In the summer of 2016 the UK Institute of Race Relations posted the following on its website:’ After years and years of struggle against racial hostility to new migrant communities, we are back there again – albeit post Brexit, which, seemingly, has taken the shame out of racism ...  just like in the 1970s, communities up and down the country are experiencing an upsurge in racist and fascist violence’. Six months later the report Racial violence and the Brexit state demonstrated that an analysis of racist incidents following the referendum showed a close link   between the language and behaviour of perpetrators of these incidents and the rhetoric and policy pronouncement of politicians and media narratives that preceded them (Burnett, 2016). In the UK government policy is increasingly being shaped by twin Brexit themes: that immigration is unravelling the identity and coherence of the nation, and that anything foreign, except investment, is abhorrent to its ethos. The increase in identity nationalism and an accompanying rise in racist violence and discriminatory practices against new and settled migrant communities in the UK have been well documented, but such developments are not isolated to the UK alone.  The radical right is organizing across national borders and spreading into virtual spaces as evidenced by a concerted effort to hijack Google’s search ranking system to spread racist and anti-Semitic propaganda (Albright, 2016). Across Europe in the face of the migrant and refugee crisis there has been a myopic focus on integration – ultimately posing ‘diversity’ as a problem (Webber, 2016). Newspapers have increasingly pandered to insecurity, Islamophobia and bigotry towards foreigners. New and established migrant communities have been identified as having ‘regressive’ attitudes and cultural practices and within this narrative European nation states are absolved from any real responsibility in failing to invest in communities, some of which are located within the most deprived areas of Europe’s cities; cities which are characterized by growing ethnic separatism. The EU’s collective response to the refugee crisis has not merely allowed the construction of walls and fences, and equipping military patrols to keep the refugees from its borders, but also has involved embracing dictators and war criminals, returning refugees to war zones, and ditching human rights clauses in trade and aid agreements in favour of demands for help in stopping the refugees from leaving repression and torture (Webber, 2016). The implication of all of these developments is that previously ‘tolerant’ nations have suddenly tipped over some precipice. But this is ahistorical. At the same time the rise of racism across Europe (and the USA) has also seen a reaction with the emergence of new progressive movements, anti-racist alliances and refugee support networks.

 Jacir and Buck-Morss have written of the practice ‘of preserving only “our” past that provides a continuous, linear trajectory for imagining “our” future.’ Representation is not simply a manifestation of power, but an integral part of social processes of differentiation, exclusion, incorporation, and rule’ (Owens, 1992) and once recognised history can be reframed, re-imagined and redefined. However, within the discipline of History the story of migration and settlement continues to be ‘a peripheral area of academic concern’ (Burrell and Panayi, 2006) and Myers, in particular, has been critical of the silence in the history of education in Europe (Myers, 2009).   

The racism that is characterising Europe and the anti-racist movements it has generated need to be understood historically in terms of precedents, strategies and legacies. The aim of this roundtable is to enable a transnational dialogue which will explore the disciplinary failings and silences in the history of education and map a research agenda for the future. 

Albright, J. (2016) ‘The #Election2016 Micro-Propaganda Machine,’ https://medium.com/@d1gi/the-election2016-micro-propaganda-machine-383449cc1fba#.86ubm1x0m Burrell, K and Panayi, P. (2006) (eds.), Histories and Memories: Immigrants and their History in Britain since 1800. Burnett, J. (2016) Racial violence and the Brexit state Depaepe, M. (2004) ‘How Should the History of Education be Written? Goossens, C and Van Gorp, A.(2016) ‘The myth of The Phoenix: progressive education, migration and the shaping of the welfare state, 1985–2015’ Grosvenor, I (2012) ‘“It is on the site of loss that hopes are born.” Migration, Education and the Writing of History’ Grosvenor, I and Myers, K.P. (2011) ‘Birmingham Stories: Local Histories of Migration and Settlement and the practice of history’ Grosvenor, I. and Myers, K. (2014) ‘Cultural learning and historical memory: a research agenda’ Jacir, E. and Buck-Morss, s. (2012) 100 Notes. No004 Documenta 13 Myers, K. P. (2009). ‘Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities in History of Education’ Owens, C. (1992), ‘Representation, Appropriation, and Power’ Padovan-Ozdemir, M. and Ydesen, C. (2016) ‘Racialised entanglements of teacher professionalisation and problematised immigrant schoolchildren: crafting a Danish welfare nation-state, 1970–2013’ Webber, F. (2016) ‘Europe can no longer pretend to respect human rights’ Ydesen, C and Myers, K. P (2016) The imperial welfare state? Decolonisation, education and professional interventions on immigrant children in Birmingham, 1948–19’