Memorandum by Community Development Foundation
(CDF)
1. ABOUT OUR
WORK
1.1 CDF is a Non Departmental Public Body
(NDPB) sponsored by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
1.2 CDF is a leading source of intelligence,
guidance and delivery on community development, engagement, empowerment
and capacity building in England and across the UK; we also operate
at European and international level. We provide these functions
through: policy and research analysis; administration and evaluation
of Government funded grant programmes; links to practitioner networks;
publications; training and information; partnerships with statutory
agencies and organisations in the voluntary and community sectors.
1.3 CDF's interest and expertise in migration
issues relates to the cohesion implications and effects of migration
on communities, and to the community development practice which
integrates new migrants with established or receiving communities.
1.4 The evidence submitted here is derived
from CDF's work over the past two years with people working directly
with, and in, communities currently experiencing tensions and
challenges arising from migration and cultural diversity. This
includes a study of community development practitioners' activities
in relation to new arrivals (both refugees and asylum seekers),
a series of workshops with people working to promote cohesive
communities generally and the experiences and insights from two
grant giving programmes that CDF administers on behalf of the
Race Equality and Diversity Division at CLG: the Faith Communities
Capacity Building Fund (FCCBF) and Connecting Communities Plus,
Community Grants (CC Plus).
1.5 We recognise that different legal conditions
determine the settlement opportunities for economic migrants from
EU accession countries, from outside Europe, for refugees, and
for asylum seekers. Their immigration status will determine the
extent to which new arrivals of different kinds are able to participate
in social, cultural, civic, economic and political life in the
UK. However, evidence presented from work to date on the arrival
and integration of refugees and asylum seekers has considerable
relevance for economic migrants. Extrapolating from this material
is relevant for two reasons. Firstly, established or receiving
communities often do not make distinction between immigrants'
legal status or conditions. Secondly, successful integration into
UK communities shares similar characteristics for all incomers:
being part of the community, not feeling isolated, having control
over their lives, living in relative safety, being recognised
for who they are, having cultural differences and traditions accepted,
and being able to access services in ways that suit their needs.
2. SUMMARY OF
CDF'S MEMORANDUM
— Community development methods and
values contribute to the growth and maintenance of community cohesion
in many ways.
— Community-led organisations are well
positioned to connect migrants with one another and with the local
communities in which they find themselves.
— Our anecdotal evidence shows new
patterns of racial prejudice and hostility emerging; mostly attributed
to increased competition for access to public services.
— Preparation of existing populations
for new arrivals is key to addressing such tensions.
— CDF's work highlights the importance
of responsive and reciprocal actions to community cohesion and
migration and the key roles of community development practitioners,
community and voluntary groups and public sector providers in
the preparation, support, settlement and integration of migrants.
— Settlement support has more impact
if a combined or complimentary approach is taken which works with
both migrants and service providers.
— Public service providers should try
to ensure that engagement strategies are as empowering and accessible
as possible for people from migrant communities.
— Government should continue to expand
and support targeted grant programmes which support (among others)
migrant and refugee community groups.
— CDF's evidence suggests that not
being able to speak English was a major barrier to participation
within the local community and from accessing local services,
engaging with their children and finding employment.
— Single identity groups have an important
cohesion and integration role in their local communities.
— Migrants should be encouraged to
integrate and yet retain important aspects of their cultures and
identities as this is enriching for our society.
3. COMMUNITY
COHESION
The term "community cohesion" represents
that aspect of society that enables people to co-operate and share
despite local loyalties and community identities. It is about
building relationships across perceived boundaries and encouraging
integration on the basis of mutual respect and social justice.
3.1 Community cohesion comprises three main
components:
— A shared ability to manage diversity
and resolve conflicts within and between communities.
— An approach that recognises that
divisions and differences within communities are not just about
"race" and "religion", but include other aspects
of people's lives such as socio-cultural and economic barriers.
— A concern to tackle the inequalities
of opportunity and outcome that generate grievances and inter-communal
tensions.
4. THE COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT APPROACH
Community development methods and values contribute
to the growth and maintenance of community cohesion in many ways.
It is a skilled and strategic way of working that helps people
to work together to achieve change. Often this involves identifying
what people have in common, for example in relation to housing,
education and health, as well as acknowledging differences. Tensions,
even conflicts, are inevitable. Key tasks for community development
work are to find connections, encourage positive interaction and
overcome the obstacles that get in the way of collective and partnership
working.
