For February’s theme of Connections, Paul V Dudman, Archivist for the Living Refugee Archive at the University of East London, has written about the refugee histories within their archive collections and the importance of building connections.
The UN Refugee Convention
In 2026 we will be marking the 75th anniversary of the UN Refugee Convention. Established in 1951 following the mass displacement witnessed during and after the end of the Second World War, the UN Refugee Convention laid down the legal definition of a refugee. They were a person who “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of [their] nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail [themself] of the protection of that country.” (Refugees, no date).
The Convention established the status of refugees and the legal rights they could expect under international law. These would be instrumental to both nation state and inter-governmental responses to subsequent human displacement. Furthermore, they would also define the nation of refugeedom within legal, political and social discourse.
The problem with current discourse
Current discourse on any issue relating to immigration or the rights of the refugee have become increasingly toxic with increased hostility directed towards refugees and asylum seekers. We have witnessed demonstrations focusing on the accommodation of refugees in hotels (Adu, 2025; Badshah, 2025; Correspondent, no date); increased political rhetoric echoing the words of Enoch Powell in describing the United Kingdom as an `island of strangers’ (Mason and editor, 2025) and recently criticism of the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) being labelled as `a taxi service for asylum seekers.’ (RNLI donations soar after Nigel Farage’s ‘taxi service for migrants’ comment, 2021; ‘Nothing patriotic’ about RNLI protest, says Poole MP, 2026; Reporters, 2026)
The need for Connections
This only highlights the importance of working towards building connection between communities and establishing safe spaces for our shared heritage to be documented, preserved and made accessible. One such example is the Living Refugee Archive at the University of East London, (UEL). Established in 2015 as part of a pilot civic engagement project undertaken by the UEL Archives in collaboration with researchers at the UEL Centre for Refugees, Migration and Belonging (CMRB). The Living Refugee Archive has had the two-fold objective of increasing the accessibility and visibility to a growing collection of archives documenting the lived experience of migration. Additionally, we envisaged this online portal would be utilised as a tool to help connect communities through community engagement and participatory projects encouraging co-curation of exhibitions and ethical representations of refugee history.
The UEL Archives were founded in 2002 with the arrival of the Refugee Council Archive. Originally founded as two separate organisations, the British Council for Aid to Refugees (BCAR) and the Standing Committee on Refugees (SCOR) in 1951, following the implantation of the 1951 Convention, these two organisations would later merge to become the Refugee Council, one of the UK’s largest charities focusing on supporting refugees and asylum seekers.
Over the subsequent two decades, the UEL Archives has built up a growing collection of archives focusing on refugee and migration issues, predominantly on exploring ethical methodologies for undertaking anti-oppressive and bottom-up life history work with displaced communities. Since 2015 the Living Refugee Archive has become an invaluable means of helping us to build connections with communities and to help develop participatory archive projects.
What does the Living Refugee Archive do?
To date we have worked on collaborative projects with the Ugandan Asian, Chilean and Syrian communities on archiving and oral history projects. These projects help communities to document and preserve their own community history. This has included exhibitions like Crafting Resistance: The Art of Chilean Political Prisoners which documented the experiences of Chilean political prisoners. We also regularly publish our own online open-access journal called Displaced Voices: A Journal of Migration, Archives and Cultural Heritage where we particularly encourage writers from refugee backgrounds to contribute.
We are currently working on a collaborative project with colleagues at the City Lit adult education college planning an exhibition and a series of events for Refugee Week 2026. We continue to look to build relationships and make connections to help ensure that communities have a space for participatory and collaborative cultural heritage work. We welcome new connections and collaborations as we look towards the next decade of our work with the Living Refugee Archive.
Further information
Written by Paul V Dudman, Archivist for the Living Refugee Archive at University of East London
Edited by Isabel Lauterjung, Blog Coordinator for Explore Your Archive
Find out more about the LRA here: Living Refugee Archive
References
Adu, A. (2025) ‘Labour won the legal battle over asylum hotels, but the right is running the story’, The Guardian, 29 August. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/aug/29/labour-won-the-legal-battle-over-asylum-hotels-but-the-right-is-running-the-story (Accessed: 29 August 2025).
Badshah, N. (2025) ‘Anti-racism and anti-immigration protesters in Falkirk face off outside asylum hotel’, The Guardian, 16 August. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/aug/16/anti-racism-and-anti-immigration-protesters-in-falkirk-face-off-outside-asylum-hotel (Accessed: 22 August 2025).
Correspondent, C.P.| C.K., Northern Correspondent |. Lara Wildenberg |. Aubrey Allegretti, Chief Political (no date) Wave of protests planned at migrant hotels this weekend. Available at: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/protests-london-this-weekend-3sbtl52sv (Accessed: 22 August 2025).
Mason, R. and editor, R.M.W. (2025) ‘Keir Starmer says he “deeply regrets” island of strangers speech’, The Guardian, 27 June. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jun/27/keir-starmer-says-he-deeply-regrets-island-of-strangers-speech (Accessed: 12 August 2025).
‘Nothing patriotic’ about RNLI protest, says Poole MP (2026) Bournemouth Echo. Available at: https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/25843717.poole-mp-neil-duncan-jordan-concerned-protest-rnli/ (Accessed: 16 February 2026).
Refugees (no date) UNHCR UK. Available at: https://www.unhcr.org/uk/about-unhcr/who-we-protect/refugees (Accessed: 16 February 2026).
Reporters, T. (2026) ‘Protesters accuse RNLI of being “taxi service” for asylum seekers’, The Telegraph, 14 February. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02/14/protesters-accuse-rnli-being-taxi-service-asylum-seekers/ (Accessed: 16 February 2026).
RNLI donations soar after Nigel Farage’s ‘taxi service for migrants’ comment (2021) The National. Available at: https://www.thenational.scot/news/19477781.nigel-farage-rnli-donations-soar-taxi-service-migrants-comment/ (Accessed: 16 February 2026).
