Si Barber Photo Archive : E: mail@sibarber.co.uk - T: 07739 472 922

Island of Strangers - rough edit  5 of 47 / View all

Island of Strangers is a photographic document of the impact of the European Union's 2004 enlargement legislation on the peoples of the Fenlands of East Anglia.

The legislation created a new, deracinated workforce in the UK mainly from Eastern Europe. Essential to the economy yet existing below the public gaze, this demographic often lives in parallel rather than in conjunction with the indigenous population.

My photographs aim to capture the experiences of this community as it meets the culture and traditions of the settled population and they both navigate a rapidly changing economic landscape where globalisation means that workers are increasingly regarded as fungible, replaceable assets, who can be compelled to scurry around the world at the behest of corporations and governments.