The trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2025.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with Migrant Voice's governing document, the Companies Act 2006 and "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019)".
To advance education amongst migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, by the provision of training, advice and support, especially around media work.
To advance the education of the public in general and the media about the issues relating to migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
To promote equality and diversity by the provision of activities to foster understanding between people from diverse backgrounds and to cultivate a sentiment in favour of equality and diversity.
We are a migrant-led national organisation, which builds a community of migrant voices to speak for ourselves and call for justice for all. We work with all types of migrants, including refugees and asylum-seekers, across the UK.
We strive to create a society where migrants have full equality and achieve positive change for migrants – countering racism and xenophobia, discrimination, and unjust policies, bringing communities together and bringing social justice - change which benefits the whole of UK society.
To achieve this, migrants need to build collective power and influence, ensure our rights are protected and have a seat at the decision-making table to set the agenda on migration.
Our mutually interconnected methodologies, guided by our Theory of Change, are:
We build a bigger, stronger and deeper community of migrant voices across the UK via our Migrant Voices for Change Network, made up of regional hubs;
We strengthen migrants’ ability to influence and shape the media and public debate through training, brokering stories to the media and working with journalists and editors;
We develop and conduct migrant-led campaigns and advocacy to change law and policy and individual outcomes, that are accountable to participating migrants;
We facilitate and act as an anchor for migrant-led initiatives of a wider migration justice movement in alliance with other movements, by convening, collaboration, capacity-building and representation.
The trustees have paid due regard to guidance issued by the Charity Commission in deciding what activities Migrant Voice (MV) should undertake.
Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit.
Our Theory of Change (TOC) guides all our work. In accordance with this, Migrant Voice has planned and run a series of successful projects and activities in this period to achieve our objectives.
Core organisational activities
It is particularly the grants from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, John Ellerman Foundation, The Tudor Trust, the AB Charitable Trust, and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation that contribute to our core costs towards the implementation of our strategy. This has ensured our success in providing a platform for migrants to engage with the media and with policymakers, and to contribute to the public debate on migration. By putting migrant voices at the centre of the debate, we aim to develop greater understanding and support for migrants’ rights and pursue policy change to achieve those rights.
The core funding provided stability for the organisation, enabling us to implement our strategy 2022-2027, and to strengthen the organisational, financial and administrative systems, and our strategic communications. It has also ensured the continuity of the work, particularly our UK Migrant Voices for Change Network in the three regions (London, West Midlands and Glasgow) and enabled us to continue to pay core staff and to successfully apply for new funding.
Key organisational development in this period:
We have worked with a consultant with the support of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation to review and strengthen the way we capture impact and learning.
We have held two reflection days as a staff team to reflect on our impact, discuss any challenges and strengthen our interconnected working as a team in a national organisation. We have also organised a number of staff training.
We have undertaken a consultation with our membership on their current needs, interests, how they want to engage with us and what kind of activities are most beneficial to them. We also looked at how they consume media/news and social media.
All the above are part of our ongoing learning process, but has particular significance at this point in time around our 15th anniversary as we reflect on changes in our work, context, our achievements and where we go next. In 2025/26 we will be building on this and further discussions to update key areas of our strategy.
We have developed a new staff handbook, including a review of all policies in light of recent employment law changes, together with an employment law firm. This service has been funded for us by the Barrow Cadbury Trust for five years.
As a result of the core funding, our Director and the staff team have continued to build stronger alliances and partnerships while also engaging with media, academics, policymakers, unions, and other civil society organisations.
Partnerships
This year saw us stepping up our collaboration with organisations and groups in the sector on key areas of work in line with our Strategic Plan, and to address emerging topics and opportunities. The partnership engagement is a valuable part of our work, leading to the sharing of knowledge and expertise, organising joint events, and collaborating on joint letters and policy asks. We include some examples below:
We continued to strengthen our existing working relationships as well as meet with new groups and organisations to explore collaboration and avoid duplication. This includes the following:
London: Islington Refugees and Migrants forum, Union Chapel, Haringey Migrant Support Centre, Migrant Democracy Project, Action for Race Equality, WalingWaling, Faiths Forum for London, and Southeast and East Asian Centre.
