MigrationWork Knowledge Bank

This brief was written by MigrationWork CIC as part of the Intercultural Cities (ICC) programme.

To explore the challenge of collecting data about (and with) asylum seekers and refugees, this Policy Brief looks at the experience of cities in Poland and other European states that received people fleeing the Russian military aggression against Ukraine from February 2022 onwards.

This briefing, commissioned by the Intercultural Cities (ICC) programme of the Council of Europe, began with concerns from Polish cities on the frontline of the housing crisis, where so many Ukrainians have arrived and where there is an urgent need to find sustainable and long-term housing solutions for these new residents. The policy brief focuses on exploring good practice and solutions from cities and communities, in order to create a resource for those facing large-scale arrivals or welcoming migrants, who seek sustainable and long-term housing solutions for residents.

This data brief provides an analysis carried out by MigrationWork CIC on a dataset collected on projects run by Law Centres Network which provide legal advice for European migrants.

This data brief focuses on several aspects. Firstly it examines some key demographics to give an overview of the cases in the dataset: data source, nationality, gender, age group, and type of advice sought. The second part of the brief takes a closer look at some potential groups of interest who may have unmet needs and/or potential barriers to engagement with advice services. These groups are older age groups (55+), family members of EEA clients and clients with dual nationality.

The main findings are discussed in a series of interviews with key stakeholders and experts in the field.

When migrants arrive in Europe, two groups meet with them face to face, deal with their immediate and long-term needs and help them integrate: city administrations and volunteers. Huge gains in time and resource efficiency stand to be made if cities and volunteers can coordinate their integration activities. The VALUES project will help cities do that.
In VALUES, a total of 16 cities will work in ‘communities of practice’, groups of four cities dedicated to each of these themes.
With local volunteer organisations, they will engage in targeted workshops, sight visits, staff exchanges, on-the-ground training and action planning to identify and implement best practices in integration and overcome shared challenges.
VALUES will improve structural cooperation and build partnerships between cities and volunteer organisations to integrate third-country nationals at local level.

What concrete policies can streamline migrant integration, empowering and engaging newcomers in Europe’s cities?
CONNECTION will determine, deliver and implement the answers to this question. Peer-learning on integration around integration strategies, gender, employment and one-stop-shops will accompany concrete EU-funded policy implementation in seven of the 14 cities. Eight further cities can join visits, as well as other organisations and levels of government, and eight integration champions are trained to train others in integration strategies. CONNECTION stands for CONNEcting Cities Towards Integration actiON

‘Making integration work in Europe’s cities’ (MIXITIES) is a project of mutual learning between cities in the field of integration governance.
Building on peer-to-peer exchanges, MIXITIES will design and test a benchmarking tool to serve as a framework for signatory cities to report and improve on the delivery of the Charter commitments.

Values standard: The city takes an active role in engaging migrants and refugees in volunteering activities to help them integrate effectively and positively.

Volunteering is sometimes framed within the context of providing services for refugees and migrants, rather than an activity which refugees and migrants themselves can get involved in. But actively involving migrants and refugees in volunteering activities not only expands the volunteer pool but also adds diversity in skills and representation, and contributes to better community cohesion and active participation in a city’s communities. Cities can take an active role in engaging migrants and refugees in volunteering activities to help them and others integrate effectively and positively in their new home.

Values standard: The city ensures that volunteer residents and citizens are actively involved in welcoming migrants and helping them integrate effectively.
All cities have an interest in ensuring community cohesion, and this requires the effective integration of migrants. Welcome services are a vital element of integration and provide an important opportunity for existing city residents to play an active role in helping newly arrived migrants orientate themselves and ‘find their feet’. The benchmark focuses on how to mobilise volunteers (from all residents and citizens including migrants themselves) to deliver or support such welcome efforts. The benefits of doing this are many: volunteering adds to the human resources available, offers meaningful activities for those excluded, provides the chance for citizens and residents to express social solidarity with those arriving, and builds political support for policies and initiatives to integrate migrants. So this benchmark completes the circle of community cohesion, volunteering and migrant integration.

Values standard: The city recognises and supports volunteer activity at neighbourhood level as a central strand of its migrant integration strategy.

