This women's library just became a 'library of sanctuary' for refugees and asylum seekers

Glasgow Women’s Library (GWL) has become the first in Scotland to be recognised as a Library of Sanctuary, a status awarded to organisations that actively welcome and support refugees and people seeking asylum.

“Libraries are really vital community spaces, and community anchors for people. So we’re ideally placed to be doing this kind of work,” Wendy Kirk, a librarian at Glasgow Women’s Library, told Big Issue.

The Library of Sanctuary honour, which makes up a national network of organisations and services including councils, schools, theatres and universities that welcome and support refugees and people seeking asylum, recognises what Kirk describes as the library’s “commitment to be standing in solidarity with people seeking sanctuary.”

Kirk is part of the GWL team running inclusive, welcoming events for women who have experience of “taking sanctuary.” While there are 30 officially recognised Libraries of Sanctuary across the UK, GWL is the only one in Scotland to receive the title.

“For people to be able to come and hear their first language read aloud, for your mother tongue to be celebrated, it’s really important,” she said.

Kirk told the Big Issue that the library offers a wide range of programming supporting women who have experience of “taking sanctuary”, such as conversation groups for people with English as a second language.

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“Some of the work we do [includes] our literacy project… in particular for women who are new to speaking English. Conversation Café is a fortnightly, really welcoming group for women to make friends and chat and practice their conversational English,” she said, adding that GWL also offers volunteering opportunities for refugees and people seeking asylum.

“We do lots in our programming to amplify the voices and experiences of people, refugees and asylum seekers, through our collections and the events that we do. For instance, I do a lunchtime group called Story Café… what we’re reading is exploring stories and poems by women who have experience of seeking sanctuary. We’re reading from an amazing anthology called The Other Side of Hope: Journeys in Refugee and Migrant Literature,” she said. Kirk added that the programmes help challenge misinformation and share real stories about sanctuary and migration.

The librarian told Big Issue that she had worked on programmes like workshops in Urdu poetry and other bilingual events with her colleague Syma Ahmed, who has done “incredible work celebrating and raising awareness of the contributions of migrant communities and migrant women in Glasgow’s history and culture and community life”.

She added: “As a library that’s been founded on equality, that’s really the heart of everything that we do… we’ve been working for a long time in this area, so I feel really proud that we’re the first library of sanctuary in Scotland. It gives us the opportunity to make a visible commitment to being a place of welcome, and to really raise awareness within the wider community of our commitment to be standing in solidarity with people seeking sanctuary.”

Zahra Adams, a volunteer with GWL with lived experience of seeking sanctuary, explained that when she first joined the library in 2022, she “didn’t feel confident because all the people were new to me”.

“But I realised everyone was so kind and welcoming, I quickly felt at ease. GWL helped me improve my English, make new friends, and learn about other cultures. Volunteering in the garden and craft sessions gave me confidence, teamwork skills, and a voice, as well as communication skills.

“GWL is a safe and supportive space where I feel valued and able to grow.”

The announcement was made during Refugee Festival Scotland, which runs from 13 to 22 June and
celebrates and supports Scotland’s refugee community.

“Taking part in Refugee Festival Scotland is so important,” Kirk said. “I think it’s an amazing chance to celebrate and get to raise awareness, and to amplify voices of people with lived experiences, and for people to be able to see themselves reflected in events and in programming, and in our case, in our collections as well.

“Refugee Festival Scotland does amazing work, and we’re going to be participating in that with an event during the festival, and we have taken part for many, many years.”

She added that she would love for companies and organisations to support refugee communities not just during the festival but as part of their everyday programming.

“It’s really important for people to see themselves reflected back and their experiences reflected back,” she explained.

But Kirk also highlighted the wider challenge facing libraries like GWL: funding.

“Funding is always an issue, we’re obviously coming from the library sector, which, as you know, many public libraries have closed or have had their funding cut,” she said.

She stressed that there needed to be “political will” to support libraries and community events like Refugee Festival Scotland.

“If we don’t use our libraries, people are given the ammunition to be able to cut the services,” she said.

Kirk added that as well as a free space to borrow books, libraries are also “spaces that people can go to during the cost of living [crisis] for heating. Libraries have fulfilled an amazing gap for people in terms of having somewhere warm for people to go, somewhere welcoming, somewhere you don’t have to buy anything, no deep questions of why you’re there; all those kinds of things.”

Ensuring our libraries are safe harbours is ‘crucial’

Adele Patrick, Glasgow Women’s Library’s co-director, told Big Issue that gaining Library of Sanctuary status is an “absolute honour” for the team.

She said the library “strives to be a place where people seeking sanctuary, in whatever form, find a place that actively welcomes them over the threshold, that reaches out to them in their neighbourhood or online”.

“We know that libraries are amongst the special few places that people trust. At this time, when so many are experiencing the world as threatening, hostile and violent, ensuring our libraries are indeed safe harbours is all the more crucial.

“Our library offers a non-judgemental, kind space, connections and resources that can bring joy, laughter and friendships; a sanctuary filled with information, learning opportunities and support that help equip people to live their lives, express and be themselves.”

Kirk added that being awarded the honour will help the community to recognise GWL as “visibly standing in solidarity with people” and inspire other libraries to think about becoming part of the network.

“We’ve been doing this, working in equalities, for a long, long time, really, since the library was established [in 1991], and I suppose to have recognition from a really important organisation like City of Sanctuary, we’re just really, really proud.

“I really hope it raises awareness and starts a conversation about what it means to have lived experience of seeking sanctuary in the wider community. That’s really important now more than ever with what’s happening in the political climate.”

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