New research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, highlights the tensions that face voluntary organizations between working to support refuges arriving in Britain and the rules surrounding government funding for their work. According to Professor Nick Fyfe at Dundee University who led the project voluntary groups feel they are under considerable pressure because what is in the best interests of their c
New research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, highlights the tensions that face voluntary organisations between working to support refuges arriving in Britain and the rules surrounding government funding for their work. According to Professor Nick Fyfe at Dundee University who led the project voluntary groups feel they are under considerable pressure because what is in the best interests of their clients conflicts with government policy.
There has been a vast proliferation in the past decade, of the number of voluntary organizations helping refugees and asylum seekers. The majority rely on Home Office or Local Authority funding to support aspects of their work and some feel they are being used to deliver government policy on a so-called 'shadow state' basis. It is not only less friendly to refugees than the agencies themselves would like, but may also be counter to the interests of individual migrants, according to the study.
The organisations - based within refugee communities - say there can be friction between their desire to help asylum seekers to exist in Britain, and the government's policy of subsuming people's national and cultural identity by making them give up their own citizenship in exchange for becoming British – a step which in many cases, will prevent them ever going home.
However, people who flee hardship in their own country and seek temporary refuge in Britain, are regarded by the system as 'ungrateful' if they fail to fully embrace Britishness, and their access to services is limited, the study says.
"Encouraging them to apply for British citizenship is not something these agencies think they should do," Fyfe said. "Taking British citizenship means renouncing citizenship of their own country. They are dealing with people who have a strong sense of national identity, and most of them want to go home when conditions in their own country improve. Taking up citizenship here would prevent them doing that."
Welfare benefits for asylum seekers have been significantly reduced over recent years the consequence is that people are more than ever dependent on the overburdened agencies. The study found evidence of voluntary groups actively resisting demands to do the government's bidding. Iraqi workers from one London agency helping people fleeing the horrors of the war in Iraq, told how they had refused a request to distribute leaflets telling their destitute compatriots to go back home.
At the same time, there was hostility to initiatives such as citizenship ceremonies, which were seen as window dressing to conceal the lack of any real commitment to making immigrants feel they are welcome and belong in Britain.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Professor Nick Fyfe on 01382 384425 email n.r.fyfe@dundee.ac.uk
Professor Allan Findlay on 01382 385083 email a.m.findlay@dundee.ac.uk
ESRC Press Office
Alexandra Saxon Tel: 01793 413032 e-mail: alexandra.saxon@esrc.ac.uk
Annika Howard Tel: 01793 413119, e-mail: annika.howard@esrc.ac.uk
NOTES FOR EDITORS:
1. The research project, "The 'shadow state", citizenship and transnationalism: examining the role of voluntary organisations for refugees and labour migrants in the UK", was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The investigators were Nicholas Fyfe and Allan Findlay, both from the geography department of the University of Dundee.
2. The study took place in London, Manchester and Glasgow, and compared the experiences of Iraqi and Somali refugees. Results were compiled on the basis of interviews with 29 organisations, 51 individual refugees and labour migrants, and four local and national government officials. In addition, detailed questionnaires were sent to 621 voluntary organisations, of which 105 replied.
3. The ESRC is the UK's largest funding agency for research and postgraduate training relating to social and economic issues. It provides independent, high quality, relevant research to business, the public sector and Government. The ESRC's planned total expenditure in 2006-07 is £169 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and research policy institutes. More at http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk
4. ESRC Society Today offers free access to a broad range of social science research and presents it in a way that makes it easy to navigate and saves users valuable time. As well as bringing together all ESRC-funded research and key online resources such as the Social Science Information Gateway and the UK Data Archive, non-ESRC resources are included, for example the Office for National Statistics. The portal provides access to early findings and research summaries, as well as full texts and original datasets through integrated search facilities. More at http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk
5. The ESRC confirms the quality of its funded research by evaluating research projects through a process of peer review. This research has been graded as 'good'.