Abstract/Summary

Migrant and refugee organisations play crucial roles in fostering spaces of care for refugee and other migrant families in the UK. Refugees and other migrants often initially seek support from migrant and refugee organisations with accessing statutory and formal services. They are met with, and develop empathic, supportive relationships with staff, volunteers and peers. Yet migrant and refugee organisations in the UK face considerable challenges including: limited funding, understaffing, insufficient resources to train volunteers, dwindling funding streams and differential entitlements for different groups of refugees and other migrants within the wider hostile environment, and the continuing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. More long-term funding, and support for staff and volunteers, is crucial to enable the development of empathic relationships of trust within diverse organisational settings and sustain much needed safe spaces of care for refugee and migrant families within the community.