migration justice

‘Migrant Rainbow’ – June/July 2024

16th August 2024 by ficheb

Our new monthly summary of migrant justice news

Created by Nova Jaszkiewicz, Intern at Migrant Action

Introducing Migrant Rainbow

Migrant Rainbow aims to summarise key updates and developments on migrant justice in the UK on a monthly basis. Aiming to provide information and education to all, we hope Migrant Rainbow will allow migrants in the UK to remain informed of their rights and support options whilst also providing wider public education on migrant justice issues and experiences.

Much like a rainbow, this monthly summary will discuss issues of migration and migration justice, but will also include migrant stories of resilience, community and solidarity. The RAINBOW, we hope, will effectively articulate the complexities of migration and migrant experiences’ and work to counter the simplistic, partial, misguided and often harmful characterisation of migration as well as distorted perceptions of migrants including the portrayal of many migrants as passive victims of experience and charitability.

Migrant Rainbow will be structured in 3 parts:

Local / Community updates for Leeds and surrounding areas

Migrant Action specific updates, to inform you of what we have been up to!

General / National News

You will also be able to find our migrant rainbow on Instagram:

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A post shared by Migrant Action (@migrant_action_)

Local / Community Updates

On the 28th June, Migrant Action collaborated with Empowering Parents of African Children in the UK (EPACUK) to host a Migration and Parenting Seminar and Workshop titled ‘Bridging Cultures and Laws’ in Leeds. This public education workshop was facilitated by Chenai Machinjike a social worker with over a decade of experience in safeguarding and family support. This workshop highlights the strength and unity of the Leeds migrant community, and is a positive story of migrant resilience. Workshops like this one work to empower migrants in our community by creating spaces to share knowledge, ensuring understanding of equity of rights, and supporting access to justice.

New to Leeds, Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network’s definitive guide for individuals arriving in Leeds, has been updated and revised as of 24 June 2024, with specific information for asylum seekers. All links have been checked and all information is up to date, and it’s been designed for use on a smartphone, and can easily be translated into 20 languages- providing a welcoming resource for migrants in Leeds.

Migrant Action Updates

Over July, Migrant Action became a registered independent charity! This is an excitement development for us, and we hope it will enable us to improve the quality of our services for those in our community.

Migrant Action CEO Fidelis Chebe was a guest speaker at Casework Solidarity Forum- Casework to Resistance, organised by Haringey Migrant Support Centre. The event captured the centrality of caseworkers and frontline organisations in enabling transformative system change. Our participation in the event demonstrates our passion for lived experience and grassroots inspired change, knowledge sharing, casework solidarity, collective resilience and collaboration in our efforts towards migrant justice and empowerment.

In the coming weeks, Migrant Action will be publishing a briefing paper on wage theft and the exploitation of migrant workers written by CEO Fidelis Chebe and Trustee Jon Burnett. This briefing paper, based on their article ‘Wage Theft and Contours of Accumulation’ in the journal Justice, Power and Resistance, is a development in Migrant Action’s commitment to public education. We are also planning a series of public education and legal workshops on different themes emerging from but not limited to casework.

We have captured some client feedback from July to help capture and measure our impact within our community and assess the quality of our services, and we are pleased to share some!

94% of clients reported being ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with the services provided by Migrant Action

98% of clients indicated that the service positively impacted their lives, particularly in areas of legal assistance and social integration.

100% of clients are likely to recommend our services.

We are also so happy to share some beautiful client quotes from this feedback capture:

“ [Migrant Action] has positively impacted my social situation. I council tenant now. I feel emotionally well and am also able to sort new issue by myself.”

“Migrant Action made possible a change of perspective.”

“I can handle new situations by myself and only ask for help when necessary.”

“I lost my papers and Babita helped me with the Home Office to get them again. Babita is like my friend, my daughter, my everything.”

General/National Updates

The Home Office have announced that they are phasing out Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) cards and replacing them with a digital visa system by the end of 2024. Migrants will now have to make a UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account in order to access their visa and prove their immigration status. To do so, you will need: your date of birth; your BRP number; your passport (if you do not have a BRP), access to an email address and phone number, and access to a smartphone. The Home Office will provide individuals with a link to create this account.

