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- 1. IS THE PUBLIC LIBRARY INCLUDED? An analysis of local government documentation on the integration of forced migrants in Scotland Rachel Salzano Hazel Hall Gemma Webster David Brazier
- 2. Today’s Journey ■ Background – Definitions – Forced migration – Migration policy – Role of the public library ■ The Study – Research questions – Method – Analysis ■ Results ■ What does it mean? r.salzano@napier.ac.uk Rachel Salzano @librarygryphon
- 3. Background: Definitions ■ Forced Migrant: a term encompassing both refugees and people seeking asylum (IOM, 2019) ■ Integration: the process by which migrants become fully incorporated into a receiving society (Oduntan & Ruthven, 2019) r.salzano@napier.ac.uk Rachel Salzano @librarygryphon
- 4. Background: Forced migration r.salzano@napier.ac.uk Rachel Salzano @librarygryphon
- 5. Background: Migration policy ■ Local governments in Scotland – Mandatory duties – Permissive powers – Regulatory powers r.salzano@napier.ac.uk Rachel Salzano @librarygryphon
- 6. Background: Role of the library ■ Public libraries and integration (e.g., Johnston 2016; 2018) – Social capitol – Information needs – Language skills r.salzano@napier.ac.uk Rachel Salzano @librarygryphon
- 7. Research Questions 1. In what ways is the integration of forced migrants approached in the formal documentation of policies followed by local authorities in Scotland? 2. In what capacity are public libraries included in the formal documentation of policies followed by local authorities in Scotland which address the integration of forced migrants? r.salzano@napier.ac.uk Rachel Salzano @librarygryphon
- 8. Method I am requesting documents which have information about the integration of refugees and asylum seekers into [local authority name]. This includes, but is not limited to, the Syrian Vulnerable People Resettlement Scheme and the UK Resettlement Scheme. I will be using this information for my PhD research. Textual analysis will be used to help provide a clear picture about how local authorities serve refugees and asylum seekers, and what specific services are mentioned. This will help to provide context for interviews of individuals who provide services for refugees and asylum seekers. If clarification on my request is needed, please contact [email]. r.salzano@napier.ac.uk Rachel Salzano @librarygryphon
- 9. Analysis 141 files 44 codes 6 candidate themes 4 confirmed themes r.salzano@napier.ac.uk Rachel Salzano @librarygryphon
- 10. Confirmed themes ■ Roles ■ Identification of need ■ Characteristics of forced migrants ■ Libraries and integration r.salzano@napier.ac.uk Rachel Salzano @librarygryphon
- 11. Provision of support r.salzano@napier.ac.uk Rachel Salzano @librarygryphon
- 12. Provision of support (Continued) r.salzano@napier.ac.uk Rachel Salzano @librarygryphon
- 13. Role of Public Libraries r.salzano@napier.ac.uk Rachel Salzano @librarygryphon
- 14. Is the public library included? r.salzano@napier.ac.uk Rachel Salzano @librarygryphon
- 15. References (in presentation) Appleton, L., Hall, H., Duff, A.S., & Raeside, R. (2018). UK public libraries role and value: a focus group analysis. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 50(3), 275 – 283. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000618769987 Bill 187. (2021-2022). UK Parliament Parliamentary Bills. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/58- 02/0187/210187v1.pdf (Archived by the Internet Archive at https://web.archive.org/web/20211127175326/https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/58-02/0187/210187v1.pdf) Grossman, S., Agosto, D.E., Winston, M., Epstein, N.E., Cannuscio, C.C., Martinez-Donate, A., & Klassen, A.C. (2021). How public libraries help immigrants adjust to life in a new country: a review of the literature. Health Promotion Practice. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248399211001064 IOM. (2019). Glossary on Migration. https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/iml_34_glossary.pdf (Archived by the Internet Archive at https://web.archive.org/web/20211030124106/https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/iml_34_glossary.pdf) Johnston, J. (2016). Conversation-based programming and newcomer integration: a case study of the Språkhörnan program at Malmö City Library. Library and Information Science Research, 38(1), 10-17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2016.02.001 Johnston, J. (2018). The use of conversation-based programming in public libraries to support integration in increasingly multiethnic societies. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science., 50(2), 130-140. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000616631613 Johnston, J. & Audunson, R. (2019). Supporting immigrants’ political integration through discussion and debate in public libraries. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 51(1), 228-242. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0961000617709056 r.salzano@napier.ac.uk Rachel Salzano @librarygryphon
- 16. References Lloyd, A. (2017). Researching fractured (information) landscapes. Journal of Documentation, 73(1), 35- 47. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-03-2016-0032 Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1973/65/contents (Archived at Internet Archive at https://web.archive.org/web/20220331142234/https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1973/65/contents) Mulvey, G. (2015). Refugee integration policy: the effects of UK policy-making on refugees in Scotland. Journal of Social Policy, 44(2), 357 – 375. https://doi.org/10.1017/S004727941500001X Mulvey, G. (2018). Social citizenship, social policy and refugee integration: a case of policy divergence in Scotland? Journal of Social Policy, 47(1), 161 – 178. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0047279417000253 Niemann, A., & Zaun, N. (2017). EU refugee policies and politics in times of crisis: theoretical and empirical perspectives. Journal of Common Market Studies, 56(1), 3 – 22. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12650 Oduntan, O., & Ruthven, I. (2019). The information needs matrix: a navigational guide for refugee integration. Information Processing and Management, 56(3), 791 – 808. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2018.12.001 Scotland Act 1998. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/46/schedule/5 (Archived by the Internet Archive at https://web.archive.org/web/20211204172220/https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/46/schedule/5) r.salzano@napier.ac.uk Rachel Salzano @librarygryphon
