Migration and housing: meeting refugees' housing needs through collaborative housing programmes (MICOLL)
Lead Research Organisation:
Lancaster University
Department Name: Sociology
Abstract
For many refugees in European cities, finding affordable quality accommodation is a significant challenge replete with obstacles. Yet, decent housing is key to their successful integration into the local community since it provides social contacts, access to services and employment. In contrast to traditional social housing, new types of housing have emerged across Europe with a stronger focus on collaboration, participation and social support among residents. This project explores the potential of such collaborative housing solutions for the long-term integration of refugees. It will deliver recommendations for urban policy-making based on our studies in Austria, Sweden and the UK.
Organisations
- Lancaster University (Lead Research Organisation)
- London Borough of Camden (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- London Commissioning Hub (Collaboration)
- Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) (Collaboration)
- Community Led Housing London (Project Partner)
- HACT (Project Partner)
- UK Co-Housing Trust (Project Partner)
People |
ORCID iD |
| Melissa Fernandez Arrigoitia (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Hendrickson C
(2022)
Community-Led housing in the UK: Learning from Black British and migrant histories
in Radical Housing Journal
| Description | CH with refugees and other migrant vulnerable groups provides opportunities to approach the challenges of inclusive cities in a truly inclusive manner. Overall, the MICOLL project has contributed to bringing the challenge of refugee housing into the CH environment, uncovering both opportunities and constraints. An important observation is that different formats exist and/or are required in each of the three participating countries (UK, Sweden, Austria) since national contexts differ. Here, the project has delivered a novel cross-country taxonomy of CH practices and models with different degrees of refugee and migrant involvement in CH design and/or everyday CH practices. Our systematic literature review, which delivers a concise state of the art on research, policies and programmes regarding collaborative housing with marginalised groups, found while there are now a substantial and increasing number of studies on collaborative housing, much less has been published on the specific context of or implications for migration and refugees. Our review highlights some of the key enablers and challenges of developing collaborative housing with migrants and refugees. Empirical material identified a series of similarities and differences in regards to migrant CH in the UK, and across the three countries. Similarities included: - Diversity (refugees themselves as heterogeneous population and 'native residents' are also mixed group); - Attitudes (Negative societal attitudes towards migrants and refugees that entrench segregation, whreas CH with refugees might change dominant narrative in an area and wider public); - Access to knowledge and information about housing model and particularly CH is poor throughout; - CH with refugees requires substantial external facilitation and low-threshold access mechanism; - Public support for more inclusive CH models is underdeveloped (e.g. legislation, funding, planning). - Participation and/as empowerment (where CH can empower refugees through individualised support, social interaction, skill development, but refugees' ability and willingness to participate in CH is limited and long and intensive development process is a major barrier for participation. - Critical options (Local (public) meeting places are crucial to developing inclusivity; options for refugees to different housing options need to be explored and created and rental housing options. Differences were more marked in relation to: - Different levels of municipal support: Vienna provides options for CH within the social housing sector through subsidised land allocation and highly subsidised rental schemes for vulnerable resident groups; Swedish municipalities dispose of favourable planning and policy instruments, but lack of will to apply them to support CH projects; Little support from English local authorities for CH models, also due to housing shortages and budget constraints. - Bottom-linked vs. bottom-up development approach: In the Swedish and English context, CH means slow self-building with little if any public support, mainly relying on self-financing and private ownership models; In Vienna, inclusive CH initiatives by individuals and groups can link with established public and third sector support structures in social housing and welfare (role of CH intermediaries!) - Disadvantaged vs. non-disadvantaged area-based approach: Inclusive CH initiative develops in a disadvantaged and stigmatised urban transformation area (e.g. Bergsjön in Gothenburg); Inclusive CH project embedded in a new built, middle-class urban development area (e.g. parts of Vienna and London) Methodologically, there were also important discoveries related to this novel area of research. Mainly, it was very difficult and time-consuming to get to talk to the 'right' people, particularly in local authorities and those offering services to migrants as these are underfunded and overwhelmed with their workloads. CH is seen as a kind of interesting but unnecessary 'extra' that moves beyond their statutory responsibilities, especially in the context of coinciding refugee crises. And,a cross the three countries, ethical considerations had to be taken when talking publicly in any event, publication or video about ongoing CH projects and personal experiences of individuals involved therein due to safeguarding concerns within a politically, and often local, hostile environment. |
