A positive message on immigration

Upon returning to England from New Zealand I felt the anti-immigrant voices were becoming much more confident throughout the general election. I felt powerless to influence this. Then I thought about how I could counteract these messages and the idea of a banner came to me.

Banner saying thank you to all the immigrants working in our health services and our care homes. We are very glad you came to Britain.
The banner outside Marion's house. Photo: Marion Mcnichol

Throughout my year in Wellington, New Zealand as a Resident Friend I began to understand better the experience of colonisation and how marginalised groups are affected by negative messages and stereotypes.

Feeling powerless

I returned to England and felt the anti-immigrant voices were becoming much more confident throughout the general election. I felt powerless to influence this.

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I decided that I should not be afraid to speak my truth.

- Marion Mcnichol, Reading Local Meeting

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Initially I thought about funding an advertising hoarding but then thought of my own banner; they are fairly cheap to buy on the internet. I felt nervous about hanging it out of the upstairs window when it arrived as my 7–year–old grandson was sleeping in that room. I wondered if it would attract a brick through the window but decided that I should not be afraid to speak my truth.

Redressing the balance

The banner stayed up for a month on a busy bus route and went viral on Twitter. Someone sent it to Alastair Campbell and he retweeted it to 24,000 followers. I felt so much better having taken some power back for myself.

I then took the banner to the town meal attended by 300 people and hung it on the bandstand, watching as people photographed it and talking to some of them. A man from Ghana asked me to pose with the banner, wanting to tell me how hard he worked and he sent it off on Facebook to friends in Ghana. I could see that people liked it by how many times it was photographed and felt proud to have done a small thing to redress the balance.

Speaking my truth

The badges "I'm a Quaker ask me why" encourage us to speak our truth more confidently and this was a push towards taking this action.

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