Connections, Communities, and Co-Production with City of Sanctuary

By Daniella Angulo

I recently had the chance to chat with Ashley Beckett, the London Coordinator and Arts and Libraries Lead for City of Sanctuary UK. City of Sanctuary works across the UK and Northern Ireland to build an ever-growing network of support for migrants, refugees, and all people seeking sanctuary. By engaging institutions and communities across every sector of society, ranging from libraries, schools, sports, theatres, etc, they promote a cultural shift towards inclusivity.

I first heard about City of Sanctuary through their work with theatres, which challenges these creative practitioners to go above and beyond in welcoming sanctuary seekers. City of Sanctuary gives arts organisations and other institutions awards which are highly desired, as being recognized as an official place of welcome goes a long way towards legitimizing continued work with migrants. Theatres which have been awarded Theatres of Sanctuary join a select group who are making intentional efforts through their creative practices to build a more welcoming UK.

By incentivizing arts and other organisations with this award, City of Sanctuary promotes change, one institution at a time. Their presence through all areas of culture sees them work across the full range of migrant issues, beginning with frontline services and support to advocacy through the arts and campaigning at Parliament. Ashley was incredibly kind to take time out of her day to illuminate all the careful work that goes into pioneering a cultural movement. For more, keep reading!

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Can you explain City of Sanctuary’s different branches of work?

City of Sanctuary is an umbrella organization that connects over 120 local groups supporting people seeking sanctuary in the UK. We make sure our theory of change and values are consistent across these groups, who are committed to making a more inclusive and welcoming nation.

We’re a core team of 12 with three main categories of work. First, we support local groups, who are migrants’ first port of call. We provide resources, networking opportunities, and general support to help them develop organizational styles aligning with our values. The second category are sanctuary ambassadors, who are people with lived experiences with whom we work in different ways. They make up our advisory boards and help in all areas, because everything we do is rooted in co-production.

Thirdly, we work with mainstream institutions like schools, universities, libraries, gardens, local councils, and art and faith organisations on being awarded as places of welcome. Over time, we’ve developed best-practice criteria for different types of places. For those where practices look similar, like local councils, schools, and universities, our criteria is more rigid. In these contexts, we’re better able to identify what makes a place welcoming and hold it accountable. However, in the arts, the institutions are different in every way, ranging from their sizes to how they engage with the public. Our criteria here is more vague, which helps them apply it to their unique work.

What do you do at City of Sanctuary?

I always describe my role as a conduit. I make connections between people working in this space, building the movement by finding ways we can all help each other.

In London, I facilitate a network made up of local officers and councillors that have been awarded Councils of Sanctuary. On a UK wide-level, I do networking for our arts stream, which has awarded 42 institutions. It’s mostly made up of theatres, but it’s also growing in the visual arts. Libraries can be awarded as a whole service, making about 500 libraries across the UK awardees.

I also do an annual “Sanctuary in Politics” course, which is our advocacy and campaigning training for people with lived experiences. Over the years, we’ve had themes examining women’s maternal health and climate and migrant justice. In the future, I want to explore how we can encourage artists to activate within their medium for a more advocate-artist approach in campaigning.

In this program, we link people with mentors and have them come up with different projects. Some are very new to advocacy and might choose to write their MP a letter about the right to work. Others are already involved in campaigns and want help with planning and execution. I don’t hold them to finishing their projects; all we ask is that they engage.

After the program ends, they join our sanctuary ambassador network. Unlike other contexts where people passionate about sanctuary are made into teachers, this network gives them a place to connect with their equals. This is how the course’s impacts continue: by finding spaces for everyone to keep sharing and supporting each other.

Last summer, the UK’s anti-immigrant riots shocked the world. As the U.S.-born daughter of immigrant parents, I am more than familiar with the constant whiplash from confronting anti-immigrant rhetoric while balancing what it takes to survive in a hostile environment. Working on critical issues like migration is a testament to endurance. I thought I’d better check in on how everyone at City of Sanctuary was doing.

How has increased anti-immigrant rhetoric affected City of Sanctuary?

After the riots this summer, I didn’t know if I could keep working in this space. People we worked with were scared to leave their hotels, and other hotels were being attacked. It was hard, and it affected our whole team.

Since then, we’ve been having mental health support from a collective that counsels specifically on race issues. While we work with refugees, the actual work centers around racist policies and mindsets. It puts us in a juxtaposition—you can pretend you’re working in the refugee sector, but you’re not.

We’re developing a new strategy and leaning into being an outspokenly anti-racist organization. It’s always been in our core values, but as the right focuses on ‘other-ing’ migrants, it’s our responsibility to stand up for that more. As we embrace this, we’re figuring out how to bring our groups and institutions along on that journey. I doubt it would ruffle any feathers, but it is a difference in language. It may have been easier for groups to be pro-refugees, but now we’re telling them they have to be firmly anti-racist, too.

An excerpt from Malka Al-Haddad’s poetry collection, “Birds Without Sky.” Malka is a Sanctuary Ambassador and donates her royalties to support City of Sanctuary UK.

What is one of the most impactful experiences you’ve had or witnessed with City of Sanctuary?

For me, it’s the Sanctuary in Politics course. It’s made up of people who’ve fled their countries of origin for different reasons, who’ve had to embark on some kind of harrowing journey to get here. Then, upon coming here, they’ve been accosted by a hostile government’s policies.

Through the course, I see what happens when people feel heard and safe. They unfold, letting their personalities closer to how they were at home come through. While it’s still engaging with their migration status, it’s in a different, empowering way—with us looking to them as experts, instead of people who need help. That changes everything.

Excerpts from a free guide developed by City of Sanctuary on how to start having courageous conversations around refugee rights. Download it here.

Where does the organization wish to grow in the next few years?

We’re consulting our ambassadors on what that looks like. Right now, I see our institutional work growing. We’re helping councils write policies promoting greater inclusion for people in the asylum system. This directly changes how local governments provide people with benefits.

I also think our arts network will grow. We want to provide ever-more meaningful support to our sanctuary ambassadors and question how institutions interact with getting awarded. We want to push them with every award cycle. We don’t want to see them continue to do what they were doing before. Instead, we want them to engage with what being awarded means and see it influence their work going forward.

Meanwhile, the issues are changing in councils. Housing has always been critical, but as more and more people get their statuses, it’s become central. Folks are being evicted from hotels and have nowhere to go. For example, in Southwark, 400 people got their status on the same day, leaving the local council with only 28 days to find them housing. Supporting these local institutions and building networks for them to support each other is becoming more of what we do. We’re a movement-building organization—this is how it looks in practice.

A huge thank-you to Ashley for taking the time to share more about her role, work, and vision as a defender of migrant rights with City of Sanctuary! We’re truly impressed by how all-encompassing City of Sanctuary’s work is, especially in a political climate that is working so hard to discourage organizations like it. By uniting communities across the UK, City of Sanctuary is ensuring the roots of positive change, and we can’t wait to watch as it continues to grow.

Their next major fundraising campaign is from 3-10 December, and we highly encourage your support! To keep up with City of Sanctuary’s work, follow them online here.