The growing discourse around immigration in national and international policy and practice has emerged as a challenge to the notion of borders. In the United Kingdom, concerns pertaining to national security and commerce have come to dominate the conversation on immigration over the well-being and rights of individuals over the past few years. Such a narrative, in which safeguarding is seen to be in conflict with loftier national priorities, has resulted in the escalation of risks for vulnerable individuals. As a ‘by and for’ Black, migrant and minoritised women’s organisation providing support to migrant victims of domestic abuse, the hostile environment in the United Kingdom poses significant harms for our service users. Migrant victims of abuse are often faced with a stark choice between domestic abuse and destitution and deportation due to lack of a safe reporting mechanism, inability to access life-saving support, and weaponisation of insecure immigration status by perpetrators. In this webinar, we discuss our policy campaigns and advocacy best practice to resist and overcome the dangerous anti-migrant rhetoric and detrimental effects of changes in law, policy, and practice.

Southall Black Sisters (SBS) is a leading ‘by and for’ Black, migrant and minoritised women’s organisation founded in 1979. SBS runs a holistic women’s resource centre. It provides helpline and online advice services, advocacy, counselling, and peer support group and educational activities. Its advocacy casework and strategic litigation inform the organisation’s campaigning, educational, policy and research work, which has a national impact in changing social, cultural and religious norms, and in influencing policy and practice as well as legal reform.

SPEAKERS

Shakila Taranum Maan

Shakila Taranum Maan has been part of Southall Black Sisters (SBS) since 1984. She is a Safe Lives accredited Service Manager and holds OISC level 1 for her immigration advice work. She is responsible for training Advocacy staff and ensuring that their work contributes to good practice within the culturally specific BME framework. Over the years, Shakila has developed complex casework and contributed to the practice of submitting specialist support letters to the Home Office that have a 100% success rate for SBS' service users in their application for leave to remain. In 2018, Shakila won the Emma Humphreys award in the individual category for her approach to casework. The creation of SBS' most iconic banners can also be credited to Shakila.

Sanskriti Sanghi

Sanskriti Sanghi is the Communications and Campaigns Officer at Southall Black Sisters (SBS), with her role sitting within the Policy vertical. Prior to joining SBS, Sanskriti was an Assistant Professor of Law at the Jindal Global Law School, OP Jindal Global University (JGU) in India, where she taught modules on critical jurisprudence, including feminist and postcolonial theory. At JGU, she also led a research team on improving access to socio-economic rights for the elderly with an emphasis on intersectionality. In the past, Sanskriti has worked with organisations such as the Columbia Global Freedom of Expression (CGFoE) and the Institute for Internet and the Just Society (IIJS) that aim to democratise knowledge about human rights and had her writing on international law and legal theory published by renowned journals.

* This event is part of the Stand Up! Speak Out! Solidarity Knows No Borders Training Series 2024.

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