'Sport knows no borders, no boundaries, you are judged on how well you play, not where you were born.'
Coinciding with the start of the new Premier League season, several anti-racism charities have teamed up to launch a new campaign aimed at tackling misconceptions about migration.
Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC) has partnered with IMIX, an organisation dedicated to changing the conversation about migration and refugees to create a more welcoming society, and the migrant-led charity, Migrant Voice. The Migration, Making Britain Great partnership campaign wants to show, not only how migration has created one of the greatest football leagues, but how it can ensure that Britain is a great country.
Migrant Voice notes how misinformation and misleading rhetoric spread about migrants has become ‘even more prevalent, particularly in recent years,’ and the term ‘illegal’ has become part of ‘common parlance.’ The campaign aims to shine the spotlight on such derogatory rhetoric and confront it by providing better education around the realities of migration.
Working together, the anti-racism charities will show the facts around migration and celebrate the contributions which migrants make to every part of UK society.
Research by Show Racism the Red Card shows that 70 different nationalities will be represented across 20 different clubs in the Premier League. Newcastle United alone has players of 12 different nationalities on its books this season.
The project involves a number of sporting role models who are providing first-hand experience of migration to prove that sport knows no borders, no boundaries, and how ‘you are judged on how well you play, not where you were born.’
In a video message about the new campaign, Shaka Hislop, a retired footballer and founder of SRtRC, says: “Here at SRtRC we’ve always used football as the foundation for all that we do believing that football and football stadiums are a fair reflection of our society today. We continue to challenge the narratives around immigration and the impact on British Society and we are calling on you to challenge those stereotypes that we see too often, that are damaging to who we are and all that we stand for.”
Nazek Ramadan, director at Migrant Voice, said: “We are immensely proud to be partners with Show Racism the Red Card and IMIX on this incredibly important project. As football shows, immigration, and the diversity it brings, makes our country stronger and more dynamic. We are one team and as a team we all stand together.”
Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward
Image credit: Migration: Making Britain Great
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