5. THE EFFECT
OF RECENT
INWARD MIGRATION
ON COMMUNITY
COHESION AND
PUBLIC CONCERNS
ABOUT THIS
EFFECT
5.1 Whilst we have not, to date, been systematically
gathering data about the pace of change in communities experiencing
new migration, our work with community groups and community practitioners
has uncovered anecdotal evidence about the public concerns and
community tensions which arise. In particular we are aware of
new patterns of racial prejudice and hostility, whereby some members
of settled communities of Asian and Caribbean origin appear to
resent the arrival of new ethnic minorities and the consequent
competition for "race equality" resources.
5.2 Initial findings from CC Plus research
show this is attributable to increased competition for access
to public services, such as housing and local amenities. Preparing
existing populations for new arrivals is key to addressing such
tensions (and is dealt with in the section of role, responsibilities
and actions, below). Suspicion was also seen in the form of settled
migrant communities having stereotypes about newer economic migrants.
5.3 Recent research conducted by Clarke
and Garner at the University of the West of England[12]
on the perceptions and identities of working class white communities
indicate that most people have a strong sense of "fairness"
over who is entitled to state services and support, and that migrants
are often (wrongly) perceived as receiving more than their "fair
share", compared to British citizens. These myths can have
a damaging effect on community relations, undermining attempts
to promote positive interaction and integration.
6. THE ROLE,
RESPONSIBILITIES AND
ACTIONS OF
DIFFERENT BODIES
ON COMMUNITY
COHESION AND
MIGRATION, INCLUDING
THOSE OF
CENTRAL AND
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
AND OF
EMPLOYERS
6.1 Evidence from CDF's work to date highlights
the importance of responsive or reciprocal actions which:
— enable new migrants to become integral
members of communities; while
— developing cohesive communities that
are confident, adaptive and resilient, and therefore do not feel
threatened by the arrival of new migrants; and
— supporting service providers to understand
and respond to the needs and aspirations of new migrants.
6.2 Community development practitioners
both in the voluntary and public sector, community groups and
public service providers all have key roles to play.
6.3 The role of community development practitioners
Community development practitioners can help
prepare for new arrivals by working with community groups, partnerships
and service providers to increase their cultural and political
awareness. This involves understanding the circumstances and motivations
of the migrant communities, raising awareness of different cultures
and needs, challenging prejudice and discrimination, providing
and undertaking race equality training.
6.3.1 Conversely, they have a role in receiving
communities to identify opportunities and barriers for new migrants'
involvement in mainstream activities; for example, local clubs,
trips or volunteering opportunities.
6.3.2 Equally, community development practitioners,
from both voluntary and local authorities, provide essential support
to migrant community organisations in organisational and infrastructural
development, networking, accountability, leadership and representation.
6.4 The role of community and voluntary groups
Community and voluntary groups have a key role
to play in supporting individual migrants with settlement. In
some instances, they provide advocacy services and through the
establishment of self-help groups can reduce language and cultural
barriers to accessing public services. More settled migrants support
new arrivals in terms of finding schools, registering for GPs
and dentists and accessing appropriate health care as well as
culturally preferred shopping and religious centres. Mentoring
is another popular approach, used to support people who are looking
to be independent, to get back into employment or start their
own business.
6.4.1 However, community organisations also
have an essential role in organising community activities, (such
as walking groups, cookery, clean-ups, arts and culture). Community
and voluntary groups and networks use celebratory events (festivals
or street parties) to create occasion for shared socialising and
cooperation. These can make an important contribution to integration
and cohesion while recognising that in themselves, they don't
mean that integration and cohesion have been achieved.
6.4.2 Finally, community organisations have
an important role in providing a collective voice within local
communities, and at the strategic level. Where these involve people
from different ethnic communities, they provide informal opportunities
for interaction that foster mutual understanding and friendship.
6.5 The role of public sector service providers
Settlement support tends to focus on orienting
new arrivals to the cultural and legislative context in the UK
and is targeted and delivered to individuals. Service providers
such as local government, local health organisations, and employment
agencies all have important roles to play in providing information
such as welcome packs, how to register for GPs and dentists, what
employment rights and responsibilities extend to new migrants.
However, community and voluntary groups have a crucial role to
play in supporting migrants to access services, and in enabling
services to become more culturally sensitive by suggesting new
modes of delivery and access.
6.5.1 From Round One of CCplus, for example,
we see that some community groups focused their projects and attention
on migrants, whilst others worked with service providers to improve
their understanding of migrant community needs. Groups that had
the capacity to work with both migrants and service providers
achieved a bigger impact. We therefore advocate a combined or
complementary approach, whereby migrant communities are encouraged
and supported to engage with and influence service providers.
