Making migration matter - one step at a time
We already know that Sheffield's Migration Matters is a movement - in more ways than one based on some of the more dance-orientated events. So why not take it to the next logical step - with a 5k run!
We already know that Sheffield’s Migration Matters is a movement - in more ways than one based on some of the more dance-orientated events. So why not take it to the next logical step - with a 5k run.
Comms professional Ellen Beardmore decided that, on the back of organising the PR for this year’s event across Sheffield, she should combine her passion for this vibrant cultural festival with her love of running.
And why not, she thought, have the run bookended not by locations that have shaped the city’s migration journies, but by the people who have been offered sanctuary, hope and a future for their families in our fine South Yorkshire city.
I was honoured to be able to join the inaugural Forged By Migration 5k run from Kelham Island to London Road and back recently - from my experience, this is a movement that looks set to continue. Putting your trainers on and running with strangers is something we can do without even thinking about the enormous privilege we have to be able to do just that. And of course, it comes at a time when migration and migration stories have polarised communities.
But this run was like no other, Ellen had organised a series of talks across the city from people who have come to the city as refugees, in many cases fleeing war and oppression.
Stopping outside the City of Sanctuary shop on Chapel Walk, we meet Iranian Bita, who first came to Sheffield in 2001, and was housed in the Park Hill flats - now a home for Frahm-wearing 50-something boomers and interior designers but then one of the most hostile environments you could imagine, especially for a young lady fleeing her home country.
Standing proud in front of the shop, she makes a compelling case for how Sheffield had supported her towards her role today as an interpreter. Her quiet humility, adapting and thriving in the steel city after being placed in an isolating and lonely high-rise, inspires one of the other runners to share her story - had been indebted to the shop and its staff when she had fled war-torn Ukraine - to the points that she now considered herself and her family 40 per cent Sheffield. This year her youngest son had completed his GCSEs.
Inspired, we run on, stopping next at a small green near Waitrose to meet Nadia. If there’s one thing that’s going to give flagging runners the munchies, it’s hearing from Nadia about her Migration Menu podcast, which she has set up on Soundcloud to offer a flavour of the multi-cultural treats on offer on London Road and Abbeydale Road. I was expecting to be uplifted on this run, but I wasn’t expecting a handful of recommedations for South Indian breakfasts (pro-tip, I am all over a Desi breakfast now!).
Hungry but inspired, we return to town to meet Mehria, from Afghanistan, who provides us with the most emotive talk of all about why Migration Matters. Formerly working in a humanitarian role in Afghanistan, she never expected to become a refugee. The Taliban changed all this, forbidding her from socialising with friends, ordering her to change her appearance and forcing her to seek legal migration routes through Pakistan and, eventually to Sheffield. Her love of Sheffield and its people is genuine, but she says, in recent times, she has experienced hostility as well.
“Some say to me, go back to your country, but how can I have a country? I didn’t choose this.”
In all cases, we hear about families separated, making the most difficult decisions that have led them to Sheffield’s door. And this is the triumph of the Forged by Migration run - we make new friendships, and discover a greater meaning to the routes we know and have travelled so well. And all by putting one step in front of another. Hopefully Ellen’s idea will travel far and wide as the city gears towards the 20th anniversary of City of Sanctuary in June 2027. But we still have some distance to go to ensure these voices are heard.