The lived experience of integration happens at neighbourhood level where refugees and migrants live. It is there that they orientate, find connections and learn how to interact and get on with their neighbours. Most cities know that locally based projects and initiatives exist to help, support and engage refugees and migrants at this level, and also that refugees and migrants will better integrate if they can get connected to or involved in such neighbourhood and community activities. Cities may, however, find it challenging to see their role: they may feel too remote from what is going on locally, for example. There are, however, a number of ways cities can support and encourage the development of volunteering – both for and with refugees and migrants – at the neighbourhood level, and this in turn will help build community cohesion where it matters most.

Build communities to:

• Foster a welcoming culture
• Engage migrants and refugees in volunteering activities
• Cooperate with volunteer organisations for migrant integration at neighbourhood level
• Mobilise volunteers to engage young migrants in community life

Values standard: In the city, young migrants are actively encouraged to be involved in community life at all levels and the city can draw on the skills and commitment of volunteers to help with this.

Young people form a significant proportion of the migrant and refugee population and arrive in cities via various routes, including on their own without their families. Volunteers from across the community can support the integration of young migrants – at particular risk of exclusion and not achieving their full potential – in a wide range of ways. This benchmark considers these but also importantly underlines the benefits of creating opportunities for young migrants to volunteer themselves. Volunteering helps them on their integration journey by giving them the opportunity to learn the language, make social connections and gain valuable skills, especially when they are involved in the design, delivery and evaluation of projects and policies. Young migrant volunteers can help cities welcome and orientate newcomers, break down barriers between migrants and non-migrants, and build bridges between generations.

The report examines the factors that shape attitudes to migration and diversity in these contexts, focusing in particular on the development of alternative narratives by a growing number of civil society and grass roots organisations, based on values of diversity, solidarity and human compassion.

Report from the Second Urban Academy on Integration, which took place in Antwerp 21-22 May 2019, on the topics of labour market integration and housing for migrants inclusion. The Academy is a two-day training programme on different aspects of integration for practitioners and policy makers working at the local, regional and national level. It combines inut from experts and peer exchanges on individual policy dilemmas put forward by the participants.

In this report, Dr Jo Wilding argues that there already exists a market failure in immigration and asylum legal aid, both in terms of geographical availability of services and the ability to ensure adequate quality.

This briefing provides an overview of innovative approaches to active citizenship in the field of migrantintegration. It is one of four which MigrationWork CIC has put together to inspire and inform readers about what has worked well and why in the run-up to ourMiFriendly Cities social innovation workshops that we are hosting in the West Midlands.

This briefing provides an overview of innovative approaches to employment in the field of migrant integration. This briefing is one of four which MigrationWork CIC has put together to inspire and inform readers about what has worked well and why in the run-up to our MiFriendly Cities social innovation workshops that we are hosting in the West Midlands.

This briefing provides an overview of innovative approaches to healthcare in the field of migrant integration. Itis one of four which MigrationWork CIC has produced to inspire and inform readers about what has worked well and why in the run-up to our MiFriendly Cities social innovation workshops that we are hosting in the West Midlands.

This briefing provides an overview of innovative approaches to housing in the field of migrant integration. Itis one of four which MigrationWork CIC has produced to inspire and inform readers about what has worked well and why in the run-up to our MiFriendly Cities social innovation workshops that we are hosting in the West Midlands.

This paper aims to identify housing disadvantages faced by migrants and ethnic minorities; the legal, policy and market forces that shape them; how they have developed over time; how they are manifest nationally and locally; and how they are being responded to locally by those concerned with mitigating them. The paper thereby intends to provide a foundation to inform future research and policy and to engage with local actors to develop ways of overcoming migrant housing disadvantage and challenging discrimination. The paper finds that the interplay of legal changes, which have increasingly differentiated migrants since the 1940s, and shifting housing markets, has driven exclusion of migrants and minorities such that considerable disadvantage is revealed by analysis of census data. However, attention to local specificity provides evidence of positive responses. Examples are presented in relation to access to affordable housing, enactment of homelessness duties and community actions. Methodologically, this paper highlights the importance of simultaneous consideration of migration and ethnicity as markers of difference and exclusion, and the potential of co-production approaches for socially meaningful research concerned with inequalities.

