Sarah Spencer is Director of Strategy and a Senior Fellow at COMPAS and was Director of the Global Exchange on Migration and Diversity from its inception in 2014 until March 2019. She is Chair of the Board of Directors of IMISCOE, the European network of migration research institutes and scholars, and a member of Kellogg College, Oxford’s largest and most international graduate college. Sarah’s research interests focus on irregular migrants, on which she has been PI in projects on national and...

Expertise

Migration processes
Migration consequences (for migrants, sending and receiving countries)
Migration governance
Cross-cutting topics in migration research
Disciplines
Geographies

Roles

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Research

Migrants with Irregular Status in Europe: Guidance for Municipalities

Description
The purpose of this guidance is to assist municipal authorities in Europe in providing appropriate access to services for migrants with irregular status. It provides information on municipal policies and practices across a range of service areas, and on governance and administration, as an evidence base upon which municipalities may develop their own approach. The guidance is primarily intended for municipal authorities, whether cities or smaller municipalities, but is also aimed at the public bodies which work with them including police forces, healthcare providers, and housing and education providers. Working arrangements between public bodies and nongovernmental service providers is one of the topics covered.
Year 2019
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1 Report

Understanding integration processes: Informing policy and practice

Authors Katharine Charsley, Sarah Spencer
Description
Governments and cities across Europe are developing strategies to enhance integration. In England, the publication of the government’s Integrated Communities Strategy Green Paper has highlighted integration as a policy challenge at national and local levels. This briefing paper sets out a model of integration to provide a systematic basis for the design and evaluation of integration policies and initiatives. The concept of integration refers to processes of interaction, personal and social change among individuals and institutions across inter-related areas of life. The nature, speed and direction of these processes are affected not only by the characteristics of individuals, but also the wider social context. The term ‘integration’ is, however, often used loosely, without a clear understanding of the multiple processes involved. A narrow focus on some important indicators (e.g. gender norms, employment) often obscures the fuller picture. An integration approach needs to move beyond one-way models of assimilation, and a focus on migrants and minorities, to recognise that all members of society engage in participation, interaction and change. In practice, the focus of discussion is often on the characteristics and behaviour of individuals (e.g. migrants) to the neglect of society and policy factors. Recent policy developments, however, demonstrate increasing interest in viewing integration as something in which all members of society are involved and for which there is shared responsibility. Effective policy intervention requires clarity on the complex processes at play. Extensive research on integration has provided insights on integration processes and the factors which impact on them. No single initiative is likely to be able to address all of the processes and factors involved, but a systematic approach to conceptualising integration offers the potential for greater clarity in policy aims, identification of barriers to integration, and evaluation of interventions and their outcomes.
Year 2019
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2 Report

Multi-level governance of an intractable policy problem: migrants with irregular status in Europe

Authors Sarah Spencer
Year 2018
Journal Name Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Citations (WoS) 8
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3 Journal Article

Cooperation between government and civil society in the management of migration: Trends, opportunities and challenges in Europe and North America

Authors Sarah Spencer, Nicola Delvino
Description
Across Europe and North America, government at all levels is cooperating with civil society organisations in the management of migration and in the resettlement and integration of refugees and migrants. This paper explores some of the issues that are raised by these relationships and are addressed in the academic and policy literature. While cooperation between government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) per se has long been the focus of scholarship, cooperation in the migration field is far less well explored. Yet, notwithstanding significant variation in the extent and forms of cooperation, governments rely on NGOs to fulfil a range of functions in the implementation of migration, resettlement and integration policies and to a certain extent in the policy development process. Collaboration, moreover, can bring significant challenges: working relationships can be harmonious and long standing, but can equally be fragile and carry economic and political costs for both parties. This paper addresses what we know of recent trends in relation to cooperation in the migration field; the tiers of government where it is found and the dimensions of migration that it addresses; setting that in the context of what is known more broadly of recent trends in government-civil society relationships. It explores what motivates governments and civil society to work together, the forms of cooperation, and the challenges that arise in their working relationships.
Year 2018
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4 Report

Marriage migration and integration: Interrogating assumptions in academic and policy debates

Authors Katharine Charsley, Marta Bolognani, Sarah Spencer
Year 2017
Journal Name Ethnicities
Citations (WoS) 3
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5 Journal Article

Postcode Lottery for Europe's Undocumented Children: Unravelling an Uneven Geography of Entitlements in the European Union

Authors Sarah Spencer
Year 2016
Journal Name American Behavioral Scientist, 2014, Vol. 58, No. 12, pp. 1614-1633
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6 Journal Article

Conceptualising integration: a framework for empirical research, taking marriage migration as a case study

Authors Sarah Spencer, Katharine Charsley
Year 2016
Journal Name Comparative Migration Studies
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7 Journal Article

Marriage and Migration: facilitating the integration of migrant spouses

Authors Katharine Charsley, Marta Bolognani, Sarah Spencer, ...
Year 2016
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8 Policy Brief

Lessons from a City Working Group Model of Learning Exchange

Authors Nicola Delvino
Description
This paper sets out lessons from an eighteen month learning exchange project involving working groups of city officials coordinated by university based researchers. It is intended as a contribution to knowledge on the efficacy of differing models of learning exchange, to inform future exercises of this kind. Action for Inclusion in Europe was a learning exchange project run by the Global Exchange on Migration and Diversity. The aim of this paper is to assess the value of the particular working-group model used in the project as a means of facilitating reforms in policies or practices at city level. It is based on focused discussions with working group members and research coordinators at the second and final meetings of the projects’ three city working groups; and on their on-line, anonymous responses to a series of questions relating to different aspects of the model. The author was overall responsible for the project and attended all of the meetings of each working group.
Year 2016
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9 Report

Managing Irregular Migrants within the EU

Year 2016
Book Title Irregular migration, Trafficking and Smuggling of Human Beings: Policy dilemmas in the EU
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10 Book Chapter

Autumn Academy 2016 Final Report: Strategic approaches to Migrant Integration in Europe

Description
The Autumn Academy 2016: Strategic approaches to Migrant Integration in Europe was an opportunity for those responsible for developing and implementing resettlement and integration policies at EU, national and local level to share knowledge, expertise and ideas, to consider the implications of the latest research evidence and reflect on strategic policy options. This report summarises key points noted from presentations and, without attribution, from the discussions which followed. The final session drew together some of the themes that emerged and this is also available separately by clicking on the following link: Summary of Key Themes. Links throughout the report provide access to the text or slides and, in some cases, audio recordings of presentations.
Year 2016
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11 Report

Equality for Whom?

Year 2015
Book Title Routledge International Handbook of Diversity Studies
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14 Book Chapter

Irregular Migrants in Italy: Law and Policy on Entitlements to Services

Authors Sarah Spencer, Nicola Delvino
Year 2014
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18 Report

City Responses to Migrants with Irregular Status

Authors Sarah Spencer, Vanessa Hughes
Year 2013
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19 Policy Brief

The Migration Debate

Authors Sarah Spencer
Year 2011
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21 Book

Economic Gain, Political Cost

Authors Sarah Spencer
Year 2010
Book Title Immigration under Labour
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24 Book Chapter

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