| Exploitation Route | In the UK, there is an intersecting set of influencing, contextual realities to do with housing and migration crises that will undoubtedly influence the long-term direction of the CH sector with or for migrants. MICOLL highlighted some of the ways in which CH could be a positive and productive intervention in the midst of a limiting socio-economic and political landscape. At the same time, and in close alignment with some of the ideas put forth by MICOLL, a body of strategic 'diverstiy' work is emerging from within the CH research and policy sectors. The debates that MICOLL was able to surface through its activities are now being incorporated into future agendas of research and practice that we feel can have lasting impacts. Activities (post-funding) are still being designed and developed to enable that the outcomes of this funding be taken forward and put to use by others. MICOLL has been designed to learn across the three countries involved (UK, Sweden and Austria) to better identify relevant actors, processes and institutional systems for support and upscaling of collaborative housing solutions with migrants, and especially refugees, and to provide recommendations for cities, municipalities, local public bodies, middle agents and third sector organisations. This may take the form of: shifting organisational priorities and agendas; of new partnerships amongst local stakeholders; influencing policy and practice and local authority and other local levels increasing the number of projects (existing or developing) that incorporate a more migrant or refugee-friendly approach to their allocaiton policies and public-facing practices and generating more successful funding applications that can put some of our recommendations into practice by relevant organisations. Furthermore, the new networks of interested researchers, community groups and practitioners that were created through the project workshops (national and international in scope) can continue to work together in smaller roups of coinciding interests or practice in order to move through some of the challenges that were identified. A pilot training project, for example, could be developed between different CH and migrant advocacy organisations. We provided all of the necessary information for these kinds of new associations and liaising to develop autonomously. A set of documentary style videos featuring individuals living and/or working with CH and migrants, which will have an accessible format and style targeting lay and professional audiences, can also be used as a living document to be shared and used by relevant local housing authorities and those tasked, within and outside government, with housing refugees. Finally, ur literature review and subsequent framing papers, that set out a research and practice agenda on CH with migrants can be taken forward by different academics working on: collaborative housing; urban housing, displacement and belonging; home; migrant housing or home; segregation, exclusion; liveable cities; social mix. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Construction,Education,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| URL | http://micoll.org/news/ |
| Description | The UK has a growing and dynamic collaborative housing sector, but its focus on migrants and refugees is nascent and knowledge about existing examples is scattered and disconnected. Through my work on MICOLL, which builds on over a decade of research into collaborative housing, ideas and recommendations were incrementally built in collaboration and conversations with relevant stakeholders about how collaborative housing with migrants can be proactively conceptualized, tackled and supported in the UK into the future. With MICOLL, I was able to highlight some of the ways in which CH could be a positive and productive intervention in the midst of a limiting socio-economic and political landscape. At the same time, a body of strategic 'diversity' work is emerging from within the CH research and policy sectors. The debates that MICOLL was able to surface in its work are now being incorporated into future agendas of research and practice (eg, new research bids, and UKCHN) that we feel can have lasting impacts. Connections were created between different CH sectors with current organisations and local authorities working at the intersections of housing and refugee issues. As noted in the collaboration section, there were a number of interactions and collaborations that led to changes in national CH organisations and their working agendas. In particular, the questions of migration and diversity were introduced or enhanced along a number of fronts. The presentations made to the national cooperative sector created awareness and interest amongst local authorities and housing associations of the possibilities of migrant CH, and it led to that national network organisation to include this topic as part of its annual working agenda. The expectation is that the information, advise and housing services provided to migrants or recent refugees within the collaborative housing sector will improve as a direct result of this project's outputs and that future research will be undertaken to move this practical agenda further. Meetings for the latter are already taking place in this regard at the UK (national) and European (comparative) level. Our collaboration in the UK and Europe with a range of different stakeholders and contributions to an important European CH mapping database, as well as participation in the European working group (involving practitioners and academics) on collaborative housing research, are part of the wider landscape of impact that this project is already having. Conversations, workshops and presentations are directly influencing the direction and considerations of those living, working or strategizing at the intersections of CH and migration. This was further enhanced by a two-day study visit in Western Sweden in October 2023, organised by the Swedish MICOLL consortium, where at least 20 different stakeholders from civil society, the public sector and academia were able to interact over a series of site-visits, presentations and workshops. Academically, our project's systematic literature review is the first of its kind and we expect that it will have important academic and practice impact as we will be publishing (forthcoming) findings related to the various barriers and enablers to collaborative housing with marginalised populations. Our work here builds on a growing interest within the CH research field on how diversity manifests in the sector. Most investigations so far are, however, based on individual small-scale examples and studies. Ours is the first to collect, summarise and disseminate all of the relevant published material. This work was already presented at the European housing researchers (in their collaborative housing research group) during the summer 2022, where it was received enthusiastically as an advancement for refugee specific research agenda into the future, and we have had requests for the review from policy and housing practitioners who want to apply findings to their work. Academics that were consulted or interviewed during the course of this research made reference to the fact that they would be pursuing particular lines of investigation that they had not envisaged before as a result of our interaction. The debates that MICOLL was able to surface in its work are now being incorporated into future agendas of research and practice that we feel can have lasting impacts. The project's creative output- a series of documentary style videos- is expected to make