It is impossible, unless we have been in their position, to understand what it is like to be a refugee. Fleeing from your home with nothing, no possessions, and often no family. To find refuge, support and a welcome in a community – we can only guess at how wonderful that must feel.
Orkney has always had a strong record of welcoming people into the islands. As an archipelago, everyone living here is either a recent arrival to our shores or is descended from those who came here at some point in time.
When our young people leave for education or work we hope in our hearts that wherever they be that they will be welcomed and supported in those communities.
Today we are witnessing a rise in ideologies that seek to place hate at the centre of political discourse. This is completely at odds with Orcadian culture. It has no place in our islands.
It was an Ayrshire farmer who wrote:
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
It’s comin yet for a’ that,
That Man to Man the warld o’er
Shall brithers be for a’ that.
Robert Burns lived in turbulent times and faced extreme personal hardship when the harvests across Scotland failed. He never forgot the bonds of humanity which tie us all together. He wrote the words of the world’s most famous song which rings out to bring in the New Year with this line: “We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet”.
Hate has no place in Orkney. Refugees are welcome here.
Fiona Grahame