The Migrant Champions Network is a new project that will support local councillors to champion the rights of migrants in their local areas and beyond. The network will support councillors from across the political spectrum, and throughout the UK, to advocate for migrants’ rights, to support practical actions for migrants locally and to resist the hostile environment within their local areas and beyond. JCWI is proud to be supporting the development of this network.

Local councillors have always played a crucial role in supporting their local communities to welcome people who are making the UK their home. Local councillors can be a key point of contact for migrant constituents, and work to make sure that all locals can access support when they need it, no matter where they are from or what their story is.

Migrants’ rights are under attack by central government, and the far-right is on the rise. Now, more than ever, we must organise to resist this politics of hatred and fear. The network will support members to advocate for migrants’ rights in their local authorities, and take coordinated actions across the UK.

Together, we can achieve so much. When the central government announced its cruel plans to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda, 300 local councillors from all over the UK and across different parties came together to reject the callous plans, and instead call for communities of welcome. As we face the challenges to come, we must come together to organise, and build supportive communities where everyone can thrive.  

Hosnieh Djafari Marbini, a co-founder of the network, said: “Having arrived here as a teenager, the daughter of a refugee from Iran, I now see the footprints of the local council on our everyday lives, even though as a new arrival I didn’t know much about the inner workings of local councils: from the B&B we started in, the council house we were lucky enough to make a home in, to the benefits assessment sessions we attended. Local councillors advocate for their residents daily, they see and feel the impact of implementation of local and national politics and rhetoric daily. For us the lives of our residents are not a far-removed political game, but a daily reality in which all our residents count. The Migrant Champions Network will give local councillors the tools to make sure newly arrived asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants have the tools needed to truly make a home.”

Sue Lukes, the network other co-founder, said: "When I pushed to become the first migrant champion in 2018 in Islington, it was an experiment. But like a lot of Islington experiments it worked out, and I am really thrilled we now have a network.

"I was able to get our Windrush residents fairly treated, change how we assess housing cases, support EU residents through Brexit, work with a primary school refugee support committee (the best-organised meetings I've been to) to make council policy on supporting and welcoming child refugees, support an exhibition on welcoming Spanish and Basque refugees in the 1930s, get funding for our residents to challenge the no recourse to public funds condition and more. All this, I believe, has helped make Islington the welcoming thriving place it is. So I hope to support the network to make that happen all over the country."

The Migrant Champions Network will be launching on 23 February 2023 - join us then to find out more!

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