Impact case study database
‘Here to Stay’ - Influencing policy, improving public services for Eastern European migrant young people and informing public debate and attitudes to migration
1. Summary of the impact
Research conducted at Strathclyde has demonstrated that young people born in Central and Eastern Europe who have settled in the UK are disadvantaged in terms of rights and opportunities, including their education outcomes, well-being and access to services. This research, which involved work with over 1,500 EU-born young people, informed a unique programme of training, policy and community activities. It has led to significant improvements in policy and practice supporting migrant groups. Events and training materials for practitioners enhanced their understanding of young people’s experiences and barriers to full participation in society, including experiences of discrimination and loss of rights post-Brexit. Research was used to tackle gaps in service provision and improve public understanding of EU migration across the UK and internationally through blogs, media contributions, campaigns and art exhibitions.
2. Underpinning research
Migration ranks as one of the most important factors of global change and was a defining issue in the UK 2016 Brexit Referendum. After the expansion of the European Union in 2004 and 2007, Britain experienced a significant increase in net migration from the EU states, with over 3,600,000 EU nationals now living in the UK. Since 2008, Sime has led extensive research on migration and migrants’ lives, examining the ways in which structural inequalities and everyday experiences of marginalisation impact young people who have migrated to Britain from Central and Eastern Europe with their families. Across several studies, this research showed that migrant children and young people continue to be disadvantaged by education, immigration and welfare policies across the UK, and highlighted the need for alternative approaches to ensure their needs are met and their rights respected, especially as they have become more vulnerable in the context of Brexit and changes to EU migrants’ rights to live and work in the UK.
Impact of migration on newly arrived Eastern European children in the UK
An ESRC-funded study (2008-2010) investigated the impact of migration on newly arrived Central and Eastern European (CEE) children and young people in the UK. Drawing on focus groups with 57 EU-born young people aged 12-18 and 23 family case studies, the project found that young people’s relationships with family and friends were significantly challenged by migration, leading to consequences for young people’s agency and well-being and a sense of transnational rather than local belonging and ontological insecurity [ R3]. It also demonstrated that young people’s access to services (education, health, leisure) [ R1, R2, R3] was constrained by their perceptions of entitlement to access, previous experiences of service use and providers’ attitudes. As a result, transnational service use continued for many long after settlement. This study was followed by a knowledge exchange programme (2012-13), also funded by the ESRC, which built on the research to inform policy and practice across a range of services through events.
Roma migrant families’ engagement with education and other services
A separate British Academy-funded study (2012-2013) specifically investigated Roma migrant families’ engagement with education and other services in Glasgow [ R4]. It analysed data on >400 children’s attainment and used interviews with Roma parents to identify barriers they encountered in engaging with education and other services. The study highlighted the extremely low attainment of Roma children, often linked to experiences of segregation in their birth countries, and significant barriers in accessing key public services. Roma parents’ ability to engage in their children’s education was impacted by their own stigmatising experiences of education. The study recommended a family-based approach to tackling educational disadvantage, improvements in outreach to make services accessible for families, and mentoring and support for children during key transition points (i.e. early years to primary, primary to secondary).
Identity, citizenship and belonging among EU-born migrant youth
An ESRC-funded study (2016-2019) examined issues of identity, citizenship and belonging among CEE migrant young people aged 12-18, in the context of Brexit. This is the only UK-wide project of its scale focusing on young migrants, collecting data with over 1,200 young people aged 12-18 after the 2016 EU Referendum, and documenting at a crucial time their feelings of belonging and identity, everyday experiences of discrimination and views on the likely impact of Brexit on their lives. In the study survey, 77% of respondents said they experienced racism and xenophobia, with a significant increase after the Referendum [ R5]. Focus groups with 122 young people and 20 family case studies explored in more depth issues of family relationships, future aspirations and the impact of Brexit on family decisions to remain in Britain long-term. While young people reported a strong sense of belonging to Britain, Brexit has made them reconsider their long-term plans [ R6]. Currently, young EU migrants face ongoing barriers and a precarious future in relation to their rights in the UK post-Brexit [ R5, R6]. With only 8% of respondents having secured British citizenship, the research revealed the significant risk that young EU nationals may become undocumented and socially excluded. It concluded that, given increasing experiences of discrimination and stigma faced by this group, the UK and devolved Governments must take active measures to ensure the rights of EU nationals are not affected by changes to immigration rules and welfare policies and the introduction of the ‘settled status’ scheme. It highlighted the likely risk of a new generation of undocumented migrants emerging, given the timeline for ‘settled status’ applications, with potential consequences echoing the Windrush generation.
