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Opinion

How immigrants could help us deal with the climate crisis

09 Oct 2022 6 minute read
Kiki’s father in his allotment. Photo Kiki Rees-Stavros

Kiki Rees-Stavros

Approaching Tan y Fron, you could be forgiven for thinking that you had stumbled into a Greek mountain village. Santorini-blue window frames peep out from under a grape vine that reaches the second floor of the little miner’s cottage.

Under a patchwork of wooden offcuts and panes of glass, mismatched pots growing beans, figs, and fresh herbs spill into the apothiki, where years of parts and pieces that might come in handy one day bide their time. Nothing is thrown away, nothing is wasted.

In the kitchen bread becomes rusks, bones become stock, and foil is folded up and reused. It is impossible to pop in without leaving with a pot of yuvetsi or moussaka, some homemade jam, or a bag of muddy potatoes.

My dad, who will be 70 next year, moved to Blaenau Ffestiniog at the start of the ‘90s, after sweeping my mum off her feet on her holiday to Corfu.

While that is the short story, there was a mostly unspoken shadow over my dad’s migration, as he would be unable to return to Greece for over 20 years.

Corfu

Hearing nostalgia-tinged stories of Greece growing up, I imagined Corfu as a kind of Garden of Eden. Almost everything that made it to the family table had come from the garden, from the olive oil to the wine, and if it hadn’t there was a good chance that it had been swapped for something that had.

Now, in an allotment in North Wales, overshadowed by slate tips, growing his own food helps my dad stay connected to his culture and cultivate friendships.

One of the people he admires most in the allotment is Cindy. Cindy left Vietnam as a teenager, after growing up in a rural farming village in Lang Son.

Working in the allotment brings back memories of her childhood, and she enjoys the sense of community, the sharing of skills, knowledge and even plants with other growers.

While rice, corn and pumpkins grew plentifully in her old village, in Blaenau she has had to ask her neighbours what will grow best in this climate.

She explains that her two plots in the allotment take almost as much work as acres of rice, due to the wet weather and the abundance of weeds and pests.

This hasn’t stopped her though, as her patch overflows with different berries, flowers, and vegetables. She points to the Jerusalem artichokes that my dad shared with her and tells me how she has learnt to take cuttings of her blackberries to share with others.

Cindy’s daughter picks raspberries behind us while we chat, and her mother explains the importance of her children seeing how things grow rather than thinking they come from a box in the supermarket, and her wish for them to learn the importance of patience, hard work and commitment.

Cindy almost echoes my dad when she speaks about sustainability, and explains that without bins in her mountain village, they had to be mindful about waste.

She recalls that they were almost completely self-sufficient, only buying rare staples such as salt, which would come wrapped in newspaper rather than plastic.

‘Every culture has different wisdom that they can bring to the table, and we can all learn from each other.’- Cindy. Photo Kiki Rees-Stavros

Speaking to Cindy and my dad, I’m struck by two things. Although I’ve heard of programmes across the UK using allotments to help immigrants integrate and to share skills with locals, it’s wonderful to see this happening organically here in our little Welsh town.

I also think it’s ironic that so much mainstream discourse focuses on the need for immigrants to assimilate, to become more like ‘us’- when really, we should be asking what we can learn from them.

As I look up at the slate tips, I wonder how Blaenau would have developed without the mass migration that fed the quarries in the 19th century.

Would these slate tips be here if people hadn’t come from far and wide to work?

Would the industrial revolution have been possible without migrants from all over the world?

Knowledge

What if, instead of presenting immigrants as drains on society, we could welcome them as valuable human beings bringing with them valuable knowledge and experience that could help us all deal with the looming crises?

In Mauritania, a country which is at the forefront of the climate crisis, this is already happening. With over 85,000 refugees from Mali arriving in the country since 2012, there is potential for yet more conflict over scarce resources.

However, there are reports of refugees and locals sharing knowledge and skills, particularly around preserving water and growing techniques.

While most of Blaenau’s residents may think that my dad is crazy for trading the warm waters of the Ionian for the cold mountains of Snowdonia, he has travelled to over 50 countries, and hasn’t found a better climate than in north Wales.

While we may struggle not to laugh at this, he calls it Ipia – mild. The summers aren’t too hot, and the winters aren’t too cold. The perfect growing climate.

This will be Blaenau’s power in the future, with many areas of the globe becoming uninhabitable to humans due to climate change.

Estimates for the number of climate refugees by 2050 range up to 1.2 billion, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), with some of them potentially from as little as 20 miles away.

While we may not always be able to bank on my dad’s claim that ‘there is no extreme weather here’ we are certainly geographically well placed to deal with it.

One thing that we can bank on is that growing our own food, reducing waste, and consuming less are going to be essential to our survival as a species.

For many of us this will mean making big adjustments to the way we live. For others, like my dad and Cindy, it hasn’t taken a climate crisis for them to learn the importance of living sustainably.

Our willingness and ability to learn from each other, to share knowledge, skills and resources will be as vital to our survival as water and arable land.

Kiki Rees-Stavros is one of the participants in GALWAD’s People’s Newsroom.

GALWAD is part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, co-commissioned with Creative Wales with funding from Welsh Government and UK Government galwad.cymru


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Tanwg
Tanwg
1 year ago

Inspirational report, dod a llawenydd i nghalon.👏

I.Humphrys
I.Humphrys
1 year ago

It depends on the scale, as well we all know.

Y Tywysog Lloegr a Moscow
Y Tywysog Lloegr a Moscow
1 year ago
Reply to  I.Humphrys

Well levels are far too low at the moment as evidenced by the massive skill shortage in the UK jobs market. Medical, technology, construction, manufacturing etc all have roles they cannot fill. Even as the economy nosedives under the stewardship of the Brexiteer government and companies close, there are still not enough talented professionals entering the market to keep up with demand. So lying chancers are wasting the time of companies because they see an opportunity. These gaps used to be filled by skilled professionals from overseas. I wonder why so few are attracted here now. Although I hear there’s… Read more »

Last edited 1 year ago by Y Tywysog Lloegr a Moscow
Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago

The EU grant days and the last dozen Tory years have seen a boom time for lying chancers and professional con-men from the legal, business and political world operating in Wales. Much the same as the post American Civil War saw a hoard of ‘Carpet Baggers’ invade the Southern States of America…

Last edited 1 year ago by Mab Meirion
Rhufawn Jones
Rhufawn Jones
1 year ago

Da iawn, Nation.Cymru. Mwy o newyddion lleol fel hyn. Mae Cymru yn gymuned o gymunedau, a thrwy feithrin cymunedau fel hyn fe godwn Gymru newydd o lwch yr ymerodraeth bwdr. Mae croeso i bawb yma, ond am wladychwyr ac imperialwyr, y cyfryw rai sydd elynion y genedl.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago

It is with deep sadness that we heard that Dafydd Jones of Yr Hen Bost Bookshop of Blaenau Ffestiniog passed away yesterday. Our hearts go out to his wife Elen and family…

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