6.5.2 Public service providers and local
strategic partnerships are responsible for designing their decision-making
forums and consultation exercises to encourage engagement by migrant
groups. They should try to ensure that engagement strategies are
as empowering and accessible as possible for people from migrant
communities, and that adequate funding and support is given to
individual representatives, including providing interpreters and
translations where this is needed.
7. THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF LOCAL
AND CENTRAL
GOVERNMENT ACTION
AND EXPENDITURE
IN PROMOTING
COMMUNITY COHESION
AND RESPONDING
TO INWARD
MIGRATION FLOWS
7.1 Connecting Communities Plus, Community
Grants is a £3 million grant scheme, distributed over three
years and is funded by Communities and Local Government. The programme
enables organisations to benefit BME communities, which includes
migrant communities, broader local communities, mainstream and
service providers, as well as supporting individual migrants and
their families. Many focused on a particular ethnicity, culture,
faith or nationality. Organisations were also concerned with other
dimensions of deprivation and discrimination, targeting their
work with specific sections of the population, for example, young
refugee ex-offenders, refugee women, children and young people,
and unemployed refugees.
7.2 Feedback from the funded groups has
been very encouraging and reported outcomes include:
— Improved access to local employment,
health services, social welfare and education through training,
mentoring and advice.
— Increased understanding of community
needs and awareness of migration issues amongst service providers/employers/members
of a wider community.
— Improved access to information and
services for refugees and other migrants.
— Improved self esteem, confidence,
clarity about personal development and career goals, motivation,
and friendship.
7.3 Employment was one of the priorities
for those Connecting Communities Plus projects that worked with
refugees. At least 500 refugees attended workshops and gained
assistance with applying for jobs, writing CVs, understanding
the UK employment and business culture. Support was also provided
through certified work placement and mentoring schemes. The source
of the support, and the way it was provided personally in an open
and unthreatening environment have been key to the success of
the projects to date.
7.4 CDF's grant schemes provide added value
to funding programmes via our experience of community development
approaches and community organisations which underpins the approach.
Additional support is provided to those communities/organisations
that are in receipt of funding. This helps them achieve better
results, consolidate their position and reach their communities
more effectively. Personal contact and the individualised approach
taken by CDF also helped them to gain confidence and trust.
7.5 Furthermore, some of the funded groups
have never received government funding before so the experience
of managing a grant enabled them to apply for new funding streams.
The activities funded by the grants helped to raise their profile
within the local community. More needs to be done by the central
and local government to make further funding and support available
to refugee and migrant community organisations, particularly in
helping them to develop diverse leaderships and a "cadre"
of active citizens so that they can contribute to local community
agendas. This includes making connections to other communities
where there are overlapping interests and, importantly, provide
culturally appropriate services to their communities.
7.6 CC Plus is one specific and limited
mechanism for responding to inward migration and promoting community
cohesion. It shows what can be achieved when community organisations
are effectively resourced and supported through community development
work that builds the capacity of new and migrant communities.
They are enabled to organise themselves, to make good use of opportunities
available, to deal positively with tensions, and to make connections
with the wider voluntary and community sector.
7.7 To ensure this approach is further improved,
CDF would advice:
— undertaking effective profiling and
mapping exercises to be able to understand the composition of
communities and needs of community members, and how they will
engage migrant and receiving communities to identify changing
needs;
— resourcing ongoing community development
work alongside service delivery work in order to help receiving
communities identify opportunities, challenges and barriers for
new migrants' involvement in mainstream activities, and support
organisational and infrastructure development of autonomous migrant
organisations;
— developing a framework for dialogue
and protocols that ensure that migrants' involvement in local
strategic partnerships and similar decision-making forums is accessible
and equitable, and promotes their empowerment; and
— giving consideration at all times
(and especially when developing capacity building programmes,
or seeking engagement of migrant community groups in policy and
strategy forums) to why the groups were established, particularly
if it has been related to lack of or inappropriate services or
as a result of racism or hostility.
8. THE ROLE
OF THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
AS A
TOOL IN
PROMOTING THE
INTEGRATION OF
MIGRANTS
8.1 Research findings from CDF work on two
programmes highlight the importance of English language in the
integration of settled BME communities. Survey findings from the
Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund (FCCBF) indicate that
not being able to speak English was a major barrier to participation
within the local community. Not speaking English prevented women
in particular from accessing employment, and contributed to their
isolation, low self confidence and mental health difficulties.
