LUMINARIES who have excelled in the chosen professions have posed for a photographic exhibition showcasing the immense contribution of migrants to Scotland.
The collection, captured by photographer Karen Gordon, is being unveiled at Glasgow Caledonian University to mark International Migrants Day.
Entitled ‘Engaging Pictures’, they chart the life stories of leading academics, company directors, sports coaches and carers who have settled in Scotland.
Read more: Wolfson Foundation makes major donation to Glasgow School of Art revamp
One of those featured is Jamaican ex-pat Geoff Palmer, a retired Professor of Grain Science, who left his homeland in 1955 aged just 14.
“My mother had 8 or 9 sisters; I can never remember how many they are,” he reveals. “They all lived in the same house, managed by my grandaunt. One day in 1948 I was told that my mother was going to London and I was to live with my aunts. In 1955, my mother sent for me. The idea of going to London on my own at 14 years worried me a little bit, but I
had to go because my mother wanted me to come to live with her. So my aunts got my passport, a ticket to travel, a suit, and a small suitcase, which I still have. Before I left for the plane, my grand-aunt wrapped me in newspaper because she said London was cold. That the trip by plane and ship took nearly two weeks was not considered by her...”
Professor Palmer retired in 2005 from his work in grain science in the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling at the Heriot Watt University.
Read more: Wolfson Foundation makes major donation to Glasgow School of Art revamp
On the subject of distilling, he said: “What people need is a cup of kindness. Burns was speaking metaphorically in Auld Lang Syne. Whisky in Scottish culture is just like Russian vodka, or American bourbon, or French wine. When somebody asks you to take a drink with them that is an act of kindness... this drink of kindness does not have to be alcoholic. But how many migrants have been asked to join in such a drink? If somebody is not prepared to eat or drink with you, then you’re not part of the system. I think you get that relationship of kindness in a society if somebody sees you as equal.”
The images were taken in 2014 and the exhibition has been produced in partnership with Migrant Voice.
Other subjects featured in the exhibition include Hing Fung Teh, a Tai Chi Instructor of Chinese ancestry who settled in Kirkintilloch after arriving to the UK from Malaysia in 1973; Australian Louise Falconer, the Principal Policy Officer at Glasgow City Council; Bulgarian Ivan Petrov, a home support worker in Glasgow and Robyn Marsack, the former director of the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh who emigrated from New Zealand, among others.
The images are being shown in the foyer of the Centre for Executive Education.
Speaking about her work, Karen Gordon said: “I am so pleased and excited these portraits are being exhibited for International Migrants Day this year, as now, more than ever, the positive aspects of migration need to be highlighted.”
Read more: Wolfson Foundation makes major donation to Glasgow School of Art revamp
GCU will also host ‘Migrants and Migration Post Brexit; finding our voice to influence the new landscape’, a Migrant Voice conference, on January 21.
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