3. References to the research
(Strathclyde affiliated authors in bold)
D. Sime (2014) ‘I think that Polish doctors are better’: newly arrived migrant children and their parents’ experiences and views of health services in Scotland, Health & Place, 30(1): 86-93 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2014.08.006
D. Sime, R. Fox (2015) Migrant children, social capital and access to public services post-migration: transitions, negotiations and complex agencies, Children & Society, 29(6): 524-534 https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12092
D. Sime, R. Fox (2015) Home Abroad: Eastern European children’s family and peer relationships after migration, Childhood, 22(3): 377-393
https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0907568214543199
D. Sime, G. Fassetta, M. McClung (2018) ‘It’s good enough that children are accepted’: Roma mothers’ views of children’s education post-migration, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 39(3): 316-332 https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2017.1343125 [REF2]
N. Tyrrell, D. Sime, C. Kelly, C. McMellon (2018) Belonging in Brexit Britain: Central and Eastern European young people’s experiences, Population, Space and Place, 25(1): e2205 https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2205
D. Sime, M. Moskal, N. Tyrrell (2020) Going back, staying put, moving on: Brexit and the future imaginaries of Central and Eastern European young people in Britain, Central and Eastern European Migration Review, 9(1) https://doi.org/10.17467/ceemr.2020.03
Notes on the quality of research: All outputs were published in peer reviewed journals and have been widely cited (particularly those published before 2018). The research was supported with approximately GBP650,000 competitively won funding awarded to Prof Sime as Principal Investigator, including 3 Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) awards (e.g. Sime, ESRC, Here to Stay? Identity citizenship and belonging among Eastern European children in the UK, 04/2016-01/2019, GBP339,852) and 2 British Academy (BA) grants (e.g. Sime, British Academy Fellowship, Getting by: Young people’s experiences of poverty and stigma at the intersection of ethnicity, class and gender, 03/10/2016-31/01/2018, GBP78,698).
4. Details of the impact
Through a sustained programme of briefing key stakeholders, training activities and community outreach, Strathclyde’s programme of research exploring social justice issues faced by Central and Eastern European migrant youth has:
Informed policy debates and shaped national and local government policy relating to European migration and rights by providing research evidence through various channels;
Enhanced practitioner training across key public services (education, social work, policing) and created research-informed resources to teach diversity issues and tackle prejudice-based bullying in schools;
Improved public understanding of migration and raised awareness of EU migrants’ rights through public exhibitions, events and social media campaigns.
4.1 Informed policy debates and shaped national and local government policy
The findings on CEE migrants’ use of public services, which highlighted barriers to access and regular transnational health service use [ R1, R2], informed a national evidence review on the impacts of migration in Scotland carried out by the Scottish Government [ S1a pp.42, 46, 66], leading to new policy aiming to retain migrants in Scotland and making the case for further devolved powers on immigration. The findings on the reported increase in incidents of xeno-racism experienced by EU-born young people, their changing plans for the future and the impact of Brexit on their rights to stay [ R5, R6] have also resulted in evidence-based policy. A report from the Expert Advisory Group on Migration and Population [ S1b pp.17, 31] was informed by Strathclyde’s findings on young EU nationals’ plans for long-term settlement [ R5, R6]. The same findings were cited in the Scottish Affairs Committee’s ‘Immigration and Scotland’ inquiry in 2017 [ S2a Q35], on young migrants’ experiences of racism and xenophobia and long-term settlement plans. Prof Sime gave oral evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee inquiry [ S2b pp.21-24, 30-40] on ‘Bullying and harassment of children and young people in schools’, which aimed to improve the monitoring and tackling of bullying incidents in Scotland’s schools.
Strathclyde’s research has highlighted the precarious status of European migrants post-Brexit. The Office of Scotland’s Minister for Europe, Migration and International Development used the findings to raise the issue of EU migrants’ post-Brexit legal status in Parliament, especially in relation to the need for families to access information on ‘settled status’ and citizenship routes. To ensure consideration of this within broader UK policy debates, Prof. Sime briefed MPs who made interventions in the UK Parliament on the rights of EU nationals and was invited to give evidence to the All-Party Parliamentary Committee on ‘Better Brexit for Young People’ chaired by Stephen Kinnock (in March 2018) [ S2c]. The key dimension of this work focussed on tackling the increase in xeno-racism and securing the rights of EU-born young people post-Brexit. The research findings have also been disseminated through workshops and social media campaigns [ S4, S6, S9 and @MigrantYouth] to ensure that organisations supporting families have access to information on ‘settled status’, so that more EU families secure their status before the June 2021 deadline.
