Join us as we celebrate Eithne Nightingale's powerful new book and hear readings from a panel of contributors with lived experiences of child migration in Hackney: Rabbi Gluck OBE, Maurice Nwokeji, Linh Vu and Fatim Nikoulare.
Almost half the people displaced worldwide are under 18, yet their voices are rarely heard. This book throws a spotlight on children arriving in Britain from Hitler’s Europe in the 1930s to those escaping war in Ukraine in 2022. It follows the journeys of war- traumatised children from Mogadishu to Mile End and from Syria to a Scottish isle. Some followed their parents to the ‘motherland’ from the former British Empire. Others came independently to escape forced marriage or military conscription.
These powerful testimonies shed light on children’s motivations, trials and achievements, including in adult life, providing critical insight into how the British – both individually and collectively – have welcomed or shunned child migrants. Importantly, Eithne Nightingale links these stories with contemporary issues such as the Windrush Scandal and Britain’s Illegal Migration Act 2023.
We're thrilled to be welcoming four of the book's contributors to tell us their stories.
Linh Vu escaped Vietnam by boat with her father and arrived in UK in 1979, aged seven, leaving her mother and siblings in Saigon. The family reunited in Hackney five years later. Linh studied architecture, ran a Vietnamese restaurant and is helping on an architectural project on the south coast with her husband.
Maurice Nwokeji survived bombs and hunger in the war in Biafra before joining his parents in Hackney, aged nine, in 1970. He is now a reggae musician and will perform music inspired by his childhood experiences of war.
Fatim Nikoulare arrived on her own in Hackney from Guinea in 2006 at the age of 16 speaking no English. After many challenges accessing housing, education and a right to stay she is now a British citizen and works as a theatre nurse on the south coast. .
Rabbi Gluck OBE is the son of Necha Gluck (nee DUX) who came to the UK, aged 10, on the Kindertransport in 1938. He is a prominent and leading British and international rabbi and human rights advocate. He received his OBE from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the second at an investiture in 2013, for promoting interfaith understanding.