Our Activities

Work Justice: New collaborative partnership with Leeds University Business School

20th September 2024 by ficheb

Researchers at Leeds University Business School (LUBS) are delighted to announce a new project launched in collaboration with Migrant Action, intended to improve the support available for migrant workers in warehousing jobs in West and South Yorkshire.

The team at LUBS (Dr Abbie Winton, Professor Charles Umney and Dr Gabriella Alberti) have been conducting research looking at warehousing across the region, with a particular interest in how new technologies, and labour shortages post-Brexit, are shaping work in the sector. This is part of the international Humans in Digital Logistics (HuLog) project, coordinated by Professor Patrizia Zanoni at Hasselt in Belgium, also including teams at Kozminski University (Poland) and the Hertie School (Germany). This ongoing research indicates that migrants remain a vital source of labour for warehousing employers, but face multiple forms of disadvantage – they often work in conditions with weaker labour protections and have limited access to support.

Migrant charities and other local organisations play a vital role in filling urgent gaps in warehouse work ecosystems: they represent migrants in work-related disputes, acquaint migrants with key rights at work and lobby policymakers to secure better protections in the industry. However, there is a clear need for greater collaboration between these organisations and regional policymakers. The local migration partnership multi-agency drop-ins co- established by Migrant Action and its local partners in Barnsley and Doncaster such as Education and Learning Support Hub and the Polish Library in Barnsley is a fantastic example and model of how organisations can come together to provide holistic support towards integration and accessing justice including work justice for those most vulnerable in our communities. Yet more needs to be done across the region.

The HuLog team is grateful to have received funding from the Leeds University Business School to push forward with this work and have hired a Community Engagement and Impact Associate to lead on the work, Kidist Teklemariam.

“I am honoured to play a key role in this vital initiative, which directly confronts the issues encountered by migrant workers in the warehousing sector. My responsibilities will revolve around forging robust connections between migrants, local organisations, and policymakers to ensure these workers’ voices are heard and heeded. By actively engaging with the community and empathising with their experiences, we can pinpoint pragmatic solutions and passionately advocate for improved working conditions, equitable treatment, and enhanced access to support services. I eagerly anticipate collaborating with all stakeholders to spearhead impactful change and enhance the well-being of migrant workers in our region.”

– Kidist Teklemariam

This new partnership will give a platform to migrants working in the warehousing industry, centralising their voices in order to push for positive change in the sector. Ultimately our work aims to strengthen the local infrastructure and resourcing available to support migrants working in one of the region’s most important and rapidly growing industrial sectors.

For Migrant Action, this research partnership would strengthen Migrant Action’s research and wider collaborative infrastructure for advocacy and migrant economic justice. – Fidelis Chebe, CEO Migrant Action

If you, or your organisation, would like more information or would like to be involved with this work, please contact our project leads – Kidist Teklemariam (Community Engagement and Impact Support Associate), Abbie Winton (Research Fellow) or Fidelis Chebe (Migrant Action CEO)

Workshop Feedback!

29th August 2024 by ficheb

Feedback on our ‘Bridging Cultures and Laws: Parenting for Migrant Families in the UK’ Workshop

On the 28th June, Migrant Action collaborated with Empowering Parents of African Children in the UK (EPACUK) to co-host a Migration and Parenting Seminar & Workshop.

This workshop was the first in a series of public education events by Migrant Action aimed at empowering migrants and creating spaces for knowledge exchange and understanding, to ensure equity of rights and access to justice.

Migrant Action is now pleased to share some positive feedback received from those involved with the workshop!

‘Todays workshop has been extremely educational and opened so many doors in my brain to want to do more in the community to understand cultural difference. All attendees of this workshop have empowered me’.

‘Excellent workshop. Learn more how to educate how to refer for more information and knowledge about the issue. Understanding the situation and perspective of the social worker.’

‘Empowered and recharged– looking forward to additional workshops and trainings.’

‘Professionals to work together, offering consulting services to organisations that work with migrants. The session was very informative and helps us as professionals to reflect on our practice.’

‘The session is very helpful to me, makes me understand how communities access the services that helps them to improve their life. How community leaders share information to help and improve their community members.’

‘A really informative workshop. It has been nice to come together with a range of services and discuss topics and options. Would like to see us all together again in the future.’

‘More work should be done for people belonging to migrant communities to understand that social workers are there to support the children and not to separate the children from the parents. Migrant parents and children should be educated about the role of the social worker and section 17 support. The workshop was really informative and helped me to spread the word and signpost the people in need of the right services to support.’ 

‘The workshop has been informative and encouraged creatively in thinking towards change– what can we do as individuals and organisations to learn and support communities by bridging gaps discussed. The format of the workshop was helpful in building rich conversations which will continue beyond the workshop.’ 

‘I think it is important to have discussions and awareness of cultural issues as it is easy to get stuck in a way of thinking without questioning any cultural issues and barriers.’

Feedback is so important to us at Migrant Action, to ensure that we are continuing to provide high quality services that inform, empower and encourage migrants in the UK. We express a deep gratitude and thanks to all who attended and were involved with the workshop and took the time to provide us with feedback.

