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:
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:
@migrants_rights_network on Instagram
High Court Ruling on the Home Office:
Report on International Students and Media Studies:
Labour Government new approaches to migration:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czvxp9d5lrko
Home Office Guidance on Absence during 10 year settlement:
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