Glasgow: Glasgow Museums, Central West Integration Network, Garnethill Multicultural Centre, UNESCO RILA (Refugee Integration Through Languages & Art), University of Glasgow, University of West of Scotland, Community InfoSource, I Welcome Club, Glasgow Clyde College, Maryhill Burgh Halls, Glasgow City Council, University of Strathclyde, Radical Glasgow Tours and the Scottish Refugee Council.
West Midlands: Hope Projects, POMOC, The University of Birmingham, Centrala, the Journey group, Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group (Carag), Birmingham City of Sanctuary and others.
We continue to collaborate on joint statements and letters with other organisations in the sector on policy issues arising, including raising concerns about the state of asylum accommodation, the impact of the hostile political rhetoric on increasing division, on the far-right riots of summer 2024, and on the impact of visa costs. We also made a submission to the Public Bill Committee, in collaboration with Amnesty International, on the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill and coordinated an open Letter on the need for better routes for regularisation – signed by 145 signatories.
As part of our ongoing visa costs campaign, we continue to work with groups in the sector including, Praxis, RAMFEL, Reunite Families, Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, WeBelong, Project17 and Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit (GMIAU), to discuss how to raise the issue of visa and settlement process with cross-party politicians.
We continued our collaboration with the Human Rights Consortium Scotland, which works to promote and defend human rights in Scotland. Our partnership aims to ensure that migrants are aware of their rights and are heard when developing human rights protections in the country. We ran workshops where migrants shared experiences of when their rights weren't respected or when they had no information about their rights. A zine on human rights has been produced as a result.
We have an ongoing engagement with the # StatusNow4All network sitting on their reference group, and also engaging with the network’s activities and development, co-organising conferences and delivering training.
We spoke at numerous events with partners, including: ‘Humanising Narratives Around Migration’, an event by MIDEQ / PositiveNegatives, the conference, ‘Migration: is the media getting it right’ convened by the Migration and Displacement Hub at ODI global and the International Broadcasting Trust, and at the workshop ‘Busting scapegoating myths and demanding safe routes’ at the stand up to Racism Trade Union conference.
Our work with universities has also continued.
We are partners on a major European research project led by the University of Westminster, which has held its first partnership meeting. The project, ‘The Crisis of Migration Discourse: Towards a Participatory New Lexicon of Migration’ will work in four countries to develop a new lexicon on migration, led by migrants, to contribute to changing the narrative. Migrant Voice will be delivering some of the training. The project is funded by HERA/CHANCE.
We delivered workshops for students at the University of Westminster and separately spoke on the panel on knowledge exchange on research and other collaboration between universities and NGOs.
We hosted and spoke at the stakeholder meeting for the I-CLAIM research project, which explores the living and working conditions of migrants with precarious status in Europe. The I-CLAIM research is led by academic institutions in six European countries.
International partnerships and cooperation
Migrant Voice is represented on the board of PICUM (Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants) and we continue to engage with the network’s activities.
We continue our engagement with the migrant-led Rise network (Refugee Ideas and Solutions for Europe).
UK Migrants for Change Network
We build a bigger, stronger, and deeper community of migrant voices via our UK Migrant Voices for Change Network (UKMVC), made up of regional hubs in London, West Midlands and Scotland. This network forms the foundation for our work.
Our network’s membership is made up of migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, from a diverse range of communities, alongside UK citizens, journalists, academics, and colleagues from the migration justice sector.
Through the Migrant Voice Network, via our regional hubs we:
provide safe spaces that transforms migrants’ experiences and stories into a collective demand through identification of shared problems and solutions;
mobilise migrants and help forge connection between different migrant communities and with wider communities, building practical solidarity;
run training sessions, Media Labs, discussions to increase migrants’ knowledge, confidence, and skills to speak for ourselves;
build partnerships with other organisations and stakeholders in the field of migration and social justice.