Problems have been identified by several migrant justice groups. Firstly, the sudden nature of the change means individuals will be left at a ‘cliff edge’ with the deadline to switch to digital visas. Migrant rights lawyers have identified that there is a potential risk of another ‘Windrush Scandal’ where individuals with leave to remain may be left unable to prove their immigration status. Many migrants in the UK use their solicitors’ email address for Home Office correspondence, meaning that email invitation links may be lost, especially as personal details are excluded from the invitations for data security reasons (leaving lawyers unable to forward invitations correctly). Further, other individuals may not have internet access which will limit their ability to prove their status. Critics also warn that the Home Office does not have measures in place to deal with possible technical failures.

Migrant Rights Network have identified the move to E-Visas as a further digitisation of the Hostile Environment, which works to create inequality for all migrants. They have shared that this change has caused anxiety and scepticism for many members of their community, whilst expressing concern that particular groups who are disproportionately harmed by borders and the Hostile Environment may face increased harm.

The Home Office have stated that “E-visas provide secure confirmation of someone’s UK immigration status, enhance security and bring cost savings for the UK public. They also offer greater convenience for customers and status checkers, using tried and tested technology.’ They also have announced a funding opportunity for organisations who can support people in the transition to digital status, suggesting awareness of the many potential challenges in implementing this plan so suddenly, and without proper support.

The change to E-visas comes at a similar time as The High Court ruling that the Home Office acted unlawfully by failing to provide people with digital proof of status where they have made a valid, in-time application to renew their status and are able to remain in the UK under the same conditions until they receive a decision.

A report by the British Academy warns that the decline in international students could have a severe impact on courses in media studies at UK higher education. The report reveals that 54% of postgraduate students enrolled in media-related studies are from abroad.

The new Labour Government, has already made some changes to migration policy. Most notably, the Rwanda Scheme has been scrapped. The Home Office plan to invest the money previously assigned to this Scheme towards a new ‘Border Command Force’ to ‘destroy the business model’ of ‘smuggling gangs’. The reallocation of resources under the Border Command Force also may be allocated to immigration raids: Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said Immigration Enforcement has been directed to intensify operations over the summer, with a particular target on car washes and the beauty sector. The new Labour government has also pledged £84m to projects in the Middle East and Africa ‘tackling the root source’ of ‘irregular’ migration, and to work to reduce regular migration generally, removing the need to fill ‘skills shortages’ with migration. The government has also dropped the terms illegal and legal migration replacing these terms with ‘regular’ and irregular’ migration. Whilst some of these policy pronouncements are indicative of a different approach, they do not represent yet a fundamental departure from the Hostile Environment policy framework for migrants in the UK, in some respects they suggest a continuation. Hence the need for more organising, campaigning and strategic engagement.

The Home Office has issued guidance on transitional periods for absences for those on the 10 year settlement route. The guidance states that ‘continuous residence will be broken if an applicant has been absent from the UK for more than 184 days at any one time where the absences started before 11 April 2024, or for more than a total of 548 days overall in any part of their qualifying period before 11 April 2024’.

The National Centre for Social Research has released a new paper on changing attitudes towards migration showing that between 2014 and 2024 attitudes had improved, including that people felt migration was good for the economy.

Sources and Further Resources

BRP phase out and move to E-Visas:

eVisas and BRP Expiry Update

Manchester Immigration Aid Unit website. This page contains information and links to Home Office videos explaining e-visas, as well as a link to online webchat and a place for reporting issues with E-visas

Going digital: change to online e-visas to prove immigration status

Right to Remain guide and resources

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/18/digital-visa-switch-uk-immigrants-december-deadline

@migrants_rights_network on Instagram

Labour’s immigration and border policy: How we’ll create a fair system and stop the small boat crossings

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c29d14lwnkro#:~:text=Car%20washes%20and%20parts%20of%20the%20beauty%20sector,over%20the%20summer%2C%20the%20home%20secretary%20has%20announced

Home Office Guidance on Absence during 10 year settlement:

https://freemovement.org.uk/new-home-office-guidance-clarifies-transitional-provisions-for-absences-in-the-10-year-long-residence-route/#:~:text=any%20single%20absences%20started%20before,in%20any%2012%2Dmonth%20period

https://natcen.ac.uk/publications/bsa-41-immigration

Report on changing attitudes to Migration

https://natcen.ac.uk/publications/bsa-41-immigration

New to Leeds:

https://lassn.org.uk/new-to-leeds-has-been-revised-and-updated

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New to Leeds

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.

