Ruth Evans' presentation on her exploratory research on Forced Migration, Care and Family Relations: Translocal family geographies in the South East of England. The presentation included participants' own narratives of their body maps on display at the event co-produced in participatory art workshops. The presentation was part of a workshop on Migration, Care, Language & Identity: Multi-disciplinary perspectives, University of Reading 3 November 2016 - a Participation Lab workshop organised by Ruth Evans and Sally Lloyd-Evans, in collaboration with the Global Development Research Division and Centre for Literacy & Multilingualism (CeLM), University of Reading.

1. LIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACTLIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACTCopyright Universityof Reading
Ruth Evans
A Participation Lab project
r.evans@reading.ac.uk @DrRuth_Evans
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FORCED MIGRATION, CARE & FAMILY RELATIONS:
translocal family geographies in the South East of
England
Department of Geography &
Environmental Science

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THE PROJECT
• Funding to develop new exploratory interdisciplinary
project & grant application
• Building on existing collaborative relations with:
•Eleonore Kofman, Rosa Mas-Giralt, Gudbjorg
Ottosdottir
•Third sector organisations: AAF; SRS; RRSG;
TVPS, Children’s Society Include project
• Develop new collaborations with refugee and BME
organisations
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CONTEXT
• Complex links between forced migration, care, chronic illness
and bereavement
• Migrants have an equal or higher risk of experiencing chronic
or life-limiting illness, but often have differential entitlements
to care support in settlement countries
• Language barriers to accessing support, health and legal
literacies
• Little research about emotions `on the move‘
• Multiply-located senses of self and translocal emotional
connections and caring responsibilities which may vary
between generations
• Hybrid cultural and linguistic forms, belonging and
'superdiversity' 3

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RESEARCH QUESTIONS
• How is people’s sense of self and belonging shaped by
translocal emotional connections and/or multilingualism?
• How do people care for themselves and others? How are
caring relations stretched across space?
• How do people respond to the death of a family member
or friend?
• What barriers to support do people experience? How do
they negotiate language and communication issues?
Gender, age/ generation, ethnicity, immigration status,
chronic illness, disability, caring responsibilities,
multilingualism. 4

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PARTICIPATORY QUALITATIVE METHODS
• Informal interviews with third sector partners
• Participatory art workshops with different groups:
• Body mapping with African refugees and migrants with
chronic illness
• Personal community and caring mapping with young
people and adults
• Digital language portraits with young people
• Sewing world map of refugee women’s translocal
connections and caring relations in Slough
• Interviews with adults and young people
• Interviews with health and social care professionals, third
sector organisations 5

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DATA COLLECTION TO DATE…
Participatory art workshops with:
• 9 adults with chronic illness who are
seeking asylum, have LR or British
citizenship
• 2 mothers of young children with leave
to remain
• 7 young people (aged 6-17)
Interviews with:
• 3 adults with chronic illness who are
seeking asylum, have LR or are
undocumented
• 1 adult carer
• 1 young carer 6
Informal
conversations with
sewing group

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TRANSLOCAL BELONGING &
CARING ACROSS SPACE
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•Multiple connections to
people in different places
through family, friends,
teachers
•Some families quite isolated

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LANGUAGE PORTRAITS (BUSCH, 2012)
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• Multiple senses
of belonging,
multilingual
identities
• different family
language policies
• differing levels
of identification
with English/
Britishness
Amina, aged 16
Robert, aged 16: J’aime
ma pais

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LANGUAGE PORTRAITS
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Dancer, 8 yrs:
Invincible 2
Hope, 16 yrs: Growth
within existence
Sarah, 17 yrs: Me,
myself and I

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BODY MAPPING WORKSHOPS
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“Living with X”
Body mapping
journey
(Solomon,
2007)

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BODY MAPPING WORKSHOPS
•
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• Embodied experiences of
loss, chronic illness, trauma,
mental health, immigration
• Where you come from and
what you’re moving towards
• People you care for, who
supports you and how you
look after yourself
• Personal power point and
identity
• Languages
• Message for the public/
authorities
• I see a person living with
X…and X……
•Creating safe spaces to
acknowledge and work with
emotions
• Caring for ourselves and others
• Being reflexive and
participating on an equal basis

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KEY THEMES
• Complexity of multiple losses, chronic illness, mental health and
care needs
• Immigration status: living in limbo, surviving, confusion, fear of
deportation, risk of losing access to healthcare, pushed further
into the margins
• Having to forego Home Office support due to dispersal policy and
intimidation from officials
• Relocation to be close to peer support networks once gained
refugee status
• Conflict and estrangement from family members and relatives
• Importance of peer support and caring for others – become ‘like
family’
• Refugee and BME organisations: key sources of support and advice,
volunteering opportunities
• Churches and homelessness charities: key sources of support for
some
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CHALLENGES
• Exploratory PAR approach - keeping open research agenda
shaped by participants’ and organisations’ concerns
• Time needed to build trust and negotiate informed consent
with key gatekeepers & potential participants
• Emotions and ethic of care for participants and researcher
• Importance of reflexivity
• Working with interpreters
• Interdisciplinarity – incorporating new disciplinary
perspectives
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PLANS FOR COMING MONTHS….
• Migration-Research Network at Reading
• Completing and writing up pilot research
• Discussing findings with key stakeholders – how to
ensure participants’ voices are heard by Home
Office and statutory professionals?
• Large research grant application with key partners
(submission: Spring/Summer 2017)
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r.evans@reading.ac.uk @DrRuth_Evans
BLOGS.READING.AC.UK/PARTICIPATION-LAB