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a n t Ma t t ers

Mig r
Lessons from Oxfam’s Migrant Workers Project, 2006-2009

The Migrant Workers Project, funded by the Big Lottery Fund, has run for 3 years
from May 2006, and is due to finish in April 2009. The project sought to use innovative
approaches at three locations across the UK to increase knowledge of migrant issues
and reduce poverty levels among migrant workers. Oxfam decided to work with migrant
workers as these are a particularly vulnerable group of workers, often unaware of their
rights, with limited English and living in isolation.

Key findings
• Working directly with migrant workers was resource intensive but was crucial to the
success of the project. Oxfam played a critical brokerage role between migrants and service
providers, and invested time in supporting migrant worker leaders in coming together to form
their own organisation.

• Migrant workers are a very diverse group of people and in order to work with migrant
workers a wide range of different approaches was needed. The most successful aspects
of the project were where we were able to combine a number of these different approaches
in one geographic location.

• Migrant workers were initially very uneasy about speaking to the media or policy
makers and did not want to share their experiences publicly for fear of losing their jobs.
A participatory peer research project developed their skills and confidence, and more importantly
enabled them to speak anonymously and on behalf of other migrant workers.

• There is a significant demand for basic awareness training from public sector bodies and
few people are providing this. There was a very high take-up of the awareness training run by
Oxfam for service providers.

• Private sector employers in the social care sector were willing to engage in work to support
good practice in the recruitment and employment of migrant workers. It was important to
focus interventions around issues of importance to employers such as staff recruitment and
retention, as well as those of interest to the project.

• The project was able to engage in relevant policy issues, most notably around vulnerable
workers and employment law enforcement. We were most successful when working in
partnership with other organisations, and when we were able to involve migrant workers, for
example workers gave evidence to the TUC’s Commission on Vulnerable Employment.

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Background What went well
The Migrant Workers Project focused on five key aims: and what we learnt
• To support migrant workers to increase their Supporting migrant workers
knowledge of their rights, and the services
Direct work with migrant workers was one of the
available to them
most challenging and rewarding aspects of the
• To support service providers to better target project. Migrant workers were unwilling to organise
their services for migrant workers at work for fear of losing their job and Oxfam therefore
worked with migrants in places where they felt safer
• To work with the private sector to improve to meet. This meant considerable staff time was
their recruitment and employment practices required to reach out to migrant workers, often at
for migrant workers unsocial hours. Half way through the project we
therefore employed an extra project worker to
• To enable migrant workers to share their stories
work more intensively with migrant worker leaders.
with the media

• To work with policy makers to improve relevant Lessons on effective ways of engaging
policy based on inputs from migrant workers with migrant workers:
themselves
• ESOL classes and ESOL teachers are an
In order to achieve these aims the project ran a important access route
wide range of activities including: • Visit churches and make links with other faith
• Rights based information workshops with groups communities, and visit social clubs attended
of migrant workers delivered by local service by migrants workers
providers. Also one to one advice sessions • Use existing informal networks of migrant
and larger information events workers’ personal contacts
• It is important to listen to the voice of migrant
• Media training workshops with migrant workers,
workers and provide them with information and
including ESOL and presentation skills
services that they have identified themselves
• Supporting migrant worker leaders and • Meeting times work best at evening and
establishing a peer support group, ‘Migrants weekends
Supporting Migrants’

• Running a participatory peer research project Workshops for migrant workers


into the experiences of fellow migrants Following successful outreach work Oxfam ran a
number of workshops for migrant workers in four
• A series of half day awareness raising training
locations across Greater Manchester, in Oxford
for service providers and annual seminars
and in Hull. Topics included Welfare Rights, Legal
• Small grants to organisations supporting migrant Rights at Work, Housing and Job Search Skills.
workers, including the Rainbow Haven drop-in One to one support sessions were also available
centre, the North Manchester Law Centre and for migrant workers.
Broughton Trust These workshops provided an important and
• In depth support work with four employers in valued opportunity for service providers to meet
the social care sector in Liverpool, to improve with migrant workers.
recruitment and employment practices (in Overall there was a very low awareness among
partnership with Migrant Workers’ North West). migrant workers of their employment and other
rights. The vast majority of those attending training
• Work with policy makers and research and
sessions reported that they had been denied their
reports on the situation with migrant domestic
statutory rights, for example illegal deductions from
workers (in partnership with Kalayaan) and on
their wages, no sickness or holiday pay and a lack
the Gangmasters Licensing Act (in partnership
of protection from unfair dismissal. Other important
with the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of
issues arising from the workshops were a lack of
Slavery and Emancipation).
awareness about entitlement to benefits and
problems around accessing ESOL classes.
Supporting migrant leaders union, and two were in contact with advice agencies.
Oxfam found no well-established leaders in By far the most common source of advice and support
migrant worker communities. Therefore we on arrival were contacts with other migrants.
identified migrant workers who were willing to
work with others to help them improve their living Supporting service deliverers
and working conditions in the UK. Oxfam worked Service deliverers were keen to learn more about
with people on an individual basis, and supported how best to provide services for migrant workers
migrants on their own projects, for example in one and greatly appreciated opportunities to meet with
case someone established a community group migrants and learn more about their needs.
and in another case a recruitment agency.
Oxfam acted as a broker to bring together staff
and migrant workers, particularly at rights based
Migrants Supporting Migrants
workshops, and some larger networking events
Following a number of one to one meetings it was that the project ran. Beyond the original remit of
decided the best way for migrants to support each the project, Oxfam was asked to deliver basic
other was to set up their own community group. awareness raising training which proved to be
The group called itself ‘Migrants supporting Migrants’ very popular with public sector employees from
and has arranged information workshops as well a wide range of services.
as informal social and networking events. The group
has gone from strength to strength and will continue In order to make this work more sustainable Oxfam
beyond the timescale of this Oxfam project. was instrumental in establishing a network for services
in Manchester called the ‘Migrant Workers Advice
The impact of the group on the confidence of Partnership’ and a network in Salford.
its members is shown in the example below:
One service provider highlighted the important role

