Episode description

Asylum and 'home' - the impact of asylum dispersal and Syrian refugees' quest for home. Laurie Taylor talks to Jonathan Darling, Associate Professor in Human Geography at Durham University, about the system of housing and support for asylum seekers and refugees in Britain, from the first outsourced asylum accommodation contracts in 2012 to the renewed wave of outsourcing pursued by the Home Office today. Drawing on six years of research into Britain's dispersal system, and foregrounding the voices and experiences of refugees and asylum seekers, he argues that dispersal has caused suffering and played a central role in the erasure of asylum from public concern.

Also, Vicki Squire, Professor of International Politics at the University of Warwick, discusses the narrative recollections of people who have survived the current Syrian War, only to confront the challenges of forced displacement and relocation, from the West Midlands to London, Canada. What is the meaning of home to those who are subjected to complex migratory journeys and carry memories of extended family, community and homeland in a conflict which has displaced half the population? How do refugees create home ‘away’ from home?

Producer: Jayne Egerton