Network meetings and training are key to the UKMVC, as they create spaces for migrants from all backgrounds to come together to discuss issues affecting us, acquiring knowledge, and shaping collective action.
We have held network meetings across each of our three operating regions, London, Birmingham and Glasgow. It is through these meetings that our priorities emerge and are shaped. Multiple civil society organisations as well as people from different communities attend these events.
Network meetings in this period have included:
We organised a national network meeting on the upcoming move from BRP and physical documents to E-visas, which brought together speakers from ILPA, the3Million, Refugee and Migrant Centre, Windrush Lives, Praxis and the Women’s Integration Network. The meeting discussed the wider implications of this latest change to a ‘digital only status’, lessons learned from Windrush and the settlement scheme, looking at the wider positives/negatives around a digital only status, the risks of not being able to prove status.
In response to the far-right violent riots in the UK in the summer of 2024 we organised online safe spaces for migrants in the West Midlands, and in London and the South East to discuss the impact on our communities. The meetings were spaces to share the deep anxiety and sense of insecurity felt in communities and to discuss the urgent need for meaningful actions.
This was followed by a meeting in London convening key organisations and community leaders to look at how we can work together to stand up to hate and division. We heard from speakers from Action for Race Equality, Faiths Forum for London, IKWRO - Women's Rights Organisation, Coalition of Latin Americans in the UK), and /together. The meeting led to a number of actions to take forward in collaboration.
We have organised three meetings in London, Birmingham and Glasgow for our Multimedia newspaper project to discuss and generate story ideas and actions.
Events
International Migrants Day 2024: We organised events in our three regions, all with the theme of Migration Making Britain Great. The London event was a panel discussion including migrants, academics and Show Racism the Red Card followed by a celebration held at the University of Westminster. In Birmingham we had a panel of discussion with migrants sharing their experiences, followed by poetry reading and live music. In Glasgow we launched a photo exhibition ‘Outside In’ as part of the Putting Ourselves in the Picture Project. A series of migrant speeches introduced the event followed by celebration.
15th anniversary conference: In February, we held a national conference in London attended by 200 people from across the UK. Over the course of the two days we discussed “The state of migration: building the foundation for change”. More than 30 speakers from around the world, including well known journalists, academics, and experts spoke across five panels and six workshops. Topics included the current state of the migration debate and how we can change it, how migrants are excluded from justice by the current systems, and bringing anti-racism into education. Workshops included media engagement, using creative tools, and campaigning on regularisation.
Media and advocacy training
Our training in speaking out in the media, to policy makers and the public, campaigning and advocacy form essential activities of the UKMVC network. We held media and advocacy training sessions in London Birmingham and Glasgow in person and online, both for our network members and with other organisations and groups.
Media training topics included preparing for an interview, preparing your message, photography, creating videos, blogging and creative writing.
Among the training sessions we organised and led were:
Our Media Labs - including in London on photography and on pitching stories to the media; and in Glasgow on interviewing for podcasts, writing articles and editing audio interviews. Birmingham Media Labs focused on interview skills, messaging, podcasts and audiovisual content creation.
As part of our ‘Putting Ourselves in the Picture Project’ in Glasgow we organised several training sessions regarding exhibition curating skills including a tour of the Hunterian Museum for participants to learn more about accessing heritage. We also ran several training on creating zines (mini magazines).
A blogging training session in Glasgow for our ambassadors and other members.
We have also run online media and advocacy sessions relates to our advocacy work for international students’ rights and on visa fees, for instance linked to our National Day of Action, in October 2024, where we trained participants on the skills necessary to engage.
We also shared our learning by delivering training to other groups including:
Training in Manchester for WAST (Women Asylum Seekers Together) for a group of undocumented women to tell their stories.