The UK’s departure from the European Union (EU) implies the end of free movement rights for European Economic Area (EEA) and Swiss nationals to the UK. This is likely to have substantial impacts on the supply of EEA nationals to the UK labour market, including immigration to lower-skilled jobs. Around 220,000 EEA nationals enter the UK each year, of whom the majority work in lower-skilled, lower-paid jobs, which do not meet the skills or salary thresholds for admission under Tier 2 of the UK’s points-based system. Key questions therefore arise as to how a post-Brexit immigration system will affect the supply of workers into lower-skilled jobs in the UK; and what kinds of programmes should be put in place to regulate such flows. The aim of this paper is to (1) explore the options for regulating immigration to lower-skilled jobs after Brexit, drawing on examples from other industrialised countries; and (2) to assess how successful different types of programmes would be in attracting and retaining (especially EEA) immigrants.

Scholars, activists, specialists and leaders offer unique perspectives on the challenges of integration in the UK today.

This document brings together a cross-section of British Muslims. Alongside non-Muslim specialists who have worked in and amongst Muslim communities, they reflect on the realities of integration.

Migrants’ Access to Housing conference 20th June 2017, programme.

Sally Daghlian, Chief Exec at Praxis Community Projects.

Migrants’ Access to Housing conference 20th June 2017.

Terrie Alafat, Chief Exec at Chartered Institute of Housing

Migrants’ Access to Housing conference 20th June 2017.

Dr Nigel de Noronha, University of Warwick

Migrants’ Access to Housing conference 20th June 2017.

Sue Lukes, Director MigrationWork CIC

Migrants’ Access to Housing conference 20th June 2017.

Patrice Duce, Innovation & Good Practice project manager, Homeless Link.

Migrants’ Access to Housing conference 20th June 2017.

Adrian Berry, Barrister Garden Court Chambers.

Migrants’ Access to Housing conference 20th June 2017.

Europe is in urgent need to deliberate about its shame and the on-going embarrassment for liberal democracies. Deliberation theory, ethical approaches of discourse and models of deliberative democracy has offered great potential to create such space and alternative and progressive designs of knowledge production, policymaking and possibly a route out of this dead-end policy situation.

MigrationWork member Bastian Vollmer discusses a new approach on borders and suggests a hermeneutical approach to European bordering and border regimes.

The Bar Standards Board began a thematic review into immigration advice and services in 2015. The purpose of the review was to understand and analyse the risks in the immigration advice and services market.

Social investment could help provide a new source of capital to support innovative approaches to addressing complex and unmet refugee and asylum seekers needs in the UK.

This country case study was submitted by IES to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) in July 2014.
It was one of a collection based on different countries, carried out by different institutions, which were used as the foundation for the Eurofound report ’Social dimension of intra-EU mobility: Impact on public services’.
The case study represents the results of a literature review, data analysis and qualitative research conducted into the impact on UK public services of immigrants from the new Member States.

This report examines the best interests of unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the UK through their own experiences. While a sophisticated framework of rights exists on paper, there are longstanding concerns, supported by this research, that children are often denied these rights in practice for a variety of reasons. The importance given to their asylum-­seeking status, over and above their being children, has meant that their rights as children have had to be fought for through campaigns and legal cases.

Part of the comparative project, “In Whose Best Interest? Exploring Unaccompanied Minors’ Rights through the lens of Migration and Asylum Processes”, also carried out in France, Austria and Slovenia, this report focuses on the UK context. It describes the field work, and provides a brief overview of the country context, including the institutional framework and the numbers and patterns of unaccompanied children entering and living in the UK. It concludes with recommendations arising out of the research, focussed on improving the process of determining and implementing those best interests.

Freedom of movement across Member States is one of the core values of the European Union and is closely linked to European citizenship. There is, however, a heated debate in many of the host Member States about the impact of the rising inflow of mobile citizens on their public services. This research project aimed to examine the extent to which mobile citizens from the central and eastern European Member States (the EU10) take up benefits and services in nine host countries. It also provides a demographic and socioeconomic profile of EU10 mobile citizens and identifies initiatives aimed at integrating them in the host countries and providing them with access to benefits and services. The main finding of the report is that overall take-up of welfare benefits and services by EU10 citizens is lower than that of the native population of the host country, especially social housing and pensions. However, their take-up of certain specific benefits, mainly employment-related benefits (unemployment and in-work benefit), is higher.

