MRC
Migrants Resource Centre
This year, Migrants Resource Centre celebrates its 25-year anniversary working to effect social justice and change, enabling migrants and refugees to fully participate in this society. MRC works with displaced people from all over the world through a range of holistic services and projects that can provide pathways into UK society. We offer free legal advice, advice on education and employment as well as a wide range of educational activities, a health project and a media and policy project, in the recognition that there are important practical solutions to achieve in the short term while working towards lasting social justice in the long term. In the last five years our work has been recognised with national awards for innovation and for social inclusion.
The Media and Policy Project
The Media and Policy Project is Migrants Resource Centre‘s programme of inclusion and representation of migrants and refugees in Britain at a policy and strategic level.
The migrant led project facilitates migrants, refugees and asylum seekers working together to break some of the barriers to inclusion and equality and to promote social justice by representing themselves in the media and at a policy and strategic level. The Media and the Policy work are closely linked. We provide the tools for members to undertake this work, including facilitating access to information, bringing people together, providing training, linking to the media, and to policy platforms. We work in partnership with a number of other organisations at UK and European level to overcome social exclusion and alleviate poverty. We also feed into independent, Parliamentary and other inquiries and regularly contribute to the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Refugees, on Migrants and on Poverty, providing case studies and spokespeople.
The Media Group
The project’s Migrant and Refugee Media Action Group is made up of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers as well as British members who work together to bring balance to the media coverage of migrants and refugees and to raise awareness. The Media Group is now seen by a number of media organisations as a reliable source of spokespeople happy to talk directly to the media. It has been very active in its media work, contributing regularly to radio, newspaper, magazine and TV interviews, publishing articles and letters.
The group enjoys the support of many organisations such as UNHCR, London Churches Refugee Network, Oxfam, Refugee Council, The Guardian, the BBC and others. We have produced two documentaries, such as ‘Torn’ and a number of reports like ‘The Integration Debate; Migrant perspectives,’ ‘A Stronger Voice’ and ‘Seeking Asylum’. The group’s biggest achievement, however, is the publication of ‘The New Londoners’, the first migrant and refugee free newspaper in London. Three issues of this newspaper have been published so far to great acclaim.