- 17. Image Credits “Photograph of a path” by UnknownAuthor is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND “UNHCR Refugee Statistics Map” by UNHCR “Line Drawing of United Kingdom” by UnknownAuthor is licensed under CC BY-SA “Social network graphic” by UnknownAuthor is licensed under CC BY-ND “Picture of library with faded people” by UnknownAuthor is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC r.salzano@napier.ac.uk Rachel Salzano @librarygryphon
Editor's Notes
- I like to begin my presentations with definitions of terms that may not be familiar to everyone in the room or that may have multiple definitions. For this presentation the two terms that are important to the rest of the work are forced migrant and integration. A forced migrant has undergone forced migration, which IOM (2019) defines as a migratory movement prompted by pressure, compulsion, or coercion. As you can see on the slide, in this research and presentation I use the term forced migrant to encompass both refugees and people seeking asylum. For this particular work I am not including internally displaced people, though they would also fit the IOM term. Forced migrant and forced migration are academic terms, and usually not what members of these communities would prefer being referred to, as it is a bit dehumanizing of a description, but for the effort of time which I have already wasted enough of, it is the term used here. Of note, individuals with refugee status in the UK are treated different in legislation than people seeking asylum, so I also use the term to indicate that I speak not only of refugees. Integration, as described by Oduntan and Ruthven (2019) is the process by which migrants become fully incorporated into a receiving society. There is an assumption here as well, that the receiving society will incorporate aspects of newcomers’ backgrounds into itself, though this is not always the case.
- As of mid-2021, 31 million people globally are refugees and asylum seekers according to the UNHCR, compared to 30.5 million at the end of 2020, and 30.2 million at the end of 2019. As can be seen in this graphic from the UNHCR, a large number are being settled in European countries, though numbers vary depending on country. With the continual rise of forced migration, governments in receiving countries such as the UK develop policies to address their responsibilities under the 1951 Convention of the status of refugees.
- In the UK specifically, there have recently been many discussions related to legislation about forced migration, such as the recently passed Nationality and Borders Bill (proposed legislation to regulate the provision of nationality, asylum, and immigration), and the newly introduced ‘Rwanda Plan’. Whether either the bill or the plan are sufficient to support forced migrants or undermines the 1951 convention, is a controversial topic. These legislative developments are not necessarily surprising, as Niemann and Zaun (2018) note that increased numbers of forced migrants often result in stricter policies than in the past. In terms of the UK, the ways policies are implemented differ across the four countries constituent countries due to devolved powers as discussed by Mulvey (2015; 2018). In this paper, the focus is on enactment of policies in Scotland, as that is where I am based. Local governments in Scotland are responsible for the following: (1) provision of mandatory duties e.g., provision of education; (2) permissive powers e.g., recreation services; and (3) regulatory powers e.g., environmental health (Mygov.scot, 2017). The Scottish Government has no control over the asylum seeking process in terms of legislation, according to the Scotland Act (1998). However, it does take charge of many social service provisions at local level, such as education, social care and adequate library facilities for all persons resident in their area (a non-exhaustive list from the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973). It is in these social service provisions that local governments in Scotland are able to affect how they can work towards integration.
- Research on migration as it relates to LIS is a growth area in our field, according to Lloyd (2017), and it covers everything from everyday information behaviours/practices and use of public libraries. It is important to note here that research on migration refers to all types of migration, not just forced migration, which is the topic of this paper. In prior research, it has been shown that public libraries are well situated to support integration of newcomers, including forced migrants. Public libraries are sites where social capital may be generated, as discussed by Grossman et al. (2021), norms of a receiving society can be learned, as discussed by Audunson et al. (2011), and where information needs in a variety of areas can be met. In terms of specific information needs, language skills in the language of the receiving country in particular is something public libraries have been shown to support, as in Johnston (2016; 2018) and Johnston and Audunson (2019).
- The LIS literature has demonstrated that public libraries can play a key role in integration, so it is expected that the policies of Scottish local governments would reflect this, which leads to our two research questions for this paper.
