Migrants – contribution, integration, destitution?

A practical one day event that seeks to help tackle one of the key feeder routes to someone sleeping rough is to be held on 21 May 2009 at the London  Metropolitan University, Tower Hill, London. The event is organised by Homeless Link.

Migrant populations new to the UK are vulnerable. Without recourse to public funds, and without the right help, there is a high likelihood that they will end up sleeping rough.

The term ‘no recourse to public funds’ is used to describe someone living in the UK who is excluded from the usual benefits, services and safety nets because of their migration status. When these people face a crisis, lose employment, are sick or become homeless they are at risk of destitution, rough sleeping, sickness, exploitation and abuse.

This conference will explore the housing, health, employment and benefit entitlements of 3 different migrant groups; these groups being those who are most likely to face destitution:

• Central and Eastern Europeans
• failed asylum seekers
• other migrants outside the asylum system.

In November 2008, the Government committed to tackling rough sleeping, with one of the aims targetted at supporting migrant populations. This conference is an opportunity to support this aim and improve the outcomes for these vulnerable groups, by bringing together Local Authorities and voluntary sector organisations to share understanding, solutions and approaches.

Without the right support these groups can easily find themselves destitute; despite the initiatives to address this issue, recent research has shown an increase in the proportion of migrants sleeping rough on London’s streets. At a time of extreme financial uncertainty, when many of you are under even more pressure, ensuring that we get this right is more important than ever.

Programme highlights

• hear an overview of current migration policy
• explore the implications of migration and migration policy on the levels of rough sleeping in the UK
• hear an overview of the system, clarifying the different rights of the different migrant groups
• explore how to support Central and Eastern Europeans into employment and to access accommodation
• share good practice in how to reconnect someone from Central and Eastern Europe back home
• explore how to offer short-term support to failed asylum seekers and other migrants to help prevent them from sleeping rough
• learn how to help destitute migrants to have a sustainable future
• feed in to how we can reduce destitution through systematic processes
• hear from a Local Authority on their response to destitution
• foster greater cross-sector working between homelessness services and services in the migration and refugee sectors.

Please click here to book your place at the conference. Or call 020 7960 3032 or email: [email protected]