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Twitter/X: @MigrantAction

Rest- Resilience- Resistance: Migrant Action Residential & Strategy Day

28th August 2024 by ficheb

Reflections on our rewarding experience

Early in August, the Migrant Action ‘family’ (staff, volunteers, trustees, some strategic
partners, and board allies’) convened in the beautiful and tranquil Yorkshire Dales.
In an increasingly turbulent global migration environment and a hostile UK
immigration policy response, the residential offered the time and space to reflect on
Migrant Action’s journey over the last 8 years of empowering and supporting
migrants, enabling resistance of migration injustice and envisioning a hopeful future
for migrants and migration justice.

Our authentic reflecting and courageous visioning generated a consensus for
TRANSFORMATION as our strategy for migration justice, social change and
liberative futures for migrants. Our intentionality to pursue the underpinnings rather
than the symptoms of vulnerability and migration injustice, legitimise our pursuit for
transformation as a meaningful pathway towards resilience, resistance and
sustainable structural change.

In doing this work, our whole person (body, soul and mind) is engaged constantly. It
is a rewarding and exhausting enterprise!

So, the residential was also an
opportunity for resting and collective care, as we were all reminded, rightly by the
words of Tricia Hersey, that ‘Rest is Resistance’.

We left the residential, rested, renewed, re-energised and ready in the pursuit of
migration justice through TRANSFORMATION.

Deep gratitude to the team, our brilliant facilitators from Oasis (Heather & Laurie)
and Paul Hamlyn Foundation for resourcing the residential.

Further gratitude to graphic visualiser Ali for capturing our reflections, discussions and dreams in this beautiful and resourceful visual:

Migrant_Action_Residential_2024._V3 (1)Download

Finally, also check out Sistren Legal Collective’s reflection on the residential and our collaborative partnership with the organisation:

Sistren’s work with Migrant Action

Workshop – Bridging Cultures and Laws: Parenting for Migrant Families in the UK

30th May 2024 by ficheb

Migrant Action are joining with Empowering Parents of African Children in the UK (EPACUK) to co-host a Migration and Parenting Seminar & Workshop.

When: 28^th June, 2024 – 9am-12.30pm

Where: Shine, Harehills Road, Leeds, LS8 5HS

Parenting-for-migrant-families-in-the-UK-flyer Download

Below is a plain text version of this flyer:

Join us for a public education workshop covering a variety of topics, including the following:

Understanding culture and its influence on parenting
Understanding UK parenting norms and safeguarding laws
Balancing cultural values with UK parenting norms and safeguarding laws
Cultural differences and their impact on parenting practices
Effective communication and problem-solving within the context of cultural differences
And so much more!

The Facilitator of this seminar & workshop will be Chenai Machinjike. Chenai is a registered UK Social Worker with over a decade of experience in safeguarding and family support teams, court teams, and fostering and adoption. Her expertise lies in conducting culturally informed parenting assessments of African parents as an independent social work consultant.

Chenai is passionate about promoting positive parenting of African children in the UK and providing culturally sensitive parenting education and guidance to improve outcomes.

This seminar & workshop will be the first in a series of public education events by Migrant Action aimed at empowering migrants and creating spaces for knowledge exchange and understanding to ensure equity of rights and access to justice.

Creating an enabling and supportive environment for economic integration for migrants in Barnsley

5th May 2024 by ficheb

The hostile migration environment has an economic dimension. This hostility takes shape in, but not limited to, restricted employment opportunities for migrants particularly those who are new in the UK.

The barriers to work for migrants are onerous and numerous including but not limited to; Low levels of English language, Difficulty in recognising previous qualifications and experience, Gaps in employment history and no access to reference, Lack of work experience in the UK, Unfamiliarity with the UK job market, recruitment processes and work related welfare support mechanisms, lack of development and progression pathways and an acute lack of understanding amongst employers of the reality of migration and how it impacts migrants in the work environment. These operational conditions are exacerbated by wider structural/systemic factors including but not limited to; workers rights regimes &labour exploitation, poltics & political economy of migrant labour, systemic racism, struggling global economy, skills dislocation and new automated technologies etc.

These intersecting and complex conditions create an extremely challenging and perhaps hostile work environment for migrants to evolve and thrive. Also, the precarity of these conditions is also influenced by local realities of employment opportunities and support infrastructures. As such, Migrant Action works with its local partners to identify and help create an enabling and supportive employment environment for migrants. Such support involves removing barriers but also working towards building and strengthening local infrastructure for ensuring equitable access to work opportunities, development and progression pathways, awareness of workers rights and regimes to accessing these rights and capacity building to enhance understanding of migration and transforming wider structural barriers. In essence, building employment resilience and creating an enabling and supportive environment for migration and economic justice.

In March, Migrant Action alongside its patners of the Migration Partnership Barnsley organised a Job Fair and Employability Event aimed at articulating the aforementioned aims. It was a very succesful event centering the lived experiences and expertise of migrants working collaboratively with local private employment agencies, the local employment and skills department, DWP etc. The event also articulated the intersectionality and interface of employment with Housing, mental & physical health & wellbeing, poverty & destitution and the precarious pathways of criminality that could lead to negative immigration outcomes. As such, the event also facilitated the participation of these broader services enabling effective partnership and networking to address these conditions and barriers to employment for migrants. The event also highlight the importance of positive employment pathways to enable effective integration and building strong and cohesive communities.