The Roma Policy & Campaigning project aims to promote social justice and address disadvantage experienced by Roma refugees and migrants in the UK, specifically to:
This is achieved through activities such as:
Our regular and varied contact with Roma families, particularly in London but also throughout the country, gives us a great responsibility. This includes the need to empower Roma community members themselves to speak to decision-makers about their experiences. The project recognises that the world can be a better place if Roma communities are acknowledged, included and become successful.
Click the headings below to see further information
- Enhance social inclusion and civic partnership of Roma refugees and migrants by developing Roma-led campaigning work;
- To increase Roma participation in local decision making processes;
- To encourage practice that is more responsive to the needs of Roma migrants; and
- To influence and co-shape national and European policies which affect Roma refugees and migrants, ensuring that their voice/perspective is effectively communicated to the UK Government, European Union, statutory sector, the media and other key stakeholders.
This is achieved through activities such as:
- Support and training for Roma advocates;
- Facilitating Roma-led peer advocacy;
- Facilitating the Roma Refugee and Migrant Forum (RRMF) in London;
- Creating opportunities for Roma advocates to meet with local authorities, services and policy makers to ensure that Roma voices are publicly both spoken and heard; and
- Providing statutory and non-statutory agencies with information about the needs of Roma migrants based on evidence from RRMF, Roma focus group meetings and our casework;
- Highlighting the successful development of Roma communities throughout the country working together to achieve greater Roma integration in the UK.
Our regular and varied contact with Roma families, particularly in London but also throughout the country, gives us a great responsibility. This includes the need to empower Roma community members themselves to speak to decision-makers about their experiences. The project recognises that the world can be a better place if Roma communities are acknowledged, included and become successful.
Click the headings below to see further information
Recent publications
- Lessons Learned: Supporting the Roma Community through Covid-19 (October 2021).
- Engaging with the Roma Community on the EU Settlement Scheme: Toolkit for Local Authorities and Community Organisations (January 2021).
- Falling Through the Gaps: the EU Settlement Scheme and the Case of Roma Communities in the UK (Report of an All-Party Parliamentary Group event held on 17th November 2020 (January 2021). Published by the Roma Support Group and the GRT All-Party Parliamentary Group.
- Roma Civil Monitor - Year 3 - Roma and Brexit (December 2019).
- Evidence submitted to Parliament regarding PIP and ESA assessments (November 2017): Roma Support Group service users highlight a number of issues with the assessment process for disability benefits. This report recommends a number of changes.
- Fulfilling their potential? Exclusion of Roma pupils in the English educational system: a briefing paper (October 2017): Many Roma families think that England offers opportunities to young Roma which are denied in the country of their birth but Roma children’s experience of attending school can be difficult. This report, produced with the support of Barrow Cadbury Trust, looks at extensive evidence which indicates that Roma pupils are excluded from some English schools.
- Rough sleeping Roma in the City of Westminster (June 2016): This report was prepared by the Roma Support Group on behalf of St Mungo’s and Westminster City Council. It presents the findings of research carried out with Roma migrants sleeping rough in Westminster, including interviews with 64 Roma rough sleepers. The report offers recommendations for the Greater London Authority, Westminster City Council and homelessness organisations in order to improve engagement with Roma rough sleepers and reduce rough sleeping in Westminster.
- Impact on Migrant Roma Communities of Changes to Welfare and Entitlements (2015): Our report traces benefit and social assistance changes which were implemented in 2014, details the findings of our earlier “call for evidence” and concludes with a series of recommendations.
Documentation for Roma Refugee and Migrant Forum Meetings
(All pdf documents) Previous meeting agendas and minutes
- 25th Feb 2014 - agenda - minutes
- 20th May 2014 - agenda - minutes
- 15th July 2014 - agenda - minutes
- 29th Sept 2014 - agenda - minutes
- 9th Dec 2014 - agenda - minutes
- 10th Mar 2015 - agenda - minutes
- 9th June 2015 - agenda - minutes
- 29th Sept 2015 - agenda - minutes
- 22nd March 2016 - agenda - minutes
- 12th July 2016 - agenda - minutes
- 24th January 2017 - agenda - minutes
- 2nd June 2017 - agenda - minutes
- 28th September 2017 - agenda - minutes
- 20th February 2018 - agenda - minutes
- 12th June 2018 - agenda - minutes
- 21st September 2018 - agenda - minutes
- 24th January 2019 - agenda - minutes
- 24th September 2019 - minutes
Further Documents related to the project
Roma Support Group newsletters
Policy papers and background information produced:
Policy papers and background information produced:
- The London Borough of Brent, The Met Police and the Romanian Police, UKBA and the Romanian Roma: a joint briefing paper from Roma Support Group and AIRE Centre, July 2016
- Mainstream approaches aren’t working: The European Commission’s 2016 assessment of member states’ progress towards Roma integration: the case of the UK government. A briefing paper, July 2016
- Free school meals and Roma children: a review of recent evidence in twenty local authorities in England, June 2016
- Evidence to SSAC on withdrawal of Housing Benefit for EU migrants (May 2014)
- RSG Press Release in response to the Ofsted Report on Roma Pupils in English schools (December 2014)
- Assessment of UK government’s national Roma integration strategy (March 2015)
- Briefing to GRT APPG re: A Call for Evidence: the impact of benefit changes on Roma (March 2015)
- Roma Support Group statement about the Department for Education Gypsy Roma Traveller (GRT) Stakeholder Group (December 2015)
- Roma Support Group response to the Welsh Government: a call for proposal on a migrant Roma strategy for Wales (January 2016)
- Commentary for European Commission on UK government progress on Roma national integration strategies (January 2016)
- Welsh Government response to all the submissions (March 2016)
- Roma Support Group submission to the Council of Europe Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for National Minorities to the United Kingdom; UK monitoring visit (March 2016)
- Roma Support Group paper on: Absence of Gypsy, Roma and Travellers from in European Structural & Investment Fund strategies agreed by Local Enterprise Partnerships, tabled at DCLG Gypsy, Roma, Traveller liaison group (February 2016)
- Follow up report on ESIF funding and Gypsy, Roma, Travellers, prepared after the liaison group meeting meeting (March 2016)
- Submission to Lammy Review of BAME Representation in the Criminal Justice System (June 2016)
- Submission to the Women and Equalities Committee in response to the Inquiry into inequalities faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Communities (January 2017)
- Supporting Roma voices: the extra challenges posed by Brexit (June 2017)