We look back at this unique community engagement project presented as part of our 2025 Festival. The project supported New Scots to research, develop and lead two walking tours of Glasgow’s built environment, one in the Southside and the other in the City Centre. Refugee Histories: Community Walking Tours of Glasgow was developed as a collaboration between Scottish Refugee Council, Radical Glasgow Tours, Migrant Voice and MILK.

How did the tours develop?

Via a series of community research workshops, participants explored connections to historic refugee communities in the city’s built environment. The groups then built on this research to document and incorporate their own experiences of life and everyday negotiations of belonging in Glasgow into a broader narrative of refugee histories and how these can be ‘read’ in the city’s historic buildings and cityscape. The finished walking tours were run for public audiences in June as part of Refugee Festival Scotland’s 2025 anniversary programme, accompanied by printed and digital versions of both tours.

Some of prompts used in the initial workshop sessions included:

• What is your favourite building (anywhere)? Why?
• What is your favourite building in Glasgow? Why?
• If your friend came to Glasgow what place would you recommend they visit? Why?
• What is your favourite place near MILK?
• What is your favourite dish to cook? Where does the dish come from? Where did you learn to make it? When do you make it?

Where did the tours take place and what did they explore?

The historical and creative research undertaken by the groups culminated in two walking tours:

The Glasgow You’ve Never Seen

This tour, created by a group of refugees from Iran, Sudan, and Ukraine, explores histories of refugee lives, arts and cultures in Glasgow through the buildings and landmarks of the city centre.

Do you know which building at Sauchiehall Street served as a thriving refugee hub for many years beginning in 1942? Which city centre hotel hosted Ukrainian refugees fleeing war? And where in the heart of Glasgow can you always see the sun? The answers to these questions, and more insights, can be found on this tour. 

Tastes of Govanhill

This audio walk takes you through space and time, exploring histories of migration and the power of food to connect us with the past, and with different cultures and traditions. 

The tours were presented twice as part of Refugee Festival Scotland 2025, kicked off by a launch event at MILK on 14th June. Printed pamphlets, designed by Yuliia Drymalyk and collectively by the group at MILK, were provided. Digital resource pages were also produced to document each tour including detailed route maps for both walks and for the MILK tour a curated selection of audio clips to accompany each stop.

How did participants’ research and experiences shape the tours?

The direct connection each refugee historian had to their chosen location was crucial in highlighting how buildings and statues serve as sites imbued with meaning and memories for contemporary Glaswegians of refugee backgrounds.

Take, for instance, the Millennium Hotel. It was the first home for a young Ukrainian refugee when she arrived in Glasgow. She shared a powerful memory of the surprise 17th birthday celebration that the hotel staff organized for her—an experience that moved some participants on the tour to tears.

For example, the Migrant Voice tour tells the stories of several buildings – who built them, why they matter, and how they’ve changed. This shifts the perception from “just a street” to “this is where rallies took place”, “this is where refugees were housed”, etc. The personal and sometimes emotional stories shared by our guides helped tour participants feel connected to the place emotionally, not just intellectually.

In an evaluation activity, the Migrant Voice group said they felt they knew the city much better because of taking part. The project gave them a reason to learn about the built environment around them better. For the MILK group, sharing stories, talking about how they prepare dishes, showing off their area and demonstrating their knowledge and expertise were all positives. Knowing that this information could be useful to people, including other New Scots going through a similar journey who would find out about culturally appropriate food through the project, was also a big motivation to contribute.

“It was a completely new creative experience for me to participate in the project “Refugees Histories”. It was very exciting, informative and inspiring for me to take part in the creation, planning, organization, and implementation of the ideas of the project. An excellent creative team where each participant was unique and useful.” Participant

“I really wished I had been younger when having such an experience, but even so, some feelings —mostly related to a person’s youth—were awakened in me. (…) By the end of this project, I had made new friends, felt amazing, and gained new experiences that helped with my personal development.” Participant

Refugee history is not separate from Scottish history – it is Scottish history. You can’t look at Scotland without engaging with longstanding histories of immigration and emigration, and how those have shaped the country and its people.

These guided tours helped to transform local spaces from something merely seen or used into something felt, understood, and remembered. We hope that the refugees who have created these tours, but also those who will attend in the future, can see their own place in the story of Glasgow through the elements of their own cultures and experiences reflected in it.

Thanks to everyone who took part!

Images by Najma Abukar and Katherine Mackinnon

Grant-aided by Glasgow City Heritage Trust