Reflection on Comfort, Space, and Belonging – A GEMMS Dialogue at Melon Farm

By Stanley Tiffah Zauya

On a lovely Sunday morning, the quiet hum of preparation filled the air at Melon Farm as we got ready to host a Community Dialogue under the GEMMS initiative. Like many community events, the logistics came together with a mixture of planning and improvisation. We began by setting up our folding chairs while waiting for the ones we had borrowed from the nearby church. The borrowed chairs came in all shapes and states — cracked backs, uneven legs, a DIY wooden bench, and a handful that were still perfectly usable.

Interestingly, there was no instruction given on where anyone should sit. We had arranged the chairs loosely in a circle under the broad shade of a magnificent tree. As people began arriving — GEMMS team members and community participants — the seating process unfolded naturally. Some GEMMS team members sat on the DIY bench, others chose the folding chairs, and a few remained standing. Community members filled the rest of the chairs with quiet confidence — even the most visibly broken ones — and, eventually, the remaining folding chairs were taken too.

This simple act of sitting down became, for me, a powerful metaphor — one that mirrored the social dynamics of migration, access, and perceived entitlement. Before the event, we had reflected on whether our neat folding chairs might unintentionally signal status — comfort for the “important” or “outsider” guests. But what happened was more organic. People chose where to sit based on their own perceptions, not based on any imposed hierarchy.

Yet, even in the freedom of that moment, you could see something deeper: a reflection of how people move into spaces of opportunity in real life. The folding chairs were open, visible, and seemingly more comfortable — just like certain opportunities in society. Yet many avoided them, perhaps out of humility, or more accurately, a sense of embarrassment disguised as humility. Others took those spaces confidently, unafraid of judgment.

This mirrors what happens in communities facing migration. A migrant sees an open space — a job, a business opportunity, a gap — and takes it. A local, meanwhile, might view the same opportunity as beneath them or misaligned with their image. But when that same migrant thrives, the narrative shifts: “foreigners are taking our jobs.” In truth, the space was open — it’s just that one person hesitated, and the other didn’t.

No one from the community stopped a GEMMS team member from sitting on the DIY bench. And in that same way, it would be unfair to blame a migrant for discomfort felt by a local who chose not to take the more comfortable seat. People stepped into the spaces they felt they belonged in — either because they were taught to be content with less, or because they assumed something better wasn’t meant for them.

Later during the group work, something beautiful happened. The groups, formed both randomly and by deliberate choice, led people to move and shift their seats — folding chairs next to broken ones, containers next to benches. The physical space began to reflect social connection, rather than difference. It showed how — when people work together, interact, and listen to one another — they naturally dismantle the invisible barriers that divide “migrant” from “local,” or “us” from “them.”

That day at Melon Farm taught me that comfort, opportunity, and dignity are not just about what is offered, but what is accepted. It reminded me that collaboration creates belonging. And most importantly, it reminded us all that diversity in background, like diversity in seating, does not determine one’s value in the conversation — only their willingness to engage and contribute.

The blog image depicts: A community engagement meeting with migrants at a fruit farm in Musina, South Africa during GEMMS research group field visit. Image taken by the author for the photovoice exercise conducted for GEMMS researchers (incl community researchers)

This research was funded by the NIHR (NIHR Global Health Research; grant nihr134629) using UK
aid from the UK Government to support global health research. The views expressed in this
publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the UK
government.