the Volunteer Advocacy Project in:
Finney, N. and Peach, E. (2005) Attitudes towards asylum seekers, refugees and other immigrants. Literature review. London: CRE.
Bye bye RAP
Sadly in December 2008, it was RIP to RAP. Once our funding ended , we sadly had to hang up our t-shirts and shut up shop.
We’re hoping that RAP will be revived in new forms in the future as we seek to increase local understanding between newcomers and established residents through other initiatives across Refugee Action .
So please don’t weep into your handkerchiefs for long, we’d much rather you helped us celebrate our fantastic achievements and big up all the volunteers , partners and refugee-friendly groups that we owe our success to. And please keep the RAP spirit alive by doing your bit to spread the word, stand up for refugees and make your neighbourhood a nicer place for everyone.
