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2009年5月 月次レポート（モエデブ・ワエル イギリス）
Report from SOAS, university of London by Moedeb Ouael, May 2009
On May 20th 2009 I arrived at London Heathrow airport to start my research at SOAS. On the following day I went to SOAS where I am supposed to have my research. Once I was there I was welcomed by Miss Arisawa the TUFS office representative at SOAS. She took me around the university, helped me in getting my id card and to go through other enrollment procedures. We had also met professor Gerstle, who is in charge of exchange students from TUFS. I discussed with him about my research and my plan of study while being in London. I got valuable comments and recommendations from him. When I was touring around the university I was so amazed with the different ethnicities there. There are students from all over the world. It was really hard for me to see British students though.
Then I have started my library work. On May 23rd I had the first meeting with my first mentor Dr. Raman. We discussed about my research and my study plan in London. We also agreed that she will help me in my paper for the international workshop in Leiden this coming august. She also gave me a list of readings that I have to do and that will help me in my research. We have agreed to meet once a week as it's the summer vacation now.
On May 27th I had a meeting with my second mentor Dr. Menski. In this meeting we discussed about my research and my proposed study plan here in London. We have also agreed that I will be giving a presentation on my research in front of his lab members and students in the first week of June. He had also given me lists of materials and readings related to my research in the fields of ethnic and race relations, migration issues. We agreed to meet once a week to discuss about the progress of my research.
My research target is ethnic and racial groups here in London and mainly their integration dilemma. Hence, I chose to live in a place which is a typical multi ethnic zone. It's located in zone 3 and in here there is a variety of different races and ethnicities, you can find Turkish, Chinese, blacks, Arabs, Europeans.....etc. The first impression I got is that it looks like Paris, in terms of immigrants. Here also you have segregated communities which are apparently isolated from the other parts of the society. Either they chose to stay in communities whether ethnic or religious, or it is a government policy, that's what I am going to investigate more during my stay here.