Drawing on research with Roma migrants in Glasgow [ R4], where most of Scotland’s Roma migrant population lives, in November 2016, Sime contributed to an audit of the UK Cabinet Office’s Race Disparity Unit (RDU) [ S2d], created by the UK Government to document inequalities across ethnic groups and improve data monitoring. At the session, involving also the Race Equality Policy Lead for the Scottish Government, Sime highlighted the under-counting of Roma migrants (often miscounted as ‘White-Other’, based on the majority ethnicity in country of birth and/or reluctance to self-identify for fear of stigma) and provided evidence on the very low attainment and high dropout rates of Roma children. The RDU published a report in 2017, recognising there was less data for Roma groups, especially new migrants, and said evidence to the audit helped ‘identify those public services where disparities are diminishing and those where work is needed to develop effective strategies to reduce disparities between ethnic groups’ [ S2e, para. 1.16 & 2.10] . The RDU has committed to improve the evidence base for these groups in its Quality Improvement Plan and now monitors more closely outcomes such as education and health. In Scotland, as a result of the research, Glasgow City Council has improved approaches to enhance the achievement of Roma children, including targeted adult literacy classes, mentoring and supporting Roma families to fully engage with services [ S3]. According to the Support Services Manager, ‘the Strathclyde research has not only helped support the work we undertake in schools, it has also had an impact on how we manage policy, resource allocation and collect and use information centrally’ [ S3]. It also informed anti-poverty initiatives to support families applying for clothing grants, free school meals and welfare/rights support [ S3]. This has particular importance as Roma groups remain more vulnerable to poverty, racism, exploitation and the risk of not securing their ‘settled status’ post-Brexit.
4.2 Enhanced practitioner training across key services through research-informed resources to teach diversity issues and tackle prejudice-based bullying in schools
As migration to the UK has increased since 2004, there was a demand for research-based training for practitioners working with migrants. Sime’s research informed an extensive training programme for practitioners delivering key services (education, social work, police, voluntary sector). Since 2010, more than 5,000 teachers, social workers, students, community work practitioners, police staff and others have benefitted from regular bespoke training events based on materials created by Sime and her team. The training materials have included policy and practice briefings (over 6,000 downloads) [ S4a], a Toolkit for service providers working with migrant children and their families, a guide on ‘How to talk about Brexit with your family’, videos and podcasts. The research [ R1- R3, R5, R6] has impacted practice through joint activities with Education Scotland, 40+ local authorities across the UK and other stakeholders, such as Social Work departments. Other examples of organisations attending included Glasgow City Council, Creative Scotland, Multi-Cultural Family Base (MCFB), Glasgow Roma and Asylum Social Work Team, Glasgow Centre for Population Health, Romanian and Polish Embassies, Save the Children, Barnardo’s, Families Outside, The Scottish Government, Home Office and many more. Overwhelmingly positive, the feedback from events organised described the sessions as ‘excellent and worthwhile’ and ‘much needed’. Many experienced practitioners reported improved understanding of the needs of migrant groups and better skills in engaging with families, some saying: ‘the seminar has widened my scope of understanding beyond my own service’ or ‘I heard excellent examples of good practice which we are going to implement in my service’ [ S8]. Many went on to share learning with their practice teams and the research team provided follow up support on numerous occasions through visits to services. Accordingly, there was a significant expansion in practitioners’ confidence in supporting children’s learning and their integration and in offering families support, through inclusive education provision, social work and health practice [ S3, S8].
The overall impact of the research findings into the prevalence of racism and xenophobia linked to EU groups and the risk to migrant young people’s status and rights post-Brexit has also led to practice-based activities, helping the wider government and local authorities’ efforts to promote the inclusion of EU nationals post-Brexit. Sime worked with Scotland’s anti-bullying service, Respect me, to produce a teachers’ pack which was sent to over 2,000 schools and was downloaded more than 1,500 times, to tackle prejudice-based bullying and improve practice across services [ S4b, S5]. Fully funded by the Scottish Government, Respect me led a ‘Choose Respect’ campaign in 2018/19, targeting all schools in Scotland and media channels. The teachers’ pack was also promoted by Education Scotland to all schools across the 32 local authorities through the National Improvement Hub [ S7], the executive agency of the Scottish Government which ensures the quality of the education system. This has led to thousands of pupils in primary and secondary schools learning about prejudice-based bullying and empathy and schools adopting better systems of reporting [ S5]. Sime also used the materials to train 1,200+ student teachers and social workers at Strathclyde, trained officers of Police Scotland and briefed the Crown Prosecution Service’s National Scrutiny Panel on migrants’ experiences of hate crime. The evidence from the research was also presented in two Royal Society of Edinburgh reports [ S6]. Both documents were distributed to practitioners, policy makers and service managers at impact events, where Sime advocated for the inclusion of migrants in education post-Brexit and their citizenship rights [ S6a] and better access to health services [ S6b], given evidence from Sime’s research [ R1] that migrants, including children, are low users of healthcare provision.
