New migrants will be given a helping hand to make Haringey their home after the council’s pioneering integration programme won government funding.

Connected Communities will help migrants to settle more quickly and successfully into life in the borough, offering the right support for people to handle a host of challenges.

Made possible by a grant from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Connected Communities comes after research – including focus groups with migrants and interviews with stakeholders and service providers – highlighted the key barriers to new migrants being able to fully integrate with the local community.

The scheme will offer support and intervention at five key “challenge points”:

Understanding life in the UK and how to navigate public services

Housing

Employment

Parenthood

Integration in the local community

The support will include help for people to improve their English language and to build wider local support networks to help them feel more at home and play a more active role in their communities.

Connected Communities will build on some aspects of support already provided in the borough, and will be focused on wards with the highest levels of inward migration and highest levels of deprivation, in Tottenham.

Cllr Mark Blake, Haringey Council Cabinet Member for Communities, said:

“Haringey has a proud tradition of community cohesion and I’m delighted that we will be able to build on that through the MHCLG-funded Connected Communities programme. Helping migrants to integrate better in the borough benefits them and also builds strong, supportive communities. I look forward to seeing Connected Communities take shape.”

45% of Haringey’s residents were born outside the UK

5.1% of our residents have lived in the UK for less than two years

Haringey has the third highest proportion of people identifying as ‘White Other’ in London. In Tottenham ‘White Other’ is now the largest single ethnic group.

Haringey has the fifth most ethnically diverse population in the country

The Connected Communities programme was developed in response to evidence gathered through six months of research, which revealed:

Participants in the study had lived in North or South Tottenham for an average of eight years. Two thirds moved directly to the borough from their home country.

Four out of five mothers had given birth while in the UK

47% of participants were currently in work – whether self-employed or as an employee – and of those in work 41.7% were at work within the borough

Despite an average age of 35, and having lived on average eight years in the UK, all but three employed migrants had casual, low-paid positions in the sectors of hospitality, retail, construction, cleaning, administration or childcare

In interviews migrants expressed common aspirations – to be healthy, to work, to have a secure, unshared home, to provide a future for their children. Primarily they came to the UK so that their children can benefit from a stronger education, including a university education. Overall, participants believe that they have a better life in the UK than in their home country; some felt they were just about managing

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