On a crisp sunny morning 10 young journalists from across the European Union descend on Westminster to try to find out whether London is diverse or divided. The European Youth Press gives young journalists the opportunity to report in countries around the EU to produce articles, audio and video for the online portal Orangelog.eu.

The young journalists came from France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK.

The EU Commission in London kindly supported the event by allowing the young journalists to have use of the Churchill room, fitted with the national flags of the 27 EU states.

The morning kicked-off with a panel consisting of representatives from the Guardian, Runnymede Trust and Migration Watch. But the mention of those organisations only tells half of the story as the panel was completely representative in terms of ethnic backgrounds.

Jason, the journalist representing the UK was chairing the debate which started of with Julie Gibbs from the Runnymede Trust describing the research into the areas of migration in London. Her particular focus was documenting the situation refugees and asylum seekers face, which was extensive.

The second speaker was Alp Mehmet, an executive member for Migration Watch who raised some of the concerns around issues relating to migration in London. He expressed some anxieties around many people being allowed to stay in the country and the impact on the host nation. Alp used to be an immigration officer so had direct experience in dealing with the issues.

The third speaker was Joseph Harker from the Guardian who described the national media in the UK and the problems in relation to the representation of the other. He pointed out that some organisations were being used to add fuel on the fire of the migration debate and that most of the mainstream media were not reporting the issues in a balanced way.

A huge debate ensued with a pin-pong match taking place with Alp and Joseph. Sue took up the position as the reasoned oracle and the young journalists peppered the debate with their questions based on their own experiences in their respected countries.

The debate continues…

After lunch the afternoon session was expected to be a little calmer with speakers from the Jewish, Irish and Spanish community. Conor McGinn, a Labour party activist started the session with a brief history of the troubles and the situation that the Irish community faced during those times. He went on to explain how the Irish community has successfully managed to become integrated within the mainstream. Conor was wearing a clover on his jacket lapel and was proud of the Patrick Day celebrations that had taken place in the centre of London a day before.

An academic from the Open University, originally from Spain spoke next giving a brief overview of the situation in the UK with particular emphasis on migrant women, discrimination and how the debate around migration is slowly changing in the country. Dr Christina Julious went on to highlight the un-documentated experience of many migrant women, especially in London and how society should pay more attention to the plight of those women. She liked the way that Londoners are now able to speak about migration without people being labelled as racist as more intelligent discussion is certainly needed in order for the society to be able to make sense of itself.

The last speaker of the day was Ruth Barnett, a retired psychotherapist originally from Berlin who was also a child on the Kindertransport in 1939. Ruth gave a presentation on her life and background which gave some historical context to the issues that people migrating have to face when they enter another country. Her story was particularly moving due to the way her family was torn apart and is only now being able to speak about what actually went on during those times in Berlin.

The day ended and everyone involved felt that they had gained a lot of useful knowledge surrounding the migration debate in London.

After thoughts…

Luzia Tschirky from Switzerland is the editor for the London project explained: “It was great to see that London has been facing the topic of migration for many years”. She also appreciated hearing the arguments from both sides of the debate. Luzia continued: “We always hear how British people are afraid of loosing their culture and that the media is closed for migrants as they have no voice in the mainstream media”.

Both of the points of view were opened up for discussion throughout the day but others were not so easily tackled, like the fact that certain people in the UK do not want to work in certain sectors of the economy, thereby opening up the space for other people to come into the country to work.

The speakers were representing most sections of society but notably Luzia felt that there should have been someone from the South Asian community.

Luzia: “Europe is getting closer and closer, we are all facing the same problems”.

So as the debate around migration continues to rage on in London and the UK, we can not continue to be so divisive on the topics and should spend more time coming together for reasoned debate so we all know what we are talking about.

Alp Mehmet: “The important thing is we are now having the debate and not pretending there isn’t an issue to discuss. Yesterday’s was a good discussion, thank you again for arranging it.”