Abstract
This presentation takes as its starting point analyses of the Mediterranean as a concept, and then sets out to interrogate the use of Alessandra's notion: "The Black Mediterranean". To do this, we draw on contemporary discourses concerning Africans, and in particular the stark contrast between the 21st century experiences of a number of individuals of African descent in Britain: economic migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, and the dominant newspaper discourse inBritain since the 1990s. This presentation will examine how verbal violence, mirroring ontological insecurity for some, opposes or ignores migrants' narratives of resilience and post-traumatic recovery. Drawing on the archives of London's Refugee Council and local newspapers, this presentation takes a critical look at the British political arena, which has tended to hinder the process of integrating these populations into British society. However, a number of accounts of the experiences of Africans who have settled in Wales present stories of a more nuanced, even positive reality, and one that islinked to the way in which the Welsh government manages the issue of migratory flows.
