Refugee integration news

Each quarter we’ll round up some key news stories and reports related to refugee integration. If you’d like more regular updates on refugee integration and other areas of migration, check out our weekly policy bulletin.

Autumn news 2024

• Here in Yorkshire, Red Ladder Theatre Company has produced a new musical, ‘Sanctuary’ that asks, ‘what kind of society do we want to live in?’. It opens in Wakefield in September. (Source: Yorkshire Times) 
• Representatives from Refugee Council and Harrogate and Knaresborough District of Sanctuary describe the support they provide to refugee families. The article looks at the challenges new arrivals face, including housing, language learning and traumatic experiences, and how local volunteers provide solutions to those challenges. (Source: The Stray Ferret) 
• In football, with England reaching the final of the Euros, the Migration Museum has again produced a powerful visual of what the England football team would look like without players from migrant backgrounds, highlighting that without migration there would only have been 3 players. (Sources: The Drum, X) 
• In Paris, Sheffield-based boxer Cindy Ngamba has made history as the first athlete from the Refugee Olympic Team to win a medal. (Source: Olympics) 
• A recipe book produced with those in the asylum system is on display in Leeds in collaboration with Leeds Asylum Seekers Supporters Network (LASSN) and Leeds University Library Galleries. It’s part of a summer exhibition called ‘don’t play with your food’. (Source: Sunny Bank Mills)
• Following the nights of violent disruption, communities all over the country joined together to clean up their neighbourhoods, including in Middlesbrough, and Hull. (Sources: The Northern Echo, Hull Daily Mail)  
• Following the Paris Olympics the UNHCR reflects on the contribution of the Refugee Olympic team, making history this year with the largest team they have ever entered, individual personal bests and their first Olympic medal. While, Guillaume 'Junior' Atangana, a Bradford district Paralympian athlete, won a bronze in the T11 400m event at Paris 2024, the first-ever Paralympic medal for the Refugee Team. (Sources: UNHCR, Telegraph and Argus)   
• Bradford is preparing for its next Intercultured Festival from 21 October. The event will celebrate Bradford’s migrant and refugee communities and unite people in this City of Sanctuary. (Source: BBC)  
• A new poll has revealed that Nigel Farage’s Reform party has a worse reputation as a ‘racist party’ than UKIP did back in 2015. At the same time, the poll shows only one in five people disapproved of the Rwanda policy being scrapped and highlights a wider public support for the Labour government’s new immigration agenda. (Source: British Future) 
• This overview of the migrant population in the UK confirms that over 16% of the population was born overseas, with the top countries of birth as India, Poland, Pakistan, Romania and Ireland. The top reason for migration is to join family, followed by work. (Source: Migration Observatory)  
• All biometric resident permit (BRP) holders can now apply for an eVisa after the Home Office updated its eVisa guidance, without waiting for an invitation to apply, as had previously been the case. A video has been produced to help people to navigate the new system. 
• City of Sanctuary have launched a free pack encouraging us all to start having ‘courageous conversations’ about refugee rights with our friends, colleagues, neighbours and families. (Source: City of Sanctuary)