Building partnerships for migration justice

1st May 2024 by ficheb

In April, Migrant Action established strategic partnerships with Tulia | Legal Advice & Holistic Support for Migrants and Home | Carag both grassroots and migrant-led organisations based in Coventry supporting refugees and migrants. Building solidarity through collaboration is central to our theory of transformative change by fostering migrant and community justice.

Through collaboration we enhance our learning partnerships, increase our capacity for service delivery and develop access to pathways for influencing positive change. Our partnerships and collaborative processes centre the voices, expertise and resilience of communities of lived experience of the ‘hostile environment’ policies of the UK immigration system.

These partnerships also offer opportunities to counter the effects of policies whilst articulating and enabling a welcoming and supportive environment for migrants and local communities to thrive together. Through radically inclusive collaboration, we cultivate, develop and share good practice in humble, generous and transformative leadership by working directly with all ‘migrants’ of diverse skills, abilities, knowledges, and experiences across generations to develop innovative approaches to address intersectional challenges.

In doing so, we empower migrants to transform vulnerability and enable communities build new cultures and infrastructures that are sustainably responsive to present needs and future challenges. As such, Migrant Action and our local partnerships are ‘Empowering Enablers’ for migration justice and resilient communities. We are excited about the prospect of these new partnerships, humbled and grateful to the people we collaborate with and the communities we serve as we work towards a more liberating and transformative future.

Deep gratitude to Rumbidzai Bvunzawabaya (Founder & CEO of Tulia) and Nathan Ndlovu ( Chair of CARAG) who inspired this partnership and collaboration.

Fidelis Chebe (CEO- Migrant Action) and **Rumbidzai Bvunzawabaya** (CEO of Tulia)

‘Understanding the day-to-day realities of the Hostile Environment’ – Reflections on our community engagement and public education workshop event

4th April 2024 by ficheb

By Nova Jaszkiewicz, Intern at Migrant Action and event organiser

The ‘Hostile Environment’ policy was introduced in 2012 by then Home Secretary Theresa May MP with the stated purpose of creating a hostile environment for undocumented migrants in the UK, while acting as a deterrent for’ ‘illegal’ migrants moving to the UK. The hostile environment policy provides a framework for a relentless migration policy instrument which continues to have wider implications. not least fostering an environment which is unwelcoming, discriminatory, and unsympathetic towards migrants as a whole.

The operationalisation of these policies has engaged the activities of global corporate outfits as well as public services, local businesses and individuals (such as landlords) who are increasingly involved in various ways in border security and immigration controls. The workings of these policies have a direct impact on the day-to-day living of migrants as well as migrant communities.

The hostile environment is enabling a harmful environment whereby exploitation, discrimination, poverty and destitution, misinformation, confusion, incarceration, fear and anxiety, exclusion, restricted and inequitable access to services, poor integration and much more are systemically reproduced and reinforced. As such, it has become increasingly important to raise awareness of these policies and understanding of the day-to-day reality of the impact of these policies on migrants, empower and support migrants, work collaboratively and in solidarity to advocate for humane policies and reduce harm.

Discussing and understanding personal experiences of the Hostile Environment, and the effects it has on daily life of migrants and migrant communities, is essential to challenging the hostile migration narrative underpinning these policies and working to transform the hostile migration environment into a welcoming, supportive and safe environment for migrants. In light of this, Migrant Action held a public education/community awareness workshop event in collaboration with Divest Borders Leeds led by a panel of people with lived experience of the hostile environment, researchers and advocacy/campaigning organisations.

