ACH and MMB seminars

Our collaboration

Together, MMB and ACH are working to ensure that support for migrant communities enables people to live independent, ambitious lives with greater access to opportunities. One strand of this is our seminar series, which has explored topics such as the concept of “integration”, migrant entrepreneurship, the consequences of No Recourse to Public Funds, housing and more. We also collaborate on projects like ACH's Migrant Business Support, which MMB is evaluating, and previously, the University of Bristol's ESRC-funded Everyday Integration. 

For ACH it is important we are connected into leading edge research and policy development, drawing on our lived experience. For MMB, it is really helpful to maximise the impact of research and to connect with the needs of local communities. We look forward to expanding our areas of collaboration in the future.

Migration & Ethics

This webinar brings together the academic and community sectors to explore the complex moral dimensions of migration. By examining migration from both academic and frontline perspectives, the event aims to address pressing ethical questions such as the rights of migrants, responsibilities of host countries, and the impact on local communities.. 

Migration: Making an impact - Academic and community sector perspectives

This webinar will look more widely at the concept of impact and also examine how it relates specifically to the concept of refugee and migrant integration.

Co-production: Where research meets delivery

This seminar delves into co-production in the development of refugee and migrant support and integration services. We explore how research and delivery can work together in the field of migrant business support. 

Migration & Education

This seminar discusses migration, education and training, with a particular focus on access to employment and language. Speakers include Sheena Dermanis, Curriculum and Quality Manager at ACH, Rob Sharples, Senior Lecturer in Language and Education at UoB, and Clare Boden-Hatton, Director of Employment and Skills at West Midlands Combined Authority.

Migration and Climate Change

Our latest seminar explored the interconnections between migration and climate change, delving deeper into local, national and international themes and issues. From international law to local climate inequalities such as air quality, refugee and migrant communities are often the most affected by the climate crisis.

This seminar explored the threats and inequalities faced by people at risk of forced migration due to climate change, as well as those from a refugee or migrant background, from the perspectives of law, adaptation and mitigation and community led climate action.

Housing's role in integration

The first seminar in our 2022 series of ACH and MMB’s Bridging the Gap Seminars focussed on the link between housing and integration for newly arrived communities. With the housing crisis currently escalating alongside the cost of living crisis, this has never been a more crucial topic for refugee and migrant communities, as well as the wider UK society. This seminar delved into the intrinsic link between housing and integration for refugee and migrant communities, looking at the housing crisis, and it’s links to barriers to success for refugee and migrant communities. Read our summary and watch the full seminar here.

No Recourse to Public Funds

NRPF rules already means tens of thousands of migrants face difficult choices about returning to work; destitution; huge future costs relating to their immigration status; and the prospect of loved ones being forced to leave the UK. This seminar explored the mental health, employment and integration affects NFPF has and will have on people in the future. We looked at NRPF in the context of the proposed Nationality and Borders Bill, heard stories from those who have experienced NRPF and how the lived experience is informing the development of a local response in Bristol.

Beyond Integration

‘Integration’ can be a controversial concept. When applied to migrant communities it has often been associated with assimilation, a ‘one-way’ process treating migrants as “others” who need to “fit in”. This successful event with nearly 70 participants challenged past approaches, to look “beyond integration” and explore how to ensure that people can fulfil their potential and attain their aspirations within the labour market and wider community.

Bridging the Gap

Our first seminar as a part of our 2021 seminar series, in collaboration with Migration Mobilities Bristol (MMB), explored refugee and migrant entrepreneurship; delving deeper into the subject of forced entrepreneurship. Migrants and refugees often see enterprise as their route to opportunity. Yet are often regarded as doing this by necessity and given low priority by mainstream business support oganisations lead to precarity. But are we missing an opportunity for those concerned to generate autonomy and for the wider economy to stimulate innovation and growth?