Introduction

The purpose of the module is to help you think about how you can become involved in decisions that affect your community -  this is known as participation - and how you can take action to persuade agencies and policy makers to change how they support refugees and asylum seekers by campaigning to make things better. 

Participation and campaigning are all about social change. It’s about working together with others to take action and trying to make a difference for lots of people who are experiencing the same problem or issue, rather than working to solve a problem for someone individually. 

Some groups may want to focus on delivering services and supporting your community rather than on participation and campaigning, while others may choose to focus more on campaigning and trying to achieve change.

Even if your organisation is more focused on delivering support and services, it can be useful to consider how you can get involved in decision making about services that affect your community or how you can use your knowledge of the issues facing your community to get involved in campaigning and to help make things better.

This module will help your group to:

• Understand what rights asylum seekers and refugees have in the UK and consider whether your communities are having these rights met

• Understand how decisions affecting refugees and asylum seekers are made

• Consider what issues are most important to your community and what you can do about them

• Create an Action Plan for Change to help you plan your participation and campaigning activities. 

• Be more effective at participating in decision making and campaigning for change.

The issues which affect asylum seekers and refugees change over time as policy makers do things that have a direct impact on the lives of those fleeing persecution.  The Scottish Refugee Council website campaigns page  is one good way of keeping up to date with what is happening.

As you work through this module, each section will provide you with information and learning, followed by a discussion. Each discussion will help you to complete part of the Action Plan for Change Template. 

Once you have worked through the whole module, you will have an Action Plan for Change for your group. This will help you to  plan and monitor the actions you can take to make things better for your community.

Explore the modules

• Resource home

• How to use this resource

• Module 1: Getting started

• Module 2: Running your organisation well

• Module 3: Finding out the needs of your community

• Module 4: Planning your work effectively

• Module 5: Showing you’ve made a difference

• Module 6: Getting the funding you need

• Module 7: Looking after your group’s money

• Module 8: Running services, events and activities safely

• Module 9: Participating and campaigning

• Module 10: Progress so far and what next

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Let's get started 

Asylum seekers and refugees have rights agreed between countries and regulated by the United Nations and its agencies.  Let's remind ourselves of the purpose of the system of refugee protection by watching this short video. 

Discuss:

• Do you think refugees and asylum seekers in your community have access to the basic rights in the film? 

• What has your group done so far, if anything, to take part in decisions that affect your community or in campaigning? 

• What more, if anything, would you like to do?

You can write the answers on a flipchart or you can use this template.

1. Refugees, asylum seekers and your rights

As well as international laws, how countries act towards refugees and asylum seekers is also affected by decisions made by politicians nationally and locally.  

Laws and policies that affect refugees and asylum seekers include:

• International law like the United Nations Refugee Convention 

• The European Convention on Human Rights as it relates to asylum seekers and refugees.

• Asylum and immigration law which is made by the UK government this site is how they describe that policy

• Policies made by the Scottish Government on asylum seekers and refugees, including New Scot’s Integration Strategy.

For more information about how you can make use of the New Scots strategy follow this link.

Let’s look at these laws and policies in more detail and think about what community organisations might want to try to influence and change.

Now watch this presentation.

Group discussion 1 - Refugees, asylum seekers and your rights

Download the Action Plan for Change Template.

As a group, discuss

• What are the most important issues affecting your members that you would like to be able to change?

• What is the change that you would like to see happen?

• What are the specific things that you would like to change?

If you have completed Modules 3 and 4 , you can look back at your Community Conversations or  your Project Plan.  If you are unsure about what issues are important to your community, then you can use Module 3 to help you to have community conversations with your members, or other people in the community,  to find this out.

Write the answers onto a flipchart and then transfer them into section 1, 2 & 3 of the Action Plan for Change template. Or you can input them directly into the template if that is easier.  If you have lots of issues, then it may be helpful to choose one or two issues  that are most important to your community.

2. Working together to take action

We know that when people act together to achieve change,they have more influence than when they act on their own.  This is because individually they don't have access to the power that they need to be able to achieve change.

Asylum seekers and refugees often feel they have limited power over the decisions that affect their lives, especially before they have the right to remain in the UK. It's also true that local people in Scotland often feel they have limited power when they need to influence the policies and services that affect their lives. 

Communities who have access to power to make changes in their lives will also be healthier and able to contribute more to society. Taking part in activities and tackling issues of common concern are also a great way to bring refugees and Scottish people together and to support each other in dealing with common issues.

Watch this animation which explains more about power and how it works . 

Group discussion 2 – Working together to take action

Now look at the most important issue or issues  you identified in Group Discussion 1. 

Discuss:

• Who has the power to make this change happen? 

• What do you want them to do?

• Who are your allies? Who can support you or work with you? 

Write the answers onto a flipchart or input them directly into  sections 4, 5 & 6 of the Action Plan for Change template linked above.

