Life in Detention: Journey and Border

This auto-ethnographic chapter is written from my perspective as an advocacy coordinator, theatre maker, and as a human rights campaigner since 2010. I reflect on my experiences witnessing how people negotiate processes of national and community ‘bordering’ and the role that creativity plays therein. ‘Bordering’ here refers to the everyday difficulties people experience while navigating the system. I examine three examples of bordering from Greece to Glasgow, elaborate on first-hand testimonies from various field visits, and reflect on the different creative practices that people employ in order to survive the border. First, I examined journey-making across national borders in Greece and France, where I met with people experiencing migration and spoke with local politicians and groups providing support for people as part of a witness-bearing delegation. Second, I discuss life in detention in Scotland. Migrating people systematically face various forms of imprisonment, whether it be the isolation of being detained, the exploitation of enforced destitution (not being able to access work or education), or the fear of deportation. Third, I explore other internal forms of bordering via migrant integration and the creative approaches to integration that might challenge the labels placed upon people who migrate. Throughout this chapter, I focus on how presenting refugee experiences through the medium of art opens out a space for engagement and dialogue, escaping the often febrile and argumentative spaces of public and media discourse.