TESOL Scotland 22nd Annual Conference Proceedings
13 November 2004
Glasgow Caledonian University
"Multiple Identities in Scotland" Proceedings
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Film presentation: Welcome to Dover (Mirë Se Vini në Dover)
Beth Armstrong, Freelance film-maker
Beth Armstrong's film gave us a powerful and heartrending insight into the difficulties facing an Albanian family from Pristina in Kosovo seeking asylum in the UK.
The family's communication difficulties at moving to Britain and having to learn English are seen as a side-issue as they are increasingly desperate to find out what has happened to family and friends in the war back home. Their only contacts with home are the Red Cross - who pass on contact details - satellite television, and the phone: the family skimp on food and clothing to be able to maintain these links. When the family find some relatives safe, but still in the war zone and desperate for money, they are unable to get them to Britain, and instead send money, even though they are living well below the poverty line themselves. Asylum-seekers in Britain are given 10% less than people on benefits, which in itself is below the WHO poverty line. They are not allowed to work.
We saw the differences between family members in their efforts to integrate with the local community. The parents, particularly the father, did not appear to learn much English. Violeta, the eldest daughter, was quick to improve her English and get on at school, had plans for her future in Britain, and knew she wanted to continue to study after she left school. Gezim, the eldest son, had picked up quite a lot of English but refused to go to school, got involved in fights, and according to Beth in the discussion at the end, supported his father in his plans to return home to Kosovo.
The film showed that even within one family individuals assimilate to different extents with the local community, and that their language proficiency is bound up with how family members view themselves, how they view the community, the opportunities available to them, and plans for a possible return home. Our perception of their identity is bound up with how they present themselves, the mediation of the film crew, and our own feelings about their situation. The film showed the film crew's increasingly close relationship and involvement with the family over the course of filming in their home, raising issues of compassion, and tension between relative objectivity and subjectivity, and the film crew's identity relative to the family.
During the following questions and discussion with the film-maker, Beth explained the background to the film. The Albanian given without translation at the beginning of the film was deliberate, so the audience would have the experience of knowing what it's like to be unable to understand what people are saying, an experience many asylum-seekers have when they arrive. (The family speak 'Ship', a dialect of Albanian spoken in Kosovo.)
Once the family had relocated to another part of the UK, the film was shown to the local population in Dover to try to counter some of their ignorance and misconceptions, such as, Beth informed us, 'asylum-seekers must be very rich as they all have satellite television', and 'I know they throw their babies in front of cars to get the insurance.' The family took part in the making of the film because they wanted a right to reply to criticisms of asylum-seekers and to show the outside world they were a respectable family who had been caught up in world events outside their control.
The situation for people seeking asylum is now worse as the government has a dispersal policy, and there may be no community support and specialised knowledge in the places they are sent.
Videotapes of 'Welcome to Dover' (2000) are available if you want to use the film as part of your teaching materials or discussion group, or to give an inside view of what it's like to be an asylum-seeker in Britain today.
Beth Armstrong's e-mail: beth.armstrong@strath.ac.uk.
Summary by Dr Charlotte Kemp, University of Stirling
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