November 2024 has been an exceptionally busy month for the Right to Remain team. We connected with our communities – new and old – across the country, and in different capacities. In this blog, we try to recap it all!

Greater Manchester MP and caseworkers event 

On 6 November, we participated in an online workshop for the benefit of MPs (and their teams) in Greater Manchester about the work we are doing as a voluntary sector in supporting residents with asylum and immigration issues. This workshop was carried out alongside our colleagues at:

• the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit (GMIAU)
• Asylum Matters
• Step Change (Kompasi Service Directory)
• Boaz Trust
• Booth Centre
• Greater Manchester Migrant Destitution Fund 

The workshop offered information about how to access:

• immigration legal advice
• online tools that provide legal information
• advocacy and support services for people seeking asylum 
• support for people experiencing homelessness and destitution
• peer support groups for people affected by immigration and asylum 

This workshop was designed to be useful for casework staff, staff involved in surgeries and meeting constituents, all new staff and any new MPs who wanted to understand more about the services available in Greater Manchester. 

Toolkit Ambassadors workshop – Birmingham

On 7 November, we facilitated our first ever Toolkit Ambassadors workshop for volunteers at the Refugee and Migrant Centre (RMC) in Birmingham. 

This is a novel initiative we are testing out at Right to Remain. The idea behind the Toolkit Ambassadors programme is to create a community of individuals who are deeply familiar with Right to Remain’s resources and who feel comfortable sharing it with their communities and beyond. In this way, the Toolkit will be able to trickle into communities beyond those plugged in to the migration justice sector or those directly involved with Right to Remain’s work. Additionally, it would allow the benefit of the Toolkit to extend beyond the limits of our micro-team of five. 

We are so grateful to the participants from the RMC who participated in the day-long workshop, and who are now actively sharing the Toolkit in their communities. We look forward to reconnecting with them in January!

Our first ever Solidarity Party!

On 21 November, after a challenging year, we invited our London-based colleagues, friends, and allies to join us for an evening of drinks, music, pizza and the best tiramisu in London! 

It was great to see so many people there and to have a moment of solidarity and respite amidst the fight will continue to fight daily. 

Enforcement Outreach event #2 – Nottingham 

On 26 November, we headed to the Sumac Centre in Nottingham to facilitate our second ‘Thinking with our communities: detention and beyond detention’ workshop. 

In contrast to our first event in Birmingham earlier this month, this workshop was made up of a smaller group of participants with lived experience and / or working in solidarity with people in the asylum and immigration system who hailed from across the locality – Nottingham, Mansfield, Loughborough, and across Derbyshire. 

Each of them came with a wealth of knowledge, experience, and engagement, but surprisingly, most of these groups had not been connected before. This is a core aim of our solidarity work, and we were pleased to facilitate such an honest and engaging conversation and deeper connections. 

The event consisted of a 1-hour workshop as an introduction to detention and enforcement, before we moved into an overview of the detention context. Derbyshire Refugee Solidarity then did a presentation on their work around enforcement including reporting.

We closed with an invaluable and touching interview with one of the participants with lived experience of detention, and life after detention. 

To read more about our Detention and Beyond Detention workshop initiative, read our recap blog on our first event here. 

EUSS eVisas presentation 

We recently published a new guide on How to support someone with the transition to eVisas, which we update regularly as the situation progresses. 

In addition to this guide, we recognise that the best way to share information about important legal changes is in our communities, in clear, simple and accessible language. For this reason, we made it clear to our community that if you are hosting an information session for your staff members, volunteers or members, and would like a Legal Education Officer from Right to Remain to attend to give a short presentation on eVisas, please get in touch. 

The Civil Society EUSS Alliance (which supports EU communities across the UK) responded to this call out, and on 27 November 2024, we carried out an online information session to 25 participants on the transition to eVisas and introduced our key guide. 

If you would also like to request a brief information session on the transition to eVisas for your group or community, please take a look at our blog here.

Knowledge is Power – 28 November 2024 

On Thursday 28 November, we hosted our 18th flagship Knowledge is Power session, for over 20 participants. 

Knowledge is Power is an entry-level online workshop which aims to increase knowledge of the UK asylum and immigration system, and to provide people with the tools to navigate it. 

The workshops are mainly attended by people who are in the system, and people who support them (from grassroots groups as well as larger organisations). 

During our latest workshop, we:

• Went through Right to Remain’s resources, particularly the Toolkit
• Did a deep dive into the stages of the asylum process, as it is now
• Considered the differences between providing legal advice and legal support

Importantly, every piece of information or activity we carry out during the Knowledge is Power workshops is contained within the Toolkit itself. 

The year isn’t over yet!

We still have a few more events to run before the new year – join us, or pass the details on to members of your community!

On Friday 3 December, we will be running an online workshop on the 10 Year Route to settlement and fee waivers. 

On Friday 13 December, we will be hosting our Radical Solidarity Hub community meeting on the topic of eVisas. 

Thank you for your continued support!