Table Of ContentLooking to London
Also by Cynthia Cockburn:
Anti-militarism: Political and Gender Dynamics of Peace Movements
From Where We Stand: War, Women’s Activism and Feminist Analysis
The Line: Women, Partition and the Gender Order in Cyprus
The Postwar Moment: Militaries, Masculinities and International Peacekeeping
(co-edited with Dubravka Zarkov)
The Space Between Us: Negotiating Gender and National Identities in Conflict
Bringing Technology Home: Gender and Technology in a Changing Europe
(co-edited with Ruza Fürst-Dilić)
Gender and Technology in the Making (co-authored with Susan Ormrod)
In the Way of Women: Men’s Resistance to Sex Equality in Organizations
Two-Track Training: Sex Inequalities and the Youth Training Scheme
Machinery of Dominance: Women, Men and Technical Know-how
Brothers: Male Dominance and Technological Change
The Local State: Management of Cities and People
Looking to London
Stories of War, Escape and Asylum
Cynthia Cockburn
First published 2017 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Cynthia Cockburn 2017
The right of Cynthia Cockburn to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
The author is the source of all photographs except where otherwise noted.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 9922 5 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 9921 8 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 7868 0126 5 PDF eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0128 9 Kindle eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0127 2 EPUB eBook
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the
country of origin.
Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America
For Charles,
with whom I became a Londoner.
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
1. London: Magnet for Migrants 9
2. From South-East Turkey to North-East London:
Kurds in Hackney 31
3. From the Horn of Africa to the Isle of Dogs:
Somalis in Tower Hamlets 65
4. Home for Whom? Tamils in Hounslow and Home
Office Detention 98
5. The Sudans’ Divided People Come to Camden 134
6. Syrian War, Migration Crisis and ‘Refugees Welcome’
in Lambeth 167
Notes 211
Index 234
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank very warmly all who have supported me in researching
and writing this book. Each chapter ends with a footnote, naming and
thanking the many people who generously spent time helping me with
it. Midway through the project I was unexpectedly hospitalized twice
for cancer surgery and received memorable NHS care at University
College London Hospital (UCLH), and afterwards at Heathgrove
Lodge nursing home in the London Borough of Barnet. Special thanks
go to the community of NHS surgeons, doctors, nurses, physios, care
workers, cleaners and others from whose skill and kindliness I benefited
in those months. I continued my study of London’s demography from
my UCLH hospital bed: of the first 56 staff of all grades I encountered
on the ward, I estimate that only 12 per cent were white British, while
88 per cent were migrants originating in 22 different countries. Here
was London’s celebrated diversity expressed within the walls of a
single workplace, a clear parallel to the place-based communities I was
writing about in the localities ‘out there’. While recovering the strength
I needed to cope with buses and tubes, I often called on the services of
a local cab company, Prime Cars, and would like to thank Kamrul and
other helpful drivers for enlivening journeys in rain and shine.
My greatest joy in life is the company of my daughters, Claudia
Cockburn and Jess Coburn, and my beloved grand-daughters, Elsa
Maria, Josie and Deniel. I know you know what your never-failing
love and encouragement means to me. Many friends, too, supported
me in getting home and back to work. Thanks to you all, but most
particularly to you, Liz (Khan) and Sue (Finch), who gave so much
time to my needs.
Finally, my publishers. It’s been a great pleasure to return to Pluto
Press, who trusted me enough back in the 1970s to publish my first
book, and several subsequently. It was good to find them surviving
and thriving after many setbacks, and as supportive as ever. My
special thanks to Anne Beech, Pluto’s perceptive and positive-minded
viii
acknowledgements
Editor-in-Chief, who encouraged me to persist with the book despite
setbacks, and guided me gently through the final stages of writing and
editing. Thanks also to Emily Orford, Neda Tehrani, Melanie Patrick,
Robert Webb and other Pluto staff who helped in so many ways to get
the book into print. Looking to London has many failings, this I know.
But all of them are down to me, and in spite of the best efforts of all the
many people I name and thank.
ix
