September 2024
Professors María López and Caroline Oliver (UCL) presented the progress of the Nuffield Foundation-funded research project on Afghan resettlement schemes in England at 'Bordering society: Understanding and Reimagining migration, displacement and diversity in an age of rapid transformations' conference, organised by the Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS) at the University of Birmingham.
Our presentation began by setting the context in which around 17,000 Afghan and British people were evacuated from Kabul airport during 'Operation Pitting' in August 2021 (HO 2024). We talked about the humanitarian resettlement routes in place as part of 'Operation Warm Welcome', which aimed to help Afghans "rebuild their lives, find work, further their education and integrate into their local communities" (HO 2021) through two schemes: the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) for locals who have worked with or for the UK government and/or UK armed forces in Afghanistan and vulnerable Afghan nationals such as female politicians, women’s rights activists, and judges; and the Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) for Afghans most at risk of human rights abuses, such as women and girls, members of ethnic and religious minorities and LGBTQ+ people.
We then presented the project set-up and scoping research, our team (including the recruitment of two Afghan researchers and 16 community peer fieldworkers engagement with Senior Members of the Parliament and local authorities), details of our quantitative research (including a survey with 500-600 Afghans in South East, London, North West and the Midlands, walking interviews with 26 women and photovoice with 25 young participants).
We highlighted our indicative findings, which suggest that Afghans' experiences are affected by confusion about how schemes and pathways work, adding to the inevitable confusion of moving to a new country.
In the presentation, María also referred to the research work with Afghans in London that she is developing with Professor Louise Ryan, on which they have published three articles so far.
Photo credit: John Simitopoulos via Unsplash