8.2 Preliminary findings from CC plus fieldwork,
suggest similar findings for women within migrant populations
who have been settled for some years. Not being able to speak
English prevents them from accessing local services, engaging
with their children and finding employment.
8.3 It is reasonable to expect that similar
difficulties face newly arriving migrants, though new migrants'
language needs are likely to vary according to the type of work
they are undertaking or seeking, and the length of time they intend
to remain in the UK. In addition, different factors such as the
employment conditions of new migrants (eg work shifts, urban or
rural location) will necessitate a diversity of delivery mechanisms
and arrangements in addressing new migrants' English language
needs.
9. THE IMPACT
OF RECENT
MIGRATION ON
LOCAL COMMUNITIES
INCLUDING THE
IMPACT ON
HOUSING, EDUCATION,
HEALTH CARE
AND OTHER
PUBLIC SERVICES
9.1 We know from CDF's considerable experience
over 40 years of public policy relating to community engagement,
including recent work supporting race equality in mental health
provision, that services are improved if communities and service
users are involved in decision-making about priorities and delivery.
The accelerated pace of inward migration requires that public
service providers and partnership bodies consider ways to ensure
how migrant communities are able to influence decision-making
about services they use, including through advocacy and representation
channels. In order to do this in ways that are democratic and
inclusive, migrant communities must be resourced to organise their
own forums and networks.
10. ACTIONS TO
TAKE FORWARD
THE COMMISSION
ON INTEGRATION
AND COHESION'S
RECOMMENDATIONS RELATING
TO MIGRATION
10.1 We welcome many of the recommendations
made in Our Shared Future, particularly those which will encourage
positive and meaningful interaction between settled and migrant
populations. However, we feel that this approach needs more than
a national programme of projects and activities. It needs to be
embedded in all areas of public life, including community engagement,
public services and shared spaces.
10.2 We disagree with the proposals relating
to funding "single identity" groups. Our experience
shows that "single identity" groups (including new migrant
communities) have diverse memberships with multiple and changing
identities. We believe that the term "single identity"
does not reflect the complex and the multi-faceted nature of these
communities.
10.3 Additionally, "Single identity"
groups have an important cohesion and integration role in their
local communities. The evidence from the FCCBF and CCPlus funding
programmes (previously submitted to the Commission on Integration
and Cohesion) shows that grants to "single identity"
groups contributed to cohesion and integration, rather than reinforcing
community differences.
10.4 "Single identity" groups
provide a supportive environment for their members to develop
the skills and confidence and create a more diverse community
leadership. Groups may foster a "cadre" of active members
who may move into further education and employment and act as
role models for the others willing to take on similar responsibilities.
"Single identity" groups know the local need. They need
to have the choice of running activities within their own communities
or to the wider community or both. They often support the most
vulnerable and socially excluded sections of communities by providing
culturally appropriate support to their communities, including
those which the public services find hard to reach. "Single
identity" groups need funding to organise more effectively
within their own community, to integrate with wider communities,
to engage with public authorities and to address complex needs.
10.5 CDF also has reservations about the
proposal to set up a national body to manage the integration of
migrant communities. Whilst we recognise the merit in providing
a centralised resource offering advice to local authorities and
practitioners, we believe that local strategies need to emerge
from local experience and circumstances. The processes of developing
these might provide the impetus for dialogue, shared learning
and initiative which, if carefully facilitated, will in themselves
promote integration and cohesion. We also suggest that mapping
exercises should be conducted with the full and active involvement
of community members, using techniques associated with participatory
appraisal and action research, such as those pioneered by the
University of Central Lancashire's (UCLAN) Community Engagement
programme.[13]
10.6 Finally, we think that it is unrealistic
to expect migrants to adopt a "national sense of belonging"
such as that underpinning notions of British citizenship. Instead,
we recognise that migrants can be encouraged to integrate and
yet retain important aspects of their cultures and identities.
This is enriching for our society, whilst acknowledging the sometimes
transient and mobile nature of people's lives in this country.
Providing information to "host" communities about migrants'
backgrounds and reasons for being here will create an important
basis for mutual respect and tolerance. In particular, CDF believes
that community-led organisations are well positioned to connect
migrants with one another and with the local communities in which
they find themselves. In disadvantaged and marginalised communities,
these groups operate more effectively and sustainably if they
have access to community development support and independent resources.
12 http://www.identities.org.uk/ Back
13
http://www.uclan.ac.uk/facs/health/ethnicity/communityengagement/nimhe.htm Back
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