- Scotland is divided into 32 areas of local government called local authorities. Each is tasked with provision of social services, including integration of forced migrants. Though some documentation of local authorities is readily available to the public, much of it is only available when requested. These request can be made with a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. In order to access policies related to forced migration that were not already available to the public, FOI requests were sent to all 32 local authority areas in June of 2021. The wording of the request is on this slide, so feel free to read while I go through the rest of the methods. The publication sites of each local authority were accessed before the sending of the request to ensure the requested information was not already available. 28 of the 32 local authorities sent responses, of which 23 were able to provide documentation specific to their areas. Of note, 5 responses indicated that the information was already available, and included links to repositories which were not available on their public facing site, 3 responses indicated that the requested information was not held by the local authority, and one local authority withheld the information on the grounds of an exemption related to privacy. The initial number of items received was 149 from local authorities, with two additional items related to national or global practices included. These initial 151 files were then reviewed for duplicates, resulting in a final 141 files to be reviewed.
- Inductive thematic analysis was conducted on the content of each file returned by local authorities using data derived codes and complete coding. This exercise generated 47 codes which upon further review were consolidated into 44 codes. These codes were then reviewed again and 6 candidate themes related to the research questions. After further revision 4 of the 6 candidate themes were confirmed as being relevant to the research questions.
- The four confirmed themes from the analysis can be seen here. The first three, roles, identification of need, and characteristics of forced migrants relate to the first research question: In what ways is the integration of forced migrants approached in the formal documentation of policies followed by local authorities in Scotland? The final confirmed theme relates to the second research question: In what capacity are public libraries included in the formal documentation of policies followed by local authorities in Scotland which address the integration of forced migrants?
- The integration of forced migrants is generally approached in the documentation from the lens of provisions supplied by local authorities. From the data, the support local authorities expect to be needed are primarily around housing, health, and education. The importance of health and education in particular is seen in the data through the frequency of codes used for these topics: both were within the top five most frequent codes. It is important to note here that information needs were not explicitly stated in the data, but were implied by discussing how to most easily convey information to forced migrants. A key integration need related to education was competency in English, particularly as this was seen to improve opportunities in other areas. An extract from the documents reads “the skills and experience that our families bring are transferable and it is hoped that improving English language skills will enable many to be able to find work opportunities”. As part of this discussion of needing to learn English, literacy also came into play as it is noted that levels of literacy in mother tongues may also vary.
- Within the documentation, the legal responsibility to provide services such as ESOL classes or housing was prominent, with the most frequent code relating to UK Law. UK law determines the asylum process and the provision of services for people in different stages of the process (e.g., asylum seeker vs resettled refugee). Related to this is the question of region of origin, as the UK has resettlement schemes for certain regions where applicants are given refugee status directly. This is seen in the data, as much of the documentation focused on particular population: Syrian refugees from the Syrian Resettlement Scheme. The number of references to Syrian New Scots is four times as high as any other region. The large amount of attention paid in the documentation to one subset of the forced migrant population in Scotland indicates that there may be a lack of balance in integration efforts for those who are not able to enter the country through those resettlement schemes. An interesting phenomenon in the data was also the expression of negative opinions towards the overall UK legislation, with the implication that support for forced migrants is not sufficient. One such excerpt reads, “Under successive pieces of UK legislation, basic rights and entitlements to public services have been restricted for people with insecure immigration status…This approach…is at odds with the Scottish Government and Local Government’s aims, including to eradicate child poverty and create a fairer Scotland”. The presence of this sentiment indicates a willingness to comprehensively address the needs of immigrants, and supports a point made by Mulvey (2018) that provision in Scotland may be more compassionate than elsewhere in the UK.
- Based on the literature, it is expected that public libraries will play a prominent role in the integration of forced migrants, especially as the documentation suggested that education for literacy and English learning skills are priorities. Unfortunately, this was not the case. In relation to other public services mentioned in the documentations, the public library was mentioned the least, with only 11 total references in only 5 of the 141 documents. I’ll let that sink in. 5 documents out of 141 mentioned libraries. And in those documents, libraries were not mentioned as supports for integration. They were mentioned as a possible leisure activity for forced migrants and as a stop on the orientation tour of cities. In terms of the documentation, it would be difficult to argue that local authorities in Scotland consider public libraries as resources to support integration. This finding is at odds with the literature related to migration and public libraries, with multiple researchers having shown that library programmes support integration. Despite other social service provisions meant to be provided by local authorities (e.g. schools, ESOL provision, and NHS provision), public libraries are not present in the documentation. This is particularly concerning as public libraries are mentioned in legislation alongside those other provisions, and you would expect libraries to be present in a similar manner to the others in the documentation on integration.
- So what can we conclude? In answer to the question in the title of this paper, I think we can conclude that public libraries are not included to their full capacity in the documentation. While this does not mean that public libraries in Scotland do not support integration, it does mean that officially they may be underexploited by local governments in terms of provision. Local authorities in Scotland are aware of important services to support forced migrants, and include provision for this support in a manner that may be more comprehensive than other areas of the UK. However, further utilization of public libraries to support integration needs of forced migrants may be beneficial, and a first step might be acknowledging public libraries as key providers of integration support in the documentation.