demonstrable change in society by influencing those working or engaging with communities at the intersections of housing and migration in the UK. These short films analyse, summarise and present in lay terms the complex socio-material scenario for migrants wishing to access collaborative housing in the UK. Given the enthusiasm that a wide range of stakeholders expressed over the course of the project activities for CH housing with/for migrants, there is a strong expectation that the video component, which will generate greater critical awareness of the limitations, barriers to access and possibilities for change in short popular audio-visual formats, will also in turn lead to shifts in approaches to or practices within CH design, development and policies (internal and external). Given the sensitivity of the project topic, and the fact that many of the conversations held could not be reported on publicly for safeguarding purposes, there was also a form of impact that needs to get recognised in terms of what certain vulnerable individuals who have faced difficult if not harrowing housing circumstances in the lead up to their time in CH gain from being considered in a research project like this one. Their knowledge, shared individually and collectively, forms a validated part of the data collection, and their anonymised journeys are recognised as valuable insights that can contribute to improving societal structures and access to better housing. Some of the impacts of the project have shifted to a later date in the research timeline and some of the more important ones are expected to take place after end of project date (following popular video and academic article publications). |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Improving UKCHN's and London's CLH Hub diversity agenda |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or improved professional practice |
| URL | https://cohousing.org.uk/ |
| Description | Influencing CCH working agenda |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
| Description | Partnership with Camden Council |
| Organisation | London Borough of Camden |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Camden Council is currently exploring the potential to work with a Community Land Trust on the redevelopment of one of its small sites and has recently secured a Greater London Authority (GLA) grant to support this pilot approach and explore urban community-building and sustainability. By holding regular meetings with the council representative and relaying knowledge produced from MICOLL, I will be able to inform current and future design of Camden's housing development projects with a community-led and migration oriented focus. |
| Collaborator Contribution | As a partner, Camden Council has contributed to the project the project in the following 'in kind' ways: • taking part in one online 'kick-off' meeting with all international project partners, presenting current and past local authority experiences; • taking part in the first national workshop; • supporting the co-design activities of relevant actionable recommendations by facilitating links to relevant council officers and sector representatives. |
| Impact | This collaboration has resulted in the delivery of the project's first international workshop, as well as led to important interviews for the research. This is a multi-disciplinary collaboration with an architect and housing practitioner. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Partnership with London's Community-Led Housing Hub |
| Organisation | London Commissioning Hub |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | In this partnership, w |
| Collaborator Contribution | Our partners contributed their knowledge by providing a strategic list of community contacts across London that could be key to the research. They gave up working time for a series of meetings, events and interviews in order to add value to the project's process and outputs. |
| Impact | This collaboration is part of a series of video outputs (forthcoming, Spring 2023) that will be an accessible knowledge transfer and exchange document, to be shared widely in the UK, and the other European CH and migration networks. This collaboration has involved housing practitioners, human geographers, political scientists and sociologists. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | The Co-Lab Mapping Project |
| Organisation | Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | During the course of our research, we partnered with the designers and developers of the Co-Lab Research Knowledge hub who host the "Mapping social innovation and collaboration in housing - Co-Lab Mapping" project. This is the foremost data-driven map used by the European CH sector for comparative and quantitative studies on collaborative housing. Our collaboration consisted of proposing (and co-developing) an expanded taxonomy to their existing scientifically-validated categorisation of the different collaborative housing forms in Europe. After a process of deliberation and visual diagramming, we contributed an additional data entry point for the map that can make migrant CH more visible (by identifying it as such). We drew on the evidence compiled in our project's literature review and cross-country empirical studies to justify the new categorisation. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Based on our completed literature review and empirical findings on international migrant CH, our team identified a gap in the map's categories and proposed a new one called 'collaborative housing with migrants/refugees'. Our descriptive wording is consistent with some of the map's existing taxonomy divisions (eg, community models vs collective self-provision), at the same time that it generates a new space for this subtype of project to be geographically identified and accompanied by any relevant qualitative or quantitative data. The titles we have chosen for our key categories are descriptive; ie, they are not the names of established models (as they are not recognised in the same way that a 'senior cohousing' is understood) but rather practices that define particular types of CH projects (eg, designed with or for refugees). These categories not only extend and strengthen the taxonomy, but may support future thinking about other ways of connecting across the taxonomy's strands and countries (for example, other 'inclusive' target-driven categories could be added in the future, including LGBTQ+, senior specific, etc.) |
