Beyond the Headlines: Un-Mapping Asylum Accommodation

In this interactive 45–50-minute workshop held at Senate House, young people aged 14–18 become critical social science researchers to investigate media narratives surrounding asylum accommodation.

Using a large-scale neighbourhood map, students analyse two contrasting media headlines to uncover what gets hidden in public debates.

Through guided mapping exercises using color-coded stickers, collective discussions, and flipcharts, participants reflect on how local places may be transformed by asylum seekers’ accommodation, how different people may experience these transformations, and how broader institutional and political forces shape these local dynamics.

The session concludes with a brief fill-in-the-blank reflection card where students imagine new headlines grounded in their research insights.

This interactive workshop uses human geography and social science to investigate how media headlines report on so-called "asylum hotels" and how local communities may actually experience them. Rather than asking whether news stories are right or wrong, the session invites young people to act as spatial researchers, exploring what traditional media narratives leave out.

Through hands-on mapping of a fictional neighbourhood, attendees will address key questions:

How do high streets, schools or GP surgeries, transform when temporary accommodation is established?

Why do different people experience the exact same neighbourhood changes in vastly different ways?

How much control do local communities actually have over these changes, compared to national policies and wider political forces?

Attendees will gain practical critical-thinking skills, learning how to analyse media claims by grounding them in local geography and lived experiences. They will discover how local tensions are often shaped by national decisions and explore how places can be understood beyond simple "us versus them" headlines.

Expect an engaging, hands-on session using maps, stickers, and interactive group discussions

Paolo Novak, Reader in Migration and Border Studies

Development Studies Department, SOAS

young people aged 14-18

This event will be of particular interest to young people aged 14–18, and school groups interested in media literacy, citizenship, social sciences, and geography.

It is also particularly relevant to teenagers curious about how news headlines are constructed, how local communities change, and how public spaces are experienced by different people in everyday life.

By invitation only