Hidden Voices: Urban Refugees is a video produced by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and MediaServe International. The short film highlights the daily struggles facing thousands of urban refugees living in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi. In their own words, the refugees tell of how they face poverty, harassment and violence as they make their way in the urban environment.
The newly released DVD title On a Tightrope is an additional resource for understanding the culture and situation of China’s Muslim Uighur minority in the wake of the current crisis.
It is a portrayal of four children at a government orphanage in Xinjiang who despite religious persecution maintain their cultural heritage through learning the ancient Uighur tradition of tightrope walking.
The film has won several awards, including a nomination at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.
Between January 6th and 10th 2008, the 11th International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) conference was hosted by the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program of the American University in Cairo. The Forced Migration Online team attended to participate and record audio at the plenary events for the FMO podcast series. Details of the podcasts have been posted on this blog.
Our conference round-up begins with a video review of the event produced by the IASFM rapporteur John Nassari. The video is a part of the rapporteur’s conference report, along with a more traditional oral report which was delivered in the final plenary session of the conference. The video report features participants reading quotes which were originally spoken by others during the conference.
Whilst FMO is continuing to expand it’s video section, YouTube is undoubtedly the most popular repository of videos on the Internet (accounting for more than 60% of all videos watched online in the US). Although it might be written off by some as only having entertainment value, there are in fact many individuals and organisations who are using YouTube (and other video sharing services) to broadcast their message to the world. Searching the YouTube website can often uncover films about forced migration, not only from FMO, but key organisations such as UNHCR (FMO is not responsible for the content of external web sites).
The web page for the video Lost Nation: Stories from the Uyghur diaspora has been updated to feature the interviews as 5 individual films. These can be viewed in a web browser (QuickTime or Flash format) or via iTunes.
Enver Tohti, London
Discusses personal migration and Uyghur Chinese relations
Gulamettin Emet, New York
Discusses his personal migration in 1940s to India, then Turkey and Germany before being the first Uyghur to settle in the USA
Enver Can, Munich
Discusses personal migration and treatment of Uyghurs in Afghanistan and China.
