Practising Home in a Time of COVID-19 Pandemic

Community researchers and the project team will interview migrants, refugees and people from diverse cultural backgrounds in London and Liverpool, both hotspots of COVID-19, alongside people working in related organisations, about their experiences of, and feelings towards, home during the pandemic. 

We are keen, too, to explore how the instruction to ‘stay home’ to ‘protect the NHS’ resonates with government initiatives to encourage or force migrants to ‘go home’, some of whom live in temporary and insecure accommodation, have no recourse to public funds or have been detained, making them even more vulnerable to COVID-19. Many migrants are saving lives by working for the NHS and in care homes.

The research team will also interview people in different faith communities, faith leaders and those involved in interfaith work about the changing relationship between communal and private worship, religious festivals under lockdown and the impact of marking life-cycle events at home.  

Interviews will take place online or, when restrictions allow, in person at a mutually convenient place and time. 

The material will form the basis of a range of creative outputs including podcasts and films and to inform policy on how such inequalities can be addressed.

If you are interested in contributing to the research, please contact Annabelle Wilkins on a.wilkins@qmul.ac.uk (leading on ethnicity and migration) or Miri Lawrence m.lawrence@qmul.ac.uk (leading on religion). 

*Above header photo credited to Museum of the Home - Stay Home Collection