"If you could do one thing..." Case Studies

While there exists a good body of evidence on social integration in the UK, little has been done previously to draw together the evidence from different sources and provide local government, charities or other organisations with practical tools to help them to tackle issues that affect their communities. The British Academy’s social integration project “If you could do one thing...” aimed to change that and to find examples of practical and effective local initiatives to support the integration of migrants and minorities in Britain, and share them more widely. Ideally the examples would involve no more than modest costs. This collection of case studies is focussed on support for recently arrived migrants and refugees, with a particular emphasis on young people. The themes running through these case studies reflect the major themes arising from the call for evidence 1 issued by the Academy in Spring 2017, such as the key role of learning English for integration, the need to confront and resolve local tensions rather than leave them to fester, the need to build trust and confidence of marginalized communities, and the need to involve members of the migrant communities themselves in the design and implementation of the projects. The case studies describe a range of activities, undertaken by local councils, Police, voluntary organisations, schools and partnerships. They cover arrangements from welcoming and supporting newly arrived migrants, help with learning English, tackling community tensions and identifying modern slavery.