“group
It is amazing being part of a Oxfam played as broker:

like this, you are sharing


and you realise that you can
“ We went to a Roma church in West
Gorton, we got surrounded by people
improve your situation.
MSM group member
” who needed advice and our main
service appointments have gone up
as a result of this: without Oxfam we
Peer research
Oxfam decided to carry out a peer research
might not have found this church.

project as a way of finding out more about migrants’
experience, and getting migrants’ views heard
Grant making
without them having to speak to the media about
The project gave grants to small voluntary sector
their individual personal experience. Members
service providers of between £2000 and £5000.
of the group were trained in research techniques
Projects receiving funds included the North
and asked migrants about living and working in the
Manchester Law Centre, the Broughton Trust (for
UK. The project was successful both in terms of
working with migrants in Salford) and the Rainbow
empowering migrant workers to have their voice
Haven (a drop in service for destitute migrants based
heard and as a way of opening up discussions
in East Manchester). The grant to Rainbow Haven
and supporting local lobbying and service changes.
has provided financial support to 61 individuals,
The findings showed that migrants had many positive some of whom have families with children, and
experiences of working in the UK, including earning has provided a further 60 food parcels.
higher wages than they could at home, good working
Examples of the people Rainbow Haven has
conditions and the opportunity to learn English.
worked with include one man who found himself
However people also experienced significant problems
out of work, sleeping rough and destitute, and
in their place of work with over half (56%) of those
was attacked in the street and badly hurt. Rainbow
interviewed experiencing unfair treatment.
Haven also encountered a group of seven male
Migrant workers were also asked about their sources Polish labourers sleeping rough and living in a
of advice and support, and worryingly only one squat in difficult conditions with very poor sanitation.
interviewee out of 34 was in contact with a trade They have been provided with individual payments.
Private Sector Support There were also considerable changes in the attitudes
Oxfam worked intensively with four employers in the of employers towards migrant workers, with many saying
social care sector to help them improve recruitment that their misconceptions, largely influenced by the
and employment practice. Oxfam also held training media, had been dispelled and there was an increased
sessions with a larger number of employers to look awareness and confidence in dealing with workplace
at issues such as Criminal Records checks, immigration tensions including racism.
legislation and signposting to organisations which
could support migrant workers. Media training
Oxfam ran a series of media training sessions for
One of the key learning points for Oxfam was the fact
migrant workers, with the aim of challenging negative
that employers genuinely did want to engage with the
stereotypes in the press. The project had some
project to learn more about their responsibilities towards
success in placing positive stories in local media and
migrant workers. It was important to focus this work
radio articles, but it proved hard to work on this issue.
on the employers’ issues: staff retention, references,
We had made assumptions that migrant workers would
immigration rules, in order to maintain their commitment,
be prepared to work with the media, but many felt too
as well as to work on the issues of concern to the
vulnerable to do so, and for others it wasn’t their priority.
project: fair recruitment and employment practices.
It was also particularly useful to engage with a
professional networking body for the sector, in this
case the Liverpool Social Care Partnership. For any
“ The Oxfam media course is
amazing – I always look forward to
future work it would be helpful to seek out representative the course. The articles in the media
bodies rather than going to employers individually.
present immigration to the UK in a
The project resulted in some important changes in
bad light. People think migrants are
practice. For example one employer now gives new staff
mentors and a member of their training and recruitment uneducated and are coming and
team will contact new staff each week to iron out any taking people’s jobs, but it is not true.
problems they may have. Mentors will achieve an
NVQ L3 certificate in ‘mentoring in the workplace’.
Many are very educated.

Oxfam is a registered charity in England and Wales No 202918 and Scotland SCO 039042.
Another employer has created a welcome pack which
is available to all new staff and others are now paying Policy work
staff out of pocket expenses to attend training sessions. Oxfam has been involved in the research and publication
One employer stated that: of important reports around migration policy, including
work with Kalayaan to produce the report ‘The New

“ Project engagement has assisted


immensely with staff understanding and
Bonded Labour’, which led to a government committing
to maintain the existing rights and protections for migrant
domestic workers which were introduced via the domestic
knowledge based towards recruitment, worker visa. Oxfam also worked in partnership with the
support and selection for people from TUC Commission on Vulnerable Employment, which


BME communities and migrant workers. carried out extensive research into the conditions of
vulnerable workers in the UK, to ensure that a migrant
workers perspective was heard.

Oxfam plans to continue its work with vulnerable workers. For more details contact:
Lucy Brill, England Programme Co-ordinator, UK Poverty, Oxfam GB. Oxfam Office,
494 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton, Manchester M21 9AS
Tel: 0161 860 2811 Fax: 0161 860 5600 e-mail: ukpoverty@oxfam.org.uk
www.oxfam.org.uk/uk

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