SRA has published an extensive study of asylum legal advice, with Migration Work CIC, Refugee Action and Asylum Research Consultancy (ARC). The study involved speaking with 123 asylum seekers, an online survey of solicitors and interviews with solicitors, community groups and representative bodies. A barrister with extensive experience in immigration and asylum casework undertook file reviews.

This toolkit is to help local authorities and their community planning partners to think about how to welcome, integrate and involve migrant communities in Scotland. It is for people who are new to migration, and for people who already do a lot of work around migration.

This report assesses how effectively integration policies in the United Kingdom are helping migrants advance into middle-skilled jobs from low-skilled work or unemployment, focusing in particular on employment services, ESOL, and vocational training. The author then discusses the ways that other policies and contextual factors often undermine migrants’ entry into the labor market and progression out of low-skilled jobs, including cuts to welfare programs, difficulty navigating a complex and ever-changing workforce development system, and low demand for training in some sectors, particularly those with high turnover.

English language ability is central to individuals’ ability to find a job and progress in work in the UK. Many migrants in low paid work, however, do not access formal English language learning provision.

In 2013 the Greater London Authority (the GLA), working in partnership with Jobcentre Plus, the Skills Funding Agency and the Association of Colleges to improve the English language training offer for jobseekers, commissioned a small piece of primary research to investigate the English language learning experiences of migrants in low paid work in London and to use the information generated by this work to inform and shape the potential future commissioning of English Language provision aimed at low paid, low-skilled migrants in London.

The equality, diversity and inclusion grants were given to Further Education (FE) colleges and training organisations to develop the capacity of the sector to meet the public sector Equality Duty.
This evaluation was commissioned by the Skills Funding Agency. It assesses the impact and value for money of the grants, and includes good practice eight case studies.

MigrationWork colleagues worked with Migration Yorkshire and local authorities in the area on Integration Up North, to develop or improve their strategic planning on migration related issues. From this, we wrote up four briefings, this one contains resources to support work on migration.

MigrationWork colleagues worked with Migration Yorkshire and local authorities in the area on Integration Up North, to develop or improve their strategic planning on migration related issues. From this, we wrote up four briefings, this one is on making migration a human issue.

MigrationWork colleagues worked with Migration Yorkshire and local authorities in the area on Integration Up North, to develop or improve their strategic planning on migration related issues. From this, we wrote up four briefings, this one is on migration and equality & diversity.

MigrationWork colleagues worked with Migration Yorkshire and local authorities in the area on Integration Up North, to develop or improve their strategic planning on migration related issues. From this, we wrote up four briefings, this one is on migration and community cohesion.

At the end of 2014, annual net migration for the UK had risen to a current high of 318,000. Integration in British society has become an increasingly central part of the debate around immigration – raising questions about social cohesion, shared values and national identity.

Unity out of Diversity is a three-year research project funded by the ESRC’s Future Research Leaders scheme, based at the University of Manchester and led by Dr Laurence Lessard-Phillips. The research aims to explore the nature and characteristics of immigrant integration and how it is perceived in the public policy sector, the academic community and among the general public.

Web: http://projects.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/unity-out-of-diversity/

New Research from Eaves – “Settling in”: Experiences of Women on Spousal Visas in the UK.

“It would never occur to us, for example, that a woman could enrol at the GP but delay attending until she was much more seriously ill because she hadn’t understood she had access to free care. It would never cross our minds that a woman might think the emergency number was 911 rather than 999 because she’d obtained her information from watching American films.” Heather Harvey Research and Development manager, Eaves.

A series of four briefings synthesising the discussions held at EPIM’s workshop in Barcelona in January 2014. Fifteen groups worked on different topics; communications, different media and audiences, organising and measuring communications and storytelling.

How to talk about immigration sets out British Future’s understanding and analysis of public attitudes to immigration and the issues of integration, identity and opportunity that inform the immigration debate. It seeks to suggest new ideas for further discussion and to offer a vision of an approach to immigration that is principled, practicable and capable of securing public support.

This toolkit offers the means to make better use of EU resources in initiatives which help migrants and ethnic minorities to improve their access to the labour market. These might be actions focused solely on employment, or actions with a wider brief for migrant integration including employment among other objectives.

