The Migrants’ Rights Network is a UK charity that stands in solidarity with all migrants in their fights for rights and justice. We co-curate campaigns using anti-oppression practices to create transformational change, extending beyond the individual impact on migrants’ lives, to tackle oppression at its source.

We believe everyone has the right to live a dignified life in a society free from all forms of oppression and discrimination. 

We are a diverse team majority led by migratised people and People of Colour, essentially first and second generation migrants but there are also numerous other intersecting identities in our team including religion, nationality, age, gender, sexuality and those with disabilities.

These wide ranging identities and experiences inform our work, and particularly our work on language and how we challenge policies, established norms and narratives. 

To achieve this, we build relationships with grassroots, migrant-led organisations to understand the issues that are important to them and how we can work together to achieve immediate and transformational change. 

We believe it is not enough to reform structures and systems which are foundationally discriminatory. We are calling for a complete overhaul, and for people with lived experience to lead that change. 

We particularly focus on issues that are less notable or publicly palatable, and can be overlooked.  We do this to ensure that ALL migrant groups and communities that are seldom heard have access to platforms, support and resources to advocate for themselves and achieve change.

Our work takes many forms, but includes:

• Using our platform to raise awareness of pressing issues amongst politicians and policy makers, and in the media.
• Working with individuals and/or organisations to build campaigns and links with legal experts in order to pursue strategic litigation.
• Building an evidence-base for change by co-curating with affected migrants to inform our work and the work of others, to better understand the issues.
• Promoting partnership and collaboration between different causes and campaigns, to enable information and resource sharing.
• Informing migrant communities on their rights through our tailored resources and training. 
• Developing alternative narratives to counter harmful rhetoric and narratives around migration through informative and creative campaigns.

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How will we achieve this?

MRN will maintain its core principles to:

• Take a flexible, agile and adaptive approach to every issue.
• Redistribute resources, access, information, knowledge and space to migrants and grassroots organisations.
• Embed and practise our values and work in an inclusive and accessible way.
• Be led by the opinions, views and experiences of migrants and grassroots organisations, and be willing to be challenged ourselves.
• Put ourselves on the frontline for migrants and grassroots groups, including intervening in legal challenges on behalf of affected communities. 
• Challenge the status quo so that MRN can always think from a radical perspective.
• Recognise the power and privilege that MRN holds and aim to redistribute that where possible, acknowledging and respecting the expertise and lived experience of others. 
• Recognise that charities and NGOs can easily become ‘part of the problem’ when they fall into the trap of competing for resources, platforms and funding. MRN believes that we are stronger together and strives to cultivate partnerships based on trust, solidarity and transparency. 
• Tackle oppression at its source through transformational change, to achieve justice for ALL migrants.

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The Network

We bring people together in order to share our collective resources and expertise, and to build solidarity between movements, campaigns and communities. 

While we are not a formal network, we work to establish and strengthen connections. Whether that is making links between the race equality sector and the migrants’ rights sector, or between an individual and a legal expert who may be able to take on their case. We believe it is through building bonds between people that we have the greatest opportunity to achieve transformational change. 

Our Memberships

We are members of the following groups:

• Cross Border Forum
• Abolish Frontex
• Migrant and Refugee Advisory Panel
• London Strategic Migration Partnership