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An Ofsted review of the National Curriculum found that diversity and multiculturalism is taught poorly in British schools and recommended that personal, family and local history be included in the curriculum. A joint project between LSE and Cambridge University, in partnership with Runnymede Trust, used underpinning research on Bengali migration and settlement to develop a new approach for teaching history that is effective in addressing Ofsted's concerns. The project produced a website and educational resources for teachers and students, tested and proved the new approach in three diverse cities, and influenced Government revisions to the National Curriculum to ensure that important diversity and multicultural elements were retained. The website has received over 66,500 visits (one-third UK, two-thirds international), has been selected by the British Library for the permanent UK Web Archive, and has become an inspiration and template for other diversity-related knowledge transfer projects such as 'Revealing Romans'.
This case study focuses on the impact of ethnographic research on migration to the UK from South Asia and Eastern and Central Europe by a team of researchers in sociology at Roehampton. This research has enhanced knowledge of demographic change in British society and has had a significant impact on policy makers and providers in local, national and European policy communities. The research has contributed to changing attitudes, raising awareness, and shifts in policy and practice by local government in London with regards to migration and social inclusion to the capital. It has also contributed to capacity building activities and new policy tools to support social inclusion and labour market integration by new migrant communities in the UK and across the European Union.
Southampton based research has demonstrated to policymakers the benefits of temporary migration through overseas savings and skill acquisition which contribute to the economic development of the home country. The research has challenged traditional notions about the adverse effects of the 'brain drain' and directly contributed to the design of international migration policy in labour sending countries. It has also proactively influenced the policy recommendations of international organisations (e.g. ILO, Worl Bank) regarding return migrants and their enterprise creation. The World Bank used Southampton researcher, Wahba's research and expertise when assisting the Egyptian Government in the preparation for "Mode 4" in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) in 2010.
Events organised as part of the TNMUNDI research project in 2008 and 2009 set out to increase understanding of the processes and practices of migration among a range of audiences, including cultural practitioners, public policy representatives, school children and the general public. The research team focused on migrant musicians and their transnational networks through concerts and workshops held in Rabat and Southampton, demonstrating how transnational musicians create their professional networks and how, in turn, they use these to make positive contributions to the social and cultural well-being of nation-states inside and outside Europe. At both events, the researchers discussed the cultural and artistic impacts of transnational migration with representatives from educational and cultural institutions, NGOs, the media, the music industry and the artists themselves. As a result of the project, new professional and cultural networks have been formed and the researchers provided input to the development of European cultural policy.
The University of Southampton has carried out a programme of research into transnational networks of migrants, especially musicians from African countries, and multicultural neighbourhoods across Europe. This has resulted in a series of popular multi-national arts events in Africa and Europe, involving artists numbering in the hundreds and audiences in the hundreds of thousands. These events have generated new independent cultural projects, leading to economic benefit for organisers and participants and to greater public awareness of migrant and mixed community issues.
This research by Professor Matras has had a substantial impact on European policies concerning Romani migration. It highlighted the unique vulnerability of Romani migrants and instigated special consideration of their issues by major European policy-making bodies. At a more local level in Greater Manchester Professor Matras' recommendations led to the employment of Romani outreach workers to act as mediators and interpreters for the community of Romanian Romani immigrants in east Manchester. In 2011 a training programme born out of his research led to ten young members of the Romani community taking up roles as interpreters, mediators and classroom assistants within Manchester's local services and schools.
The research has developed new approaches to the digital mapping of immigrant populations. It has been used to:
This research has enabled more effective integration of refugees and other new migrants into society both at individual level by helping individual migrants to gain access to employment and improved social welfare provision, and at a strategic level by influencing the development of policy initiatives around refugee employment, mental health and migrant access to maternity services. The research has employed innovative methods to engage migrants in research about integration and in work to influence policy, thereby shaping national and local (Birmingham and West Midlands) integration policy and practice.
Research carried out at the University of Oxford's Centre on Migration Policy and Society (COMPAS) and disseminated through an accessible multimedia website, `The Migration Observatory', has transformed public and policy debate on migration and changed the practices of government departments, media, and third-sector organizations regarding migration data. As a result of COMPAS's research on public attitudes to immigration, migrants' remittance payments, and employers' demand for migrant labour, these groups have been able to make stronger, evidence-based arguments and decisions.
The impact has occurred in two main ways: (1) direct impact on public debates; and (2) changes in the practices of those participating in, or reporting on, those debates. The direct impact has included evidence for arguments against new restrictions on student immigration, and related arguments in favour of changing the way student immigration statistics are tracked. It has also included shaping deliberations on the potential for developing new measures of remittances by the Office of National Statistics. Changes in practice have involved the dissemination of research and data through the vehicle of the Migration Observatory. The Observatory has enabled journalists, civil servants, parliamentarians, and NGOs to use a more accurate and impartial evidence base in debates on migration issues, and to inform the public about such issues.
Research at Oxford's International Migration Institute (IMI) on the driving forces of global migration processes, conducted in conversation with international stakeholder groups, has significantly affected the ways in which migration is conceptualised and viewed by experts, international organisations and governments involved in formulating migration and development policies. The new perspective arising from IMI's research fundamentally challenges the common assumption that migration is driven by poverty and distress, and holds that migration is in fact an integral part of the process of human and economic development. This view was adopted by the United Nations in the UNDP Human Development Report 2009 and has significantly influenced the UK government's Foresight report on Migration and Global Environmental Change.