books review

The Immigration Game - Rahila Gupta and Kate Clanchy

Brighton Festival

Two female writers with a similar desire to articulate their empathy with the immigrants that they have come into contact with shared excerpts from their books and answered questions concerning their methodology and opinions. The stories, different in approach and purpose, come together in highlighting the personal struggles that immigrants face before and after their arrival into this country. Clanchy, a self-confessed 'middle England liberal', uses these points of reference to question her Albanian friend and employee, who happens to be the same age, and has produced a narrative that follows the complexity of their relationship. Gupta has encountered far more stories and recounts a series of them from the immigrants' viewpoints. As both writers read from their books I wondered how we can provide asylum for a whole world full of tragic stories; but Gupta addressed this with facts that she uncovered that show that more UK residents have left the country than immigrants have been allowed in. The question for me then becomes how do we better help the dispossessed and vulnerable in our society. I guess we start by learning who they are.

Old Court House, 21 May, 7:30pm, £7.50, fpp 35

tw rating: 3/5

published: Aug-2008

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