Perspectives: Open the Door – Working together to address financial disadvantage in migrant households

Description

In this blog our core team of peer researchers from MPS and partner organisations reflect on partnership working and co-delivery of research for change.

By Leri Price (MPS Research Assistant); Delia Spatareanu (Community Researcher at Community Renewal Rom Romeha); María José Pavez Larrea, (Co-General Manager at Grampian Regional Equalities Council (GREC)

Increased understanding of migrant experiences and support for new, imaginative and effective ways to confront challenges and inequalities are central to the work of MPS.  Our two-year project (2023 – 2025), supported by abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, aims to enhance strategic policy thinking on effective interventions to reduce financial disadvantage for low-to-middle income migrant households. MPS is working closely with our project partners Community Renewal Rom Romeha, (GREC) and Together for Better Life to co-deliver the research and design pathways for change.

Partnership is a crucial part of our approach of building capacity and sharing knowledge to better understand the challenges and opportunities of migration in Scotland. Our experience of partnering with these three community organisations has been richly rewarding and has offered invaluable insight into how financial disadvantage is felt and experienced in migrant households. Delia, María José and Leri were at the core of our team of researchers. Here they reflect on their experiences of working together on this project.

Delia says:

“Over the years, at Community Renewal we’ve built strong relationships with the Roma community, creating a safe space where individuals feel comfortable sharing their stories. Employing Roma staff members who speak Romanes, Romanian, and Slovak has strengthened our connection and built trusting relationships within the community. This trust was invaluable when conducting focus groups for this research project. Hearing firsthand accounts from Roma individuals about their daily struggles and successes underscored the importance of having their voices represented in the project report, Open the Door – Migrants Facing Financial Disadvantage and their Needs for Support.

The findings from this research reflect the challenges we see daily. Migrant households face higher living costs—particularly in housing and energy—due to exploitative rental agreements and limited affordable options. Similarly, barriers like insufficient ESOL provisions, unrecognised foreign qualifications, and low level of literacy hinder progress toward better-paid, stable jobs.

One key recommendation from the report is the need for better, more joined-up services—something we strive to achieve through partnerships with organisations like Govanhill Law Centre, Positive Action in Housing, and Living Rent. Too often, Roma individuals are caught in a cycle of referrals between services without receiving the help they need.

At Community Renewal, our mission extends beyond providing services—we’re here to drive systemic change. Through research and advocacy, we aim to make services more relevant, ensure Roma individuals can exercise their rights, and improve their access to support systems.

Research projects like this one are essential. They provide the data we need to advocate for change, secure funding, and sustain our services. We are proud to be part of this journey with MPS and the other partner organisation, using data and stories to influence change and create a Scotland where Roma people, alongside all marginalised communities, can thrive”.

María José says:

“GREC is a charity based in Aberdeen focusing on advancing equality across the North East of Scotland. We work to tackle prejudice and discrimination, celebrate diversity, build positive community relations, and provide evidence to change policy and practice.

As we mark our 40th anniversary this year, we want to highlight the progress made in the last few years to continue providing direct support to communities experiencing barriers and inequalities, while also improving the evidence-base available at a local level, which is key to enabling meaningful change. Our research projects are central to this work, including the project in partnership with Migration Policy Scotland to better understand financial hardship for migrant families and support pathways available.

During this project’s fieldwork we heard voices from the North East, including from community members experiencing the negative impacts of hostile environment policies every day, as well as from practitioners supporting them. The project report, which brings together insights and experiences from across Scotland, captures this and adds strong evidence of the need to move to more effective support pathways that are truly inclusive and accessible.

We need to improve the support available, because we need to foster a welcoming Scotland in which migrants want to stay, settle and thrive. But to achieve this, we also need to work collaboratively across sectors. That’s why we are excited to be part of the next stage of this joint project to explore together with public and third sector organisations, how to implement the recommendations coming from this research.

We are looking forward to continuing working in partnership with MPS and to hearing all the contributions and innovative ideas during the policy laboratory in 2025.

Leri says:

“It was always a priority for us to ground this project in strong evidence, in order to generate effective and practical solutions to financial disadvantage. The work of our partners has allowed the research to draw on a wide range of lived experiences, highlighting the multifaceted ways in which migrant households can be put at a disadvantage. Personally speaking, one of my greatest takeaways from this year has been observing how complex issues can be illuminated and addressed by forging new connections, working collaboratively across organisations, sectors and regions.

Our research partners collaborated on every stage of the research, feeding into and feeding back on research tools and findings. Over the course of the first year, we worked closely together to ensure the project developed in ways that answered the needs of the communities supported by each organisation, and to ensure that the research remained rooted in their experiences. Similarly, by being able to draw on the expertise of caseworkers, the research was able to gain a clearer understanding of the challenges facing frontline support organisations and staff. This informed interviews which MPS conducted with a wider set of advice and support organisations in different locations across Scotland.

Successful collaboration doesn’t happen by magic, of course – especially given the incredible demands on their time and skills which all our partner organisations are experiencing. The process of working together has been supported by clear, regular communication between all partners, with regular meetings, check-ins, and reporting back. Most importantly, we all have a clear vision of what we want to achieve from the project, and this has helped us to align the needs of the project with the urgent, ever-increasing work our partners carry out in their communities.”

We are proud of what the research has achieved to date, thanks to the collaboration between all of the partners. Looking ahead, we are excited to take our shared work further, joining forces with a wider group of organisations through the policy laboratory. We are hopeful about the outcomes and determined to find new, feasible and effective ways we can work together to address financial disadvantage in migrant households.

Links