4.3 Improved public understanding and attitudes to migration
At a time of increased public debate on migration and in the context of Brexit, research led by Sime informed a wide range of public activities aimed at engaging members of the public. Art exhibitions, online blogs and social media campaigns have been used to engage with the general public around migrants’ experiences and attitudes to migration [ S9]. Two art-based exhibitions - the ‘Children’s exhibition on migration’ (Scotland Street School Museum) and ‘Here to Stay?’ (Tramway) - were co-produced with young people and attracted over 7,000 visitors in total (count from museum directors), including school children from migrant and non-migrant backgrounds, their families, service representatives and the general public. The feedback highlighted the positive impact the exhibitions had on public understandings of migration and migratory experiences. Comments after the event included: ‘This exhibition has made me change my views on migrants, I now understand why they leave their countries’ and ‘This is a provocative and complex exhibition about home and identity - very relatable and an eye opener’. Many people who attended said they felt challenged on their views on migration and better informed [ S8].
In addition, Strathclyde’s guide on ‘How to talk about Brexit with your family’, based on work with Youth Advisors, was disseminated to hundreds of schools and online across the UK in 2016-2019, supported by talks that Sime and the team gave to young people at assemblies/during lessons and at parents’ evenings. These events informed young people on their rights and the need to apply for ‘settled status’ or citizenship and how to report incidents of racism and hate crime. Social media campaigns informed by the research were organised through Twitter @MigrantYouth (#heretostay #migrantyouth #migrantsrights), Instagram and Facebook. Activities also took place with migrant families in community centres, churches, museums, shopping centres, reaching thousands (examples include Exeter Respect Festival, Explorathon, North Devon Diversity Festival, ESRC Festival of Social Science, AHRC Being Human festival). Significant media coverage has also been achieved through a range of outlets including Channel 4 News, BBC World Service, Herald Scotland, The Guardian, Huffington Post, LSE Brexit Blog (Overall monthly readership: 790,000) and The Conversation (Overall monthly readership: 2,300,000). In terms of reach, the Channel 4 News story was viewed more than 50,000 times; BBC World Service Newshour, which interviewed Sime in August 2019, has over 319 million listeners a week; and thousands more were reached through international media [ S9]. Sime’s research has also strengthened advocacy campaigns for the rights of EU citizens, such as The 3 Million and Migrant Voice. Since 2020, Sime has utilised her position as Vice Convenor of a new non-partisan network, EU & Me ( www.euandme.com), to inform work and engage the general public in constructive debate over Britain’s relationship with Europe post-Brexit.
5. Sources to corroborate the impact
Scottish Government reports: a. (2016) The impacts of migrants and migration into Scotland; b. Expert Advisory Group on Migration and Population (2019) UK Immigration Policy After Leaving the EU: Impacts on Scotland’s economy, Population and Society.
Collated Committee Papers: a. Scottish Affairs Committee, ‘Immigration and Scotland’ inquiry (14/11/2017); b. Scottish Parliament, Equalities and Human Rights Committee (21/06/2018); c. Invitation to participate in APPG ‘Better Brexit for Young People (5/03/2018); d. Invitation to participate in Race Disparity Unit Audit (29/11/2016); e. Race Disparity Audit, Summary Findings from the Ethnicity Facts and Figures website (10/2017, revised 03/2018).
Corroborating statement from Support Services Manager, Policy & Research, Education Services, Glasgow City Council (19/02/2021).
Project and campaign websites: a. www.migrantyouth.org and website analytics; b. Respect me’s Choose Respect campaign and school case studies.
Corroborating statement from Director of Respect me (10/02/2021).
Royal Society of Edinburgh publications: a. Brexit: the impact on Scotland (2017); b. Brexit: The impact on Scotland - Health and wellbeing edition (2018).
Education Scotland – National Improvement Hub, Supporting young Eastern Europeans - research, policy and practice materials (2017-2020).
Feedback forms from training events (2014-2019) and Exhibition feedback (07/2018-08/2018)
Media coverage: a. ‘The Brexit fears of the children of EU nationals’, Channel 4 News (13/11/2018); b. ‘Xenophobic bullying souring lives of eastern European pupils in UK’, The Guardian (22/08/2019); c. ‘Young Eastern Europeans are reporting increased racism and xenophobia after the Brexit vote’, Huffington Post (11/04/2020); d. ‘ How Brexit is making young Eastern Europeans in the UK fear for their future’, The Conversation (2706/2018); e. ‘ The hidden impact of Brexit on young Scots’, Third Force News (11/04/2019); f. International coverage: Spanish news ( El Diario, 31/01/2020); Polish news ( londynek.net, 22/08/2019 and emito.net, 23/08/2019); and Romanian national TV ( Digi 24 HD, 22/08/2019).
Additional contextual information
Grant funding
Grant number | Value of grant |
---|---|
ES/M011038/1 | £339,853 |
MD160010 | £78,698 |