Migration Policy Scotland hosts a growing Migrant Community of Practice in Scotland. We are currently developing a capacity building and leadership development programme for migrants and migrant community organisations across Scotland.
We want to support migrant’s ability to navigate often unfamiliar civil society and political infrastructure, to build confidence and awareness of their skills, experience, and insight, to strengthen their efforts to overcome disadvantage and exclusion.
We are developing a targeted training and leadership development offer for migrants to strengthen their existing knowledge and expertise in order to increase their potential as effective advocates, leaders, partners and collaborators.
Our Migrant Lived Experience panel continues to be at the heart our community of practice. Together with our Lived Experience Panel members we continue to explore ways of integrating lived experience into research informed policy influencing work. We have been innovating on ways of combining learning and lived experience since MPS formed its first Migrant Lived Experience Panel Development Goup in 2022, trialling new ways of working together that span co-development and co-design as well as involving panel members in MPS projects as peer researchers and advisory group members
Who is taking part?
Our new Lived Experience Panel members have come through an open recruitment process. They are migrants from different countries, arriving through a variety of routes. They work with migrant clients and migrant communities across Scotland in a range of capacities. Together offering more direct insight into the diversity of migrant experiences. Our panel members bring skills, energy, commitment, and passion to our common efforts to build a better migration future.
In developing our capacity building and leadership development programme we are keen on working with migrant communities across the whole of Scotland. We will be deliberate in reaching out to smaller groups and welcome everyone who wants to connect and exchange, to learn and grow.
How will the project work?
Currently, the refreshed Lived Experience Panel is in its final onboarding stages. The 10-member panel will be working with MPS staff until September 2026. We will be refreshing our panel gain in September 2026 with another open recruitment call for migrants in Scotland wanting to work with us.
In addition, MPS will be mapping the training and development needs of migrant communities across Scotland and running two consultation workshops to better understand these in Autumn 2025. If you are interested in feeding in, please get in touch. This consultation will be followed by a comprehensive training offer due to start from April 2026. This work will aim to reinforce these communities to better meet their needs and be more confident to their work.
What are the expected outcomes?
MPS migrant community of practice and capacity building and leadership development work seeks to build stronger, better-connected work on migration across Scotland. We want to support migrant communities to be more confident and better equipped; to ensure their voices, needs, aspirations, and contributions are properly seen and understood.
As migrant communities grow and change rapidly across Scotland, we want everyone to be part of building a future with inclusive, resilient and well-connected communities.
Find out more
If you are a migrant organisation or work on migrant-related matters and would like to know more about this aspect of our work, please reach out to MPS Participation Officer Anissa Thabet: anissa@migrationpolicyscotland.org.uk