I’ve spent nearly 35 years of my life as a migration researcher, writer and policy analyst, most recently leading the Migration for Development and Equality (MIDEQ) Hub, one of the world’s largest migration research projects. Since completing my PhD at the University of Oxford in 1999, I’ve worked in and with a wide range of organisations – the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA), UK Home Office, Scottish Refugee Council’s Guardianship Service, Institute for Public Policy Research, UNHCR, Save the Children UK, and Oxfam UK, among others. I’ve worked in academia, with international organisations and NGOs, with refugee and migrant-led groups and the UN: I was previously Head of Equitable Development and Migration at UNU-CPR and I am currently a collaborating researcher with UNRISD working on responses to inequality across the UN system.
My work has brought me into contact with thousands of migrants and refugees around the globe… people who have chosen to leave their own countries to live elsewhere, people who haven’t, and others in between. I’m a migrant myself having left the UK in 2016 to live in Italy.
Lately I’ve been reflecting on how I got to this point and what makes me ‘tick’. I’ve come to the conclusion that two key things, seemingly at odds with one another, matter to me the most.
On that one hand I am driven by the injustices and inequalities I see in the world around me. I find injustice and inequality intolerable, not only because of the impacts they have on the lives and opportunities of those I work with but also because inequalities and injustices undermine the quality of life and relationships for everyone, positioning groups against one another, creating division and undermining the ability of each and everyone of us to fulfil our human potential. I’ve had some experience of this myself…as a child living in poverty, as a teenage mum, as a migrant living in a country that others told me wasn’t mine. I’ve often felt like an outsider, like I didn’t belong, that I wasn’t good enough. But as I’ve grown older I’ve come to realise that this is my strength not my weakness. I know how it feels to be treated unequally, to be written off as useless and good for nothing. And I’ve learnt how to fight for what I believe in and what matters to me, regardless of what other people think or say.
At the same time I am inspired and motivated by beautiful things…people, places, flowers, words. A mountain view. A poem that touches my soul. A garden that makes my heart sing. The sights, smells, sounds of the places I visit. I get particularly excited by food and its potential to connect people, places and ideas, which is why I set up es ne tekrema which is all about food…food being grown, sold, exchanged and traded, food being chopped, steamed, boiled and roasted and of course, food being eaten!
And I’ve learnt to fly, literally and metaphorically. Despite a fear of heights that has made me scream inside, I became a hot air balloon pilot twelve years ago and now have a commercial pilot’s license flying big balloons around the world. For me flying a hot air balloon is a very much a lesson in life. With time, trouble and effort you can take control over some factors – your equipment, the timing of the flight and the general direction of travel. But ultimately you have to go with the flow, use the wind to steer you as much as possible, be prepared for the unexpected and rely upon the kindness of strangers wherever you land. Ballooning has taken me to new places, introduced me to new people. I’ve seen beautiful things and been able to use it to fight some of the injustices facing the Tibetan community in particular.
Many of the things I’m involved with or interested in are documented elsewhere. I have professional webpages with ResearchGate and Academia, project websites for the MIDEQ Hub, personal websites for The Artist and the Professor (with the incredible Laura Nyahuye) and for Ese ne tekrema. And much of my work can be located via GoogleScholar. You can take a look at my CV if you are interested in knowing more!
So what the is the purpose of this website?
The main purpose is to gather up all of the different parts of my work into one place so I can better understand how the different strands and aspects of my work and identity fit together – and so that others can understand that too if they want to or are interested in working with me! I want people to understand that it is possible for us to be more than one thing at a time, that we don’t need to be boxed in by society’s expectations of what we are or should be, that we can be whole people with multiple facets and characteristics, each of which only makes sense if you understand the other.
I also wanted to the chance to be able to reflect on some of the things that I see around me without having to write a long and complicated journal article or a blog oriented towards a particular audience or position. There are so many things that I have an opinion on but about which I do not consider myself to be in any way ‘expert’ and which cannot be adequately reflected upon in a 240 character Tweet. So this website also provides me with a space to share my reflections with anyone interested in them and to process some of the ideas bouncing around in my head with nowhere else to go!
Feel free to engage with the reflections on this website and share some of your own. There are no right answers to any of this complicated stuff!
Heaven Crawley 