See our Job vacancies page for details the following vacancy at RETAS Leeds:

Development and Communications Officer
Closing date 12 noon, 13 September 2010
 

www.migrationyorkshire.org.uk/?page=policydetail&itemid=63

Award celebrates Yorkshire’s newest residents

A woman from Huddersfield has won the Yorkshire Refugee of the Year Award 2010.

Mariam Tola Willliams from Nigeria was trafficked to the UK at the age of 14 after the deaths of her family and was kept as a domestic slave for two years. She finally escaped and a few months later received refugee status. Despite the trauma that Mariam has faced she is determined to get on with her life and help other people. She has been volunteering in her local community for two years at a charity shop and at her local hospital. She is now training as a mental health nurse, to help other people overcome their difficulties.

Notes

1. The ‘Refugee of the Year’ is an annual award which began in 2009, coordinated by the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Migration Partnership. The award recognises the contribution of refugees to the Yorkshire and Humber region, focusing on the extraordinary individuals who embody this in their daily lives. A small judging panel judged the nominations based on the themes of ‘finding sanctuary, enriching Yorkshire and Humber’.
2.  The Regional Migration Partnership works with national government, local government, and others to ensure that Yorkshire and Humber can deal with, and benefit from, migration. We work with agencies across the statutory, voluntary, community and private sectors to help support the delivery of high quality services to migrants in a way that benefits everyone living in local communities.
3. For further media enquiries contact Dave Brown, Yorkshire and Humber Regional Migration Partnership, 07891 276062, david.2.brown@migrationyorkshire.org.uk

• Yorkshire and the Humber - partnership and engagement update
• UK Border Agency news - a bimonthly update for UKBA's partners

The Autumn 2010 issue looks at the implications of the recent election for our work, in particular the shift signalled by the new coalition government in the relationship of local, regional and national government structures.

To download your copy, go to our publications page.

• Download the updated plan [and a copy of the strategy itself] from the Refugee Integration Strategy page.
• The original action plan is still available from the Refugee Integration Programme archive page.

Each issue focuses on one or two local projects - in the July edition we look at projects in Wakefield and Leeds.

Other sections this month:

• MIF year 2 meeting
• communicating with hard-to-reach migrant groups

To download your copy, go to www.migrationyorkshire.org.uk/mifbulletin

There is a parallel consultation, led by the Migration Advisory Committee [MAC], on the levels at which the limits should be set for the first full year of their operation. The MAC will consult on and consider the economic, social and public service impacts of migration in developing its advice. The MAC consultation will run until 7 September 2010.

Go to our Consultations page for links to more information.

Go to our feedback from past consultations page for more information, and to download a copy of the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Migration Partnership's response to the review.

Emily Wilson of West Yorkshire Police explains how an imaginative marketing campaign, making use of targeted internet advertising, helped them reach speakers of over 50 languages for their Migration Impacts Fund project to recruit and train more interpreters.

See our Case studies - Migration Impacts Fund page to find out more.

Each issue focuses on 1 or 2 local projects - in the June edition we look at projects in Sheffield and Calderdale.

Other sections this month:

• year 2 funding update
• making welcome packs work

To download your copy, go to www.migrationyorkshire.org.uk/mifbulletin

• proposed changes to the regulations on charging overseas visitors for hospital treatment, and
• a proposed requirement for overseas visitors to hold health insurance

The Yorkshire and Humber Regional Migration Partnership wrote a consultation response which was shaped by consultation with health professionals within Yorkshire and the Humber who form a Migrant Health subgroup within our regional Strategic Migration Group.

Go to the feedback from past consultations page for more information, and to download a copy of our consultation response.

The deadline for responses is 1 July 2010.

For more information, see our consultations section for more details.

This edition includes:

• migration statistics [covering European data and national quarterly statistics]
• migration policy developments
• themed updates on: asylum, unaccompanied children, advice, destitution, returns, integration, employment and education

Produced by the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Migration Partnership.

To download your copy, go to our Policy briefings section.

The pack includes introductory sheets on:

• Yorkshire and Humber Regional Migration Partnership
• Local Authority Commission on Asylum and Migration 
• Strategic Migration Group
• Public Sector Group
• Refugee Integration Programme
• Refugee Integration and Employment Service
• Migration Impacts Fund
• Our intelligence and research role
• Our website
• Glossary
• Partnership structure

Go to our publications page to download your copy.

Find out more about LACAM in our Strategic coordination section at www.migrationyorkshire.org.uk/lacam

This year there are two awards: 'Refugee of the Year 2010' and 'Young Refugee of the Year 2010' [for under 18s].

Nominations were invited in June 2010 for any refugee or asylum seeker living in the Yorkshire and Humber region. The nomination process has now closed.

To find out more, go to our Refugee of the Year page.

www.migrationyorkshire.org.uk/welcome

• Refusing entry or stay to NHS debtors - UKBA consultation. 
• Review of access to the NHS by foreign nationals - Department of Health consultation.

