Although organising for housing justice has been happening at Migrants Organise for more than two years, our first Migrants & Refugees Housing Summit co-hosted with CARAG (Coventry Asylum And Refugee Action Group) was held in May 2025 at the Friends’ Meeting House in Coventry. We had 40 people in the room from many different organisations from housing associations, grassroots groups, homelessness charities, migrant justice organisations and more.
In true spirit of organising, we kicked off the day with ‘rounds’ to get to know everyone in the room and what brought us there. We heard from some incredible leaders in the movement:
Agnes Tanoh from Women for Refugee Women (and other organisations) spoke of her campaigning and organising against immigration detention, which she experienced herself. Agnes works with a large number of women and organisations where she facilitates groups, helps build coalitions and take collective action. She urged action from us all in the room and energised us to focus on what we could do together.
Gifty Amponsah from The Magpie Project spoke about their campaign ‘No Child Housed without a Kitchen’. She outlined the success they have had with Newham council on reducing hotel placements for families with children, engagement with the Public Health team and support they have garnered from the Mayor of the borough and their MP.
Jane Nakaweesi from the Migrants Organise Housing Group joined at the end of last year and has been involved in organising with us over the last few months. She shared the story of a recent action the group took around conditions in an asylum hotel and how they went about building their power to do it. She shared some of her own experiences of the asylum system and what needs to be done.
Mallika Balakrishnan, Migrants Organise Digital Organiser facilitated a Question and Answer session where we gleaned further insights from our speakers’ experiences of organising – universal wisdom we all could take away and use in our own work.
No movement or action is complete without its artists and we were spoiled by some incredible performances of spoken word poetry by two of CARAG’s members: Prince and John Chiko Mpaso. Their words moved, shook and inspired us as we were drawn together to reflect on the struggles and the power of those impacted by the hostile environment.
After a delicious grilled lunch, we moved into workshops. First, we had an overview of the Solidarity Knows No Borders (SKNB) community, how it was born and what we’re planning next to ground people new to the space and the movement we are all part of. This was done by Maymuna Osman, our National Organiser and testimony from CARAG’s Loraine Masiya Mponela.
It was an afternoon of two halves – goal setting and power mapping. This session was designed and co-facilitated by Tsvetan Pavlov of Haringey Welcome. With the power mapping, people from different organisations named the people and institutions they are targeting, influencing or recruiting for their objectives. This allowed people to see where they are already connected and who they needed to connect with to build power and take action together.
The goal setting was done using the four horizons set out at the inception of the Homes4All coalition. Participants agreed specific aims of their different campaigns and activities and, again, drew connections to the work of other organisations to pick up conversations on how they can join forces, avoid duplication and build stronger coalitions.
From the evaluation, some of the most meaningful and helpful things about the summit were:
Overall, it was an incredible day with many new connections being made and a promising checkpoint on the road to the national Solidarity Knows No Borders Summit in October. Thank you to everyone who took part, who spoke, facilitated, performed, cooked, helped set up and clean up, and to all attendees for their full participation in the day. We look forward to working with new and old partners alike in the fight for an end to the hostile environment.
The Migrants Organise Housing Justice campaign demands safe and decent housing for all. It’s time to put people over profit! Get in touch to join us in our fight for homes for all.