3. Participation and campaigning - an overview for community groups

There are different approaches to having your say and which ones you choose will depend on:

• The nature of the issues and what you want to change

• Who has the power to make the change

• Whether those with power are willing to listen and change

• Whether you can persuade those in power that what you want is the right thing to do 

• What pressure you are able to put on them  

• The power you can mobilise from members, allies and supporters to help you do this

There isn't one right way to go about this and you may use a wide range of approaches at different points - or even at the same time. What is certain is that it's very important to have a planned approach to what you are trying to achieve. 

So in many cases both participation approaches and campaigning can have a role in achieving social change. Watch this presentation to find out more about this.

Now watch this presentation.

Group discussion 3 – Participation and campaigning - an overview for community groups

Look back at the notes from your Group 2 Discussion. Now that you have identified the issue, who has the power to change it and who you could connect up with, think about what you need to do next.

Discuss:

• What are the key messages? What do you want people to know?

• What do you need to do now? What actions can you take?

• Can our issue be addressed by participation opportunities with service providers or decision makers? Or do we need to start or become involved in campaigning?

Write the answers onto a flipchart or input them directly into the Action Plan for Change template linked above (in sections 7 & 8). 

4. Making participation work for your group

This section will explore participation in more detail and how to make it work for your group.  There are different opinions about participation, some of which are explored further in this section.

Now, watch this  film , which looks at what is meant by participation, its value in improving services and some of the challenges in practice.

Many organisations and agencies say they wish  to involve communities in their decision making, but in reality, this doesn't always happen in a meaningful way. When taking part in community engagement or in participation opportunities, it is reasonable for your group to ask yourself:

• What are the aims of this dialogue?

• Who benefits from it?

• Is it organised in a way where my community can be heard?

• Is it clear how it will lead to positive change?

Now watch this presentation about making participation opportunities and how it works in Scotland.

The presentation mentions the National Standards of Community Engagement. For more information click here.

The Community Empowerment Act also encourages communities to take part in decision making in Scotland - especially at the local level. Explore these links if you want to know more about this 

• SRC - How empowerment can benefit your group

• SCDC - Information of the Community Empowerment Act

The Community Empowerment Act also provides  a specific right for communities to request to take part in conversations with agencies in order to improve the lives of their members. This process is called making a Participation Request and SCDC have a Participation request resource pack which will help you understand how you could use this right. 

Group discussion 4 -  What participation opportunities are available to you? 

Discuss:

• What opportunities to participate are available to your group? If you don’t know of any, who could help you to find out?

• Could you make your own request or proposal to service providers or policy makers to become involved?

• Do you think that these offer real opportunities to improve things and if not, how could you improve them?

5. Campaigning for change – taking collective action

It isn’t always possible to address big issues through local participation by a few groups alone. This is due to the fact that the decision makers may be unwilling to share power or to change, or  unaware of the impact of their policies on communities.   

An example of this is how difficult it is to get the UK government to change its asylum policy. Achieving change in relation to this requires a different approach and making links and connections to persuade or pressure governments or other institutions to change their approach. 

Throughout history, there have been campaigns that have managed to achieve great things. This section looks at what you need to do to start or take part in action and campaigning.  What is important is always to work  with others to achieve a shared goal.

Examples of successful campaigning 

Please see below some examples of successful campaigning. Choose at least one video to watch. 

• The American civil rights movement changed many of the fundamental rights of black Americans.  Though their struggle continues, black Americans achieved great things in the civil rights campaign.

• Citizens UK – how Londoners ran London Olympics and a a successful campaign to make The Olympic Games games work to support local people

• The Glasgow Girls – how a group of friends campaigned against the detention of children and families  

• Kenmure Street Protest and how Maryhill Integration’s Network Joyous Choir creating a powerful song from the experience of fighting immigration removal

• Maryhill Integration Network and the right to work. That campaign acts as a local part of a wider asylum and migrant rights campaigning.

• Solidarity Knows No Borders – building a migrant justice movement

• Amnesty International – how people act together across the world to defend human rights

Group discussion 5

Once you have watched at least one of the above videos about successful campaigning, discuss:

• What type of change did people want to see happen?

• What connections did they make with allies and supporters?

• How did they raise awareness of the issues? What methods did they use?

• What was the outcome of their campaign? 

6. Key steps in campaigning

Being organised is key to the success of any campaign.Watch this presentation on the key steps of any campaign and read our Campaigning Factsheet.

Group Discussion 6 - Producing your Action Plan for Change

By now, you should nearly have completed your Action Plan for Change, which can be used for both participation and campaigning. 

Now, let’s identify who will do what and when. 

Discuss:

• Are you happy with your plan so far? Are there any changes you want to make to it?

• Who will take each action forward?  What exactly will they do?

• When will they do it?

It is also important to build in regular time to review your plan so that you can look at your progress and make any necessary changes to your plan. Agree who will do this and how often. You could do this at your committee meetings or you could set up separate meetings. Complete sections 8 & 9 in the Action Plan for Change template.Agree the dates that you will meet to monitor the plan.

When you meet again to review your plan, discuss:

• What have we done so far? How has it gone?

• Any issues arising?

• Anything we need to change or do differently?

Remember to update your plan and keep a copy to use the next time you meet.