| Impact | This collaboration is multi-disciplinary in nature, as it involves architects, urban designers, planners and sociologists. These are the disciplines represented by those of us involved in the MICOLL project, as well as those based at TU Delft's Co-Lab Research knowledge hub on Collaborative Housing. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | ENHR Presentation at Collaborative Housing Working Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | As part of the annual European Network for Housing Research (ENHR) conference held in Barcelona 30 August to 2 September 2022, Richard Lang and Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia convened a session on 'Collaborative Housing and Migration: exploring links, gaps and possibilities'. This session formed part of the wider established Working Group 'Collaborative housing'. Lang and Fernández Arrigoitia presented findings from MICOLL's literature review on collaborative housing with marginalised groups, highlighting some key enablers and challenges for developing the migration-collaborative housing nexus. Ivette Arroyo (Housing Development and Management, Dept. of Architecture and Built Environment, Lund University), Maryam Khatibi (Dept. of Architecture and Urban Studies, DAStU, Milano) and Norma Montesino (School of Social Work, Lund University) then presented a working paper developing the notion of 'unintended consequences' of developing collaborative housing in Zurich and Sweden, focusing particularly on comparative aspects of access, social integration and affordability. In the dialogue that ensued through these two session papers (as well as other working group sessions) the following themes emerged as important to MICOLL's own focus: - The potential of collaborative housing to trigger systemic change in market-driven housing; - That 'aligning purposes' amongst collaborative housing stakeholders (for example municipalities and starter groups) can be a win-win through a focus on social inclusion; - There are successful examples of building in social purpose into collaborative housing, as evidenced in two Swedish case studies: 'Orion' in Fruängen, Stockholm (1985-2009) developed between Latin American migrants and Swedes, and 'SällBo', (established 2019 in Helsingborg) where 10 out of 51 apartments are rented to young refugees; and - The limitations of existing CH when its spatiality is not suitable for large migrant families, thereby excluding them by design. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://enhr.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ENHR_Book_Abstracts-Barcelona-2022.pdf |
| Description | JPI Urban Migration Kickoff: project presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This international meeting was hosted by JPI Urban Europe's team, and attended by members of the eight European projects funded in the Urban Migration call and their stakeholders. The focus of the day was to discuss how project were conceptualising and approaching the ways in which migration affects, and is affected by, the life and functioning of cities. The meeting provided an opportunity for the project partners to meet and to share knowledge, introduce projects, engage in strategic discussions and find partners for future cooperation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://jpi-urbaneurope.eu/news/urban-migration-projects-are-up-and-running/ |
| Description | MICOLL International Exchange |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was the first international exchange related to ongoing findings from the MICOLL project, which aims to develop, support and study local testbeds and experiences of collaborative housing solutions for long-term integration of migrants, and especially refugees in Austria, Sweden and the UK. Since the testbeds involve a range of civil society, public, business and academic stakeholders, this event had up to forty participants from that wide ranging audience. In the three hour workshop we: (1) presented findings from the literature review and first national events already carried out; (2) informally shared experiences and knowledge between the three country partners and other related stakeholders; (3) enhanced the work we are currently doing with participant and partner input, gathering questions, feedback and suggestions for the remaining project activities; and (4) created a first space to meet and interact with one another internationally. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation for Community Led Housing Local Authority Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | By posing the question 'Housing refugees through community led housing?', the aim of this presentation to about 60 national local authority practitioners interested and/or working on community led housing and the cooperative sector was to generate a wider discussion about whether and how community led housing could play a role to provide housing for refugees. Experiences and lessons were exchanged during the questions and answer session. At least three practitioners directly involved in the commissioning and delivery of housing in their local authorities were in touch afterwards with an interest in incorporating project findings to their work; and I was subsequently linked to members of the Strategic Migration Partnerships in other local authorities in order to present the project to politicians involved in those groups nationally. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | UK Collaborative Housing and Migration: an open forum discussion |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | 35 participants including members, residents, practitioners, stakeholders or allies in the UK Collaborative Housing (CH) sector (e.g. cohousing, community land trusts, housing co-operatives and self-build project) who are also interested in the extent to which Collaborative Housing models and practices address housing (or other) issues for marginalised migrant populations, in particular recent and long-term refugees joined this two hour webinar to collectively explore the potential of Collaborative Housing solutions for the long-term integration of refugees and recent migrants in the UK. As an open forum of exchange, the event enabled: (a) learning from invited speakers (CH residents, practitioners and researchers) that introduced experiences and ideas about the CH-migration nexus; (b) learning between groups, individuals or practitioners already doing, or thinking of doing some of this work in CH; and (b) charting for the very first time- and from the ground up - the range of possible issues, challenges or ideas for change that are involved in developing CH that is also migrant-refugee focused or friendly. Participants will not only learned about current practices or aspirations, but also (in an interactive workshop format) helped informed the next stage of this action-research project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/uk-collaborative-housing-migration-an-open-forum-discussion-tickets-1... |