Developed by the IMPART Learning Network, formed under the European Social Fund in 2009, the toolkit describes a benchmark and peer review method, and provides guidance on different ways these can be used by trained practitioners to review another project or programme.

This booklet aims to provide local and regional officials with a framework for understanding more about fundamental rights and applying them when making decisions and completing their regular tasks and activities.
This booklet will help officials address key questions like how to understand the fundamental rights-dimension of policy issues? How to translate them into real, practical and tangible measures? How to plan appropriately with useful steps in order to meet people’s needs and expectations in the best possible way? How to increase public awareness of fundamental rights-related issues?

This toolkit aims to offer cities tools and examples to address some of the challenges in their role as employers and service providers – to empower them to manage diversity in a way that promotes equality in their administration and service provision.
The guide is the result of an 18-month process involving the cities of Copenhagen and Tampere in testing out a benchmark developed by experts under close consultation with the mentoring cities of Manchester and Oslo who offered their extensive and long-standing experience in this area.
The benchmark is also illustrated with examples from other local authorities which exemplifies the ample range of options any city, even after accounting for specific context and circumstances, has at its disposal to implement diversity in its workforce.

This toolkit aims to offer cities tools and examples to address some of the challenges in their role as employers and service providers – to empower them to manage diversity in a way that promotes equality in their administration and service provision.
The guide is the result of an 18-month process involving the cities of Copenhagen and Tampere in testing out a benchmark developed by experts under close consultation with the mentoring cities of Manchester and Oslo who offered their extensive and long-standing experience in this area.
The benchmark is also illustrated with examples from other local authorities which exemplifies the ample range of options any city, even after accounting for specific context and circumstances, has at its disposal to implement diversity in its workforce.

The focus of the toolkit is to help local authorities promote two separate but interrelated dimensions of migrant participation: civic and political engagement. Although presented as two separate benchmarks, the toolkits on “Engagement in local policy-making processes and political participation of migrant communities” and “Making participation effective in diverse neighbourhoods” can be seen as complementary.
Both offer formal and informal paths to promote participation of migrants and facilitate engagement which can elicit a sense of belonging.

ImpleMentoring helps cities to learn from each other: In ImpleMentoring, cities faced with common challenges are paired up. One is a mentor city, sharing experience and offering independent support and reflection to the implementing city which wants to raise standards and carry out changes. Both parties benefit. Mentors not only help their implementing partners to bring about desired improvements, but also learn from this dialogue.

ImpleMentoring – city-to-city support for migrant integration is a mutual learning project between cities in the field ofw integration governance.
Led by EUROCITIES, the network of major cities in Europe, ImpleMentoring will enable European cities to address implementation gaps in migrant integration policies and practices.
It will build on the experience and success of EUROCITIES projects (MIXITIES, DIVE and INTI-Cities) by shifting the focus from peer reviews and standard-setting towards policy implementation guided by standards and evaluation.

This toolkit sets out the Integrating Cities benchmark on promoting cultural diversity – what it is, and how you can use a list of context factors to allow for your city’s specific circumstances when applying this Europe-wide tool. It gives guidance on how your city can make best use of the benchmark to promote cultural diversity.
This toolkit covers those aspects that deal with realising the potential of cultural diversity in a city. It is designed to complement the differing but interrelated Integrating Cities toolkit on anti-discrimination that focuses on how cities can remove barriers resulting from discriminatory policies.

This toolkit sets out the Integrating Cities benchmark on introductory and language courses – what it is, and how you can use a list of context factors to allow for your city’s specific circumstances when applying this Europe-wide tool. It gives guidance on how your city can make best use of the benchmark to develop work on introductory and language courses.

This toolkit sets out the Integrating Cities benchmark on anti-discrimination – what it is, and how you can use a list of context factors to allow for your city’s specific circumstances when applying this Europe-wide tool. It gives guidance on how your city can make best use of the benchmark to develop work on anti-discrimination.
This toolkit covers those aspects that deal with barriers resulting from discriminatory policies and what cities can do to overcome these. It is designed to complement the differing but interrelated Integrating Cities toolkit on promoting cultural diversity that focuses on how cities can realise the potential of cultural diversity.