The Event

The panel event was developed with the aims of both raising awareness on the Hostile Environment and its effects, and developing that awareness into action by encouraging personal and group reflection on counter strategies to hostile environment policies. The panel consisted of four individuals with lived experience and/or research and activism expertise on the Hostile Environment, and the first half of the session allowed the individuals to share their experience and expertise whilst maintaining a space for audience participation and open, analytical discussion. This allowed the community to gain much insight and analysis from different features of the policies – addressing issues including detention, healthcare surcharges and sponsorship requirements for employment. The second half of the session moved into a further interactive and collaborative workshop in which the panellists joined small working groups with participants to discuss and collaborate on ideas for how to combat and resist the Hostile Environment in our community and daily lives, and on a more political and policy level. This allows for the development of awareness and insight into action.

Key Messages and Discussion

The panel event and subsequent workshop enabled a space for insightful discussion on many topics surrounding the Hostile Environment, and some key themes shone through in these discussions.

Naturally, there was an emphasis from the panel on facilitating visibility of the Hostile Environment by centering and hearing the stories of those with lived experience. It was acknowledged how this not only centres migrants in migrant justice, but also allows for the creation of empathy through personal understanding – which can work to foster a community environment equipped to challenge the policies on a daily and political basis. Panellists emphasised the importance of this particularly with the upcoming election, and the hyper-politicisation of migration in the media and government. The group discussed the importance of challenging the harmful narratives and rhetoric around migration presented in the media, and how sharing lived experiences can create a ‘positive case for migration’ which works on a larger scale to counter the justifications behind the Hostile Environment and encourages others to resist them.

Linked to this, one of the key reflections undertaken by both panellists and participants of the session was considering why these issues matter to us. Stemming from this discussion, alongside natural empathy for others and personal stories of friends or families with lived experience which fostered passion for migrant justice, was the understanding of collective liberation. Panellists and participants acknowledged how other oppressed groups’ struggles, barriers and experiences connect to those with migrant identity – particularly under a capitalist system which inherently embeds a racialised hierarchy. This discussion developed into connecting current global issues to migrant justice, and the importance of countering de-sensitization of these issues in such an online world.

There was also in-depth discussion about institutions and the role that they play in countering or contributing to the Hostile Environment. This included discussions about sponsorship and right-to-work requirements in corporations, as well as insight about how many UK universities have financial ties to companies that profit from the UK’s violent border industry, even Universities that have been awarded ‘sanctuary status’. When talking about turning awareness into action, the conversation around institutions centred around students and unions organising to demand divestment within their institutions, and campaigning for more support for migrants within their workplaces and universities.

Community Resilience

The overarching message from the panel event was one of community resilience. When the interactive workshops were discussing ways to counter the Hostile Environment on a community and political level, a key point emerged – the fact that national and political organising often emerges from community or daily operations. This emphasised how you may not be able to separate community and political work, because action is interconnected. There was also insightful analysis from one of the panellists that this involved establishing a wider meaning to the word community, and creating common enemies which in turn would combat the scapegoating of migrants within such a community. This would also take the onus off of migrants to be the only ones fighting for their rights, whilst keeping their experiences at the centre.

With this in mind, panellists and participants re-emphasised the importance of knowledge sharing, but extended this to also uplifting, supporting and collaborating with community organisations already doing great work to counter the Hostile Environment, especially within Leeds. In the interests of this, at the end of this blog there will be signposts to upcoming Leeds events that contribute to this community resilience.

Part of the discussion around fostering community resilience also concentrated on acknowledging that there is individual work to be done as part of the community. This included self-reflection on your unconscious biases and what you see in the media, and being able to both understand and utilise any privilege you possess (particularly for British citizens) – which includes learning how to spot and resist raids, for example.

Conclusion

Overall, the panel event was an informative and collaborative environment in which insight into the Hostile Environment was explored, as well as discussions of further actions for resistance. Migrant Action and Divest Borders feel immense gratitude to our panellists and participants who continue to help foster an educational, welcoming and passionate community that will help achieve migrant liberation.

Migrant Action supports migrants navigating complex procedures with 1-to-1 advice whilst also challenging inequalities through research and community engagement events like this one.

Further Resources

‘Understanding the Hostile Environment’ visual resource

Divest Borders website with downloadable action guide

‘Stand up! Speak out!’ 2024; all sessions free and online

Liberty Guide to the Hostile Environment