Both consultations are open until 30 June 2010.

See our consultations section for more details.

Each issue focuses on 1 or 2 local projects - this month we look at projects in East Riding and Kirklees.

To download your copy, go to www.migrationyorkshire.org.uk/mifbulletin

The Summer 2010 issue features an article on the new Local Authority Commission on Asylum and Migration.

Change of date: please note that the Refugee Integration Conference 2010, mentioned on page 2 of the Summer 2010 bulletin, will now take place on 16 July, not 11 June.

To download your copy, go to our publications page.

You can find this document on our publications page.

This edition includes:

• migration trends [covering European data, national quarterly statistics, and related mapping publications]
• migration policy
• themed updates on: asylum, housing and settlement, women and children, and employment

Produced by the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Migration Partnership.

To download your copy, go to our Policy briefings section.

The Yorkshire and Humber Regional Migration Partnership collated those progress reports, and submitted them to DCLG, together with a covering report which includes a regional overview, highlights achievements, and identifies new and emerging trends for 2010-2011.

You can download the covering report from the Progress report - year 1 section of our MIF network page.

• Consultation event discussion summary - January 2010
• YHRMP consultation response - simplifying immigration law and reforming asylum support - February 2010

The briefing was produced by the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Migration Partnership.

The start of a new year is a good time to look back at what we have achieved over the past twelve months, and to look forward to the challenges that lie ahead for the Partnership in 2010. It is a particularly good time for me to reflect, given that I came into post as lead officer for the Partnership one year ago, in January 2009. How has the first year been for me?

Well it has been an interesting year, full of new learning and new challenges. I was fortunate enough to inherit a committed and expert team, which has continued to deliver our wide range of functions on behalf of the region. That team remains a key resource for the region, and continues to drive our work forward to an exceptionally high standard.

But I have also brought about some changes within the Partnership:

• We have worked much harder to communicate what we do more clearly to the region – including launching our new website and producing new information packs for members and partners.
• We have worked with our Chair and partner organisations to strengthen our political structures, to provide real political leadership for our work moving forward.
• We have moved to a single structure which understands the work we do as a coherent whole rather than as different ‘bits’.

This has helped us deliver effectively on existing functions, such as the accommodation contract and refugee integration. It has also allowed us to secure new roles and resources – around supporting delivery of the Migration Impacts Fund, and improving the data and intelligence we provide to local authority partners and others.

So what does 2010 hold? Well, there are clearly some challenges ahead. Pressures on public funding mean resources will be tight, and as a public body we have a responsibility to work with government to make sure that we work as efficiently as possible. Working to reduce costs whilst maintaining a high standard of delivery will not be easy. There will also be challenges around the reducing scale of the accommodation contract – with older legacy cases being cleared, and very low numbers of asylum seekers coming into the region. And of course we will be thinking about the shape of the future delivery of asylum services.

More broadly, in terms of our strategic work, some of the changes within the regional and wider economy will also result in shifting patterns of migration into the region and changing populations at a local level. Supporting communities undergoing change, and the cohesion challenges that brings, is something that requires good quality intelligence and data. Supporting partners with this data will be a key priority for 2010.

Within such a rapidly changing policy environment, making accurate predictions is difficult. Add to that the fact that 2010 will see elections at both national and local level which could also have an impact on our work, and it becomes clear that the Partnership will need to be flexible and responsive to changing circumstances. But alongside all that change, one thing is certain. Migration as a political and practical issue is here to stay, and the Partnership will continue play a key role in helping make sure that Yorkshire and Humber understands the potential benefits and challenges that brings to the region.
 

This is an online database containing over 130 summaries of research on refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants in the Yorkshire and Humber region. You can search the database using these options:

• migrant group
• theme
• topic
• place

We hope the database will help with disseminating migration research findings and improve evidence-based policy.

You're welcome to link from your website to this resource: please use this link www.migrationyorkshire.org.uk/researchdatabase   

]]> Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.migrationyorkshire.org.uk/news/newsview/36 The action plan that supports the regional integration strategy for refugees and asylum seekers was issued on 29 October 2009.

Get your copy of the action plan, as well as a copy of the strategy and other related documents, from the Refugee integration strategy page.

]]> Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.migrationyorkshire.org.uk/news/newsview/37 The refugee and asylum seeker consultation in the Yorkshire and Humber region, carried out in 2008 by the Refugee Integration Programme, was the largest consultation of its type in the UK, with 303 questionnaire responses, covering roughly 1% of all refugees and asylum seekers in the region. The consultation contained 30 questions on subjects relating to integration.

The consultation provided a large amount of information and a solid evidence base for developing: ‘Finding Sanctuary, Enriching Yorkshire and Humber: Integration Strategy for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Yorkshire and Humber 2009 - 2011’.

You can find a summary of the consultation responses, as well as a copy of the strategy and other related documents, on the Refugee integration strategy page.