Looking to London Also by Cynthia Cockburn: Anti-militarism: Political and Gender Dynamics of Peace Movements From Where We Stand: War, Women’s Activism and Feminist Analysis The Line: Women, Partition and the Gender Order in Cyprus The Postwar Moment: Militaries, Masculinities and International Peacekeeping (co-edited with Dubravka Zarkov) The Space Between Us: Negotiating Gender and National Identities in Conflict Bringing Technology Home: Gender and Technology in a Changing Europe (co-edited with Ruza Fürst-Dilić) Gender and Technology in the Making (co-authored with Susan Ormrod) In the Way of Women: Men’s Resistance to Sex Equality in Organizations Two-Track Training: Sex Inequalities and the Youth Training Scheme Machinery of Dominance: Women, Men and Technical Know-how Brothers: Male Dominance and Technological Change The Local State: Management of Cities and People Looking to London Stories of War, Escape and Asylum Cynthia Cockburn First published 2017 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA www.plutobooks.com Copyright © Cynthia Cockburn 2017 The right of Cynthia Cockburn to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The author is the source of all photographs except where otherwise noted. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7453 9922 5 Hardback ISBN 978 0 7453 9921 8 Paperback ISBN 978 1 7868 0126 5 PDF eBook ISBN 978 1 7868 0128 9 Kindle eBook ISBN 978 1 7868 0127 2 EPUB eBook This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin. Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America For Charles, with whom I became a Londoner. Contents Acknowledgements viii Introduction 1 1. London: Magnet for Migrants 9 2. From South-East Turkey to North-East London: Kurds in Hackney 31 3. From the Horn of Africa to the Isle of Dogs: Somalis in Tower Hamlets 65 4. Home for Whom? Tamils in Hounslow and Home Office Detention 98 5. The Sudans’ Divided People Come to Camden 134 6. Syrian War, Migration Crisis and ‘Refugees Welcome’ in Lambeth 167 Notes 211 Index 234 Acknowledgements I wish to thank very warmly all who have supported me in researching and writing this book. Each chapter ends with a footnote, naming and thanking the many people who generously spent time helping me with it. Midway through the project I was unexpectedly hospitalized twice for cancer surgery and received memorable NHS care at University College London Hospital (UCLH), and afterwards at Heathgrove Lodge nursing home in the London Borough of Barnet. Special thanks go to the community of NHS surgeons, doctors, nurses, physios, care workers, cleaners and others from whose skill and kindliness I benefited in those months. I continued my study of London’s demography from my UCLH hospital bed: of the first 56 staff of all grades I encountered on the ward, I estimate that only 12 per cent were white British, while 88 per cent were migrants originating in 22 different countries. Here was London’s celebrated diversity expressed within the walls of a single workplace, a clear parallel to the place-based communities I was writing about in the localities ‘out there’. While recovering the strength I needed to cope with buses and tubes, I often called on the services of a local cab company, Prime Cars, and would like to thank Kamrul and other helpful drivers for enlivening journeys in rain and shine. My greatest joy in life is the company of my daughters, Claudia Cockburn and Jess Coburn, and my beloved grand-daughters, Elsa Maria, Josie and Deniel. I know you know what your never-failing love and encouragement means to me. Many friends, too, supported me in getting home and back to work. Thanks to you all, but most particularly to you, Liz (Khan) and Sue (Finch), who gave so much time to my needs. Finally, my publishers. It’s been a great pleasure to return to Pluto Press, who trusted me enough back in the 1970s to publish my first book, and several subsequently. It was good to find them surviving and thriving after many setbacks, and as supportive as ever. My special thanks to Anne Beech, Pluto’s perceptive and positive-minded viii acknowledgements Editor-in-Chief, who encouraged me to persist with the book despite setbacks, and guided me gently through the final stages of writing and editing. Thanks also to Emily Orford, Neda Tehrani, Melanie Patrick, Robert Webb and other Pluto staff who helped in so many ways to get the book into print. Looking to London has many failings, this I know. But all of them are down to me, and in spite of the best efforts of all the many people I name and thank. ix