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Who is welcome project
Who is Welcome

After a series of successful online events which explored the intersections of different identities with migration status, we have expanded this work into a wider campaign.

Building on the themes explored in the Who is Welcome event series, which included the relationship of racism, Islamophobia and queerness with migration, we are pleased to launch the Who is Welcome campaign alongside our Words Matter campaign.

Migration is often looked at as a siloed issue. Campaigning and policy work rarely looks at the construction of migrants through an intersectional lens or how racism shapes our idea of who is welcome in the West. At the Migrants’ Rights Network, understanding the role intersections of identity play in shaping migration, including refugee, policies is central to our campaigning work. We must understand and be honest about who harmful migration, including asylum, policies are aimed at, and why.

The language of ‘welcome’ also has hidden meaning. A ‘welcome’ places the destination country as a hospitable ‘host’ that welcomes ‘guests’ (in this case migrants) who in turn are expected to be grateful. This rhetoric reinforces the problematic ideas that migrants, including refugees, must contribute, integrate and exhibit gratitude thus creating a hierarchy and the notion of conditional belonging. By calling this campaign ‘Who Is Welcome”, we are also questioning the inherent nature of migration and belonging that creates the host/guest relationship.

Who is Welcome events

The recording for the first event can be accessed here.

Our reflections on our second event can be accessed here.

The recording for the third event can be accessed here.

The recording for the fourth event can be accessed here.

Podcast

Episode 1: Patriotism and Migration

Episode 2: Queerness and Migration

Episode 3: Masculinity and Migration

In this project:

Updates

Our latest articles about WHO IS WELCOME?

  • The Power of Communities – IDAHOBIT 2025

    Today is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT). As a majority-queer migrants’ rights charity, we mark #IDAHOBIT every year. But this year, we feel an even deeper sadness and rage. From racist immigration proposals in the Border Security Bill and Immigration White Paper, to the far-right Reform UK banning Pride flags outside their…

  • Trans liberation now

    Today’s Supreme Court ruling is deeply disturbing, and our solidarity goes out to trans communities across the UK, including migrant and racialised trans communities. This ruling comes amidst an increasingly hostile environment for migrants, trans people, and trans migrant communities living at the intersections of racism, Islamophobia and transphobia, as border regimes, the detention estate…

  • Visibility is not liberation

    for Trans Day of Visibility 2025 Trans+ visibility does not equal trans+ liberation. Whilst visibility can and does mean representation and community for so many trans+ people, visibility is also not the antidote to exploitation or oppression. Trans+ people are seen as a “threat” precisely because they disrupt the capitalist division of labour rooted in…

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