As part of our theme Who We Are, we’re celebrating all of the positive things people bring when they join our communities. As a City of Sanctuary, Birmingham is proud to be a place of safety, and has gained a huge amount from welcoming people here – throughout our history and today.
Unfortunately, the message that is being spread in the media is one of fear and division.
Can we change the message and show the positives of welcoming refugees?
Our friends at City of Sanctuary are encouraging people to contact local media outlets, with positive stories that show how compassion and welcome are more popular than cruelty and division. They’re focussing on the local media, which is more widely consumed and trusted than national media – and which is often actively looking for local stories, letters to the editor and phone-in opinions.
There are lots of resources to get you started on the City of Sanctuary website, and you can pop into Peace Hub for more advice and a friendly chat.
Key messaging from City of Sanctuary
- Over the last few years there have been increasingly cruel and expensive policies directed towards refugees – they clearly don’t work, but they do ruin lives.
- Fear, hostility and division are detrimental to us all.
- When we welcome people seeking safety, when people are allowed to rebuild their lives in their communities, everyone is better for it.
- Welcome is everyone’s business – and everyone benefits. Everyone wins when compassion, kindness and fairness are the priority.
- Supporting people who need our help is the right thing to do. It should be something we’re proud of.
- Turning our backs on people in their time of need, shirking our responsibility and punishing those who desperately need protection does not represent who we are as a country.
- It is time for something better. I want to see those in charge leading with compassion, and standing up for what is right.
- I couldn’t be prouder of how our community has stepped up. Now it’s time for our government to do the same.
- It’s time for a fair, just and kind new plan for people seeking safety.
Peace Hub is supporting this campaign through our connections to the Birmingham City of Sanctuary group, as we feel it is a positive campaign that fits our current theme. It should not be inferred that City of Sanctuary UK endorses Peace Hub in any way.
Stock photo by Gül Işık on Pexels.com