Log in
Professor Sonia McKay researched the relationship between precarious work and migration for the (European) Directorate General for Employment, Social affairs and Equality, ACAS, the Health and Safety Executive and the European Union's Framework 6 programme. She found new forms of employment relationships are emerging from the convergence of precarious work, migration and the current economic crisis with increases in informal working and concentration of precarity among certain groups such as Roma. While migration policies based on closing borders in EU countries increases the numbers of undocumented migrants and intensifies exploitation McKay's work has led to some changes in policies and practices.
Integration of refugees, asylum seekers and their host communities is a complex challenge but an important marker both of future health and psychosocial wellbeing and of social cohesion. The UK Home Office commissioned IIHD to undertake the Indicators of Integration (IOI) research programme (from 2001) to clarify the IOI concept and recommend IOI for refugee policy and practice. The Ager and Strang IOI Framework (Ager and Strang, 2004a; 2004b; 2008) has become a foundational framework for refugee integration policy, for the measurement of integration and for critiquing policy and practice. Strang was appointed to chair the Scottish Government Refugee Integration Strategy consultation process in 2012 and has contributed by invitation to a number of EU-commissioned policy consultations.
Research conducted at UEL as part of an ESRC-funded participatory project exploring identity, performance and social action among refugee communities in London has enhanced cohesion within the participating communities, and supported the transfer of specialist expertise and skills from academia to local community and artistic organisations. The latter have benefitted both from the development of innovative methodological research tools and from researchers' support for their subsequent adoption in work with different communities. The research has also contributed to the development of new artistic and cultural resources, including a Verbatim and Forum theatre play. The communication of key research findings through this and other forums has increased public engagement with, and sensitized audiences to, issues relating to the everyday life experiences of refugees in Metropolitan London.
The body of research commences with the UK's first published assessment of accommodation and other (health, education etc) needs of Gypsies and Travellers (G/T) in accordance with the 2004 Housing Act. The research had a direct influence on Government policy making process, impacting the development of new data sets, statutory guidance on the content of assessments and demonstrating the viability of innovative collaborative research methodologies with nomadic/sedentary Gypsy-Traveller populations. The Fundamental Rights Agency and INVOLVE subsequently cited the research as `best practice' for research focussing on `hard to reach' communities.
Les Back has produced a body of research that has documented and intervened in the institutional marginalisation of migrants in Europe, the de-humanising impacts of the UK immigration system and the new technologies of border regulation. This work has stimulated and shaped public understanding through journalism and direct engagements with politicians, policy makers, practitioners and third sector organisations. It has contributed to an accumulating public narrative in favour of a humane national and EU migration policy. In particular, his research of conditions at Lunar House, Croydon gathered evidence of the poor quality of facilities and de-humanising practices and led to specific recommendations for improvement. This directly resulted in a large-scale (£800,000) change to facilities for users of the immigration service at Lunar House. Drawing on this underpinning research, Back's later work exposed the damaging consequences of UKBA's use of `go home' texting. Collectively, his research has impacted and continues to shift the terms of political debate amongst a wide range of audiences including the Houses of Parliament and the European Commission, as well as less specialised audiences such as BBC Radio 1 listeners.
Research into service user involvement in mental health care resulted in the development of an educational intervention for registered mental health nurses to deliver effective, ethically appropriate therapeutic interventions for highly distressed and disturbed patients.
The research outputs were taken up and implemented by Halikko hospital in Finland, leading to a significant change in policy and practice, including a substantial reduction in the use of coercive techniques. Following the success of this change, other psychiatric hospitals in Finland have adopted the system.
University of Salford researchers have developed a community-based research method to capture the viewpoints of, and more valid and reliable data about, migrant and nomadic groups, who experience barriers to social inclusion, demonstrating the following impact:
Research conducted within the University of East London's Institute of Health and Human Development (IHHD) is reshaping the development, commissioning, delivery and evaluation of interventions to address the wider determinants of health and health-inequalities, and has had impacts on public policy, service design and, ultimately, public health and wellbeing. Grounded in close relationships with policy-makers and end users, UEL's primary research into community development and co-production has informed the design of health improvement interventions, delivered through the cross-institutional, community-based Well London project. Research findings have driven Big Lottery funding priorities, contributed to parliamentary debates on health, informed NICE and Local Government guidance, shaped Marmot Review Team and NESTA policy, and led health authorities to commission new services and adopt new approaches to service delivery.
Impact resulted from the unit's sustained research in the field, including the leadership of a large EU Framework 6 action project `EMILIA' - the Empowerment of Mental Illness Service Users: Lifelong Learning, Integration and Action, and the follow up project, PROMISE. The findings identified how to reduce social exclusion among people with serious mental illness through lifelong learning and by improving participation in service delivery, education and training, as well as paid employment. The research recommendations were included in a joint EU/WHO policy statement and subsequently rolled out across European Union Member States. The research impacted on the development of European and national policies regarding mental health service users and, through further knowledge transfer activities and the incorporation of the recommendations by a network of providers in 43 countries, also impacted on the profession and mental health service users directly.
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.