Tailored training to individuals and organisations of StatusNow4All network in Birmingham and Manchester on how best to tell their stories, speak to the media and advocate for their rights.
Providing advocacy training sessions for key groups including, the City of Sanctuary Network, Haringey Migrant Support Centre and English for Action.
The Barrow Cadbury Trust has funded the UKMVC hub in Birmingham. The Trust for London has funded our visa fees campaign work in London, contributing to key activities of our network. Most of our other funding also supports the activities of the network, in particular our core funders, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, John Ellerman Foundation, The Tudor Trust AB Charitable Trust and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Our ‘Putting Ourselves in the Picture’ project activities in Glasgow are funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Migrants speaking out in the media
We work to strengthen migrants’ voices in the media and public debate to influence and shape these and speak up to power and across. This is with the aim that the media and public discourse on migration centers, includes, and is informed by migrant voices and perspectives.
To this end, we continued implementing our proactive media strategy, pitching stories to the media, while also reacting to requests where we considered this productive.
This has included:
Our Ambassador’s programme in Glasgow has lead to articles appearing in local and regional Scottish media, including the Glasgow Times and the Greater Govanhill Magazine
We have had articles in national, international, regional, local and trade publications and media outlets, including the Guardian, Big Issue, New York Times, Sky News, PIE, IPaper, Morning Star and Nursing Times.
In these stories, migrants have been speaking about a diverse array of topics, including, Nigerian nurses blocked from working due to allegations about issues with tests completed in Nigeria, International students denied the right to study, far right riots in the summer of 2024, the need for better regularisation routes for undocumented migrants, and the Scottish government policy of free bus passes for people seeking asylum.
Our Director was interviewed for a number of programmes, including for a BBC programme focusing on immigration policy since 1997 as part of series of programmes they are launching in the autumn of 2025, and by Together in the UK’ about her experience and about Migrant Voice for a podcast series.
Migrants’ own production of content
As a result of our training and facilitation of platforms to share voices and experiences, more migrant members have been writing, filming, recording and sharing their stories on our own platforms and on external channels. We have seen our training increasingly leading to more members producing their own stories.
This has included:
Members from our three regions have worked on stories for our one-off multimedia newspaper – including interviews, photos and sound recordings. Coming together in the summer of 2024, over 50 members in our three regions met to discuss the stories they felt were most important to tell in our newspaper. These included issues impacting their lives and their communities and positive stories of successes and achievement. Many wrote their stories, others were interviewed or connected us to migrants they wanted to see featured. The paper was launched at our anniversary conference in February 2025 and was also shared with MPs and via our website.
We have seen forty-two pieces published from migrants on the voices section of our website, then shared across our social media platforms.
We have published eight zines (mini magazines), including ‘Degrees of Scottishness’ featuring stories about identity and belonging, and ‘Migrant maps of Glasgow’ with stories about places where migrants go and migrants mapping their lives and communities in Glasgow. The zines are printed and distributed and shared on social media and exhibited. This is part of our ‘Putting Ourselves in the Picture’ project.
We supported some of our asylum seeking members in Birmingham to anonymously share their opinions on the Rwanda policy and the impact it was having on them. We ran a series of voice-note social media posts sharing their views anonymously both on our platforms and with journalists covering the stories. We also interviewed six undocumented migrants in Birmingham for a series of anonymised voice clips for social media to raise awareness of the need for regularisation.
Our grant from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, alongside contributions from other core funders, played a significant role in enabling us to do our media and communications work. The National Lottery Heritage Fund have funded our Putting Ourselves in the Picture project activities in Glasgow.
Meet a Migrant - Migrant Ambassadors and Meet the Editors
This pioneering project transfers our learning and experience from speaking out as migrants in the media through tailored sessions for migrant community groups and individuals active in their communities. We also work to address structural inequalities that exclude migrants’ voices from the media and from influencing policy.
In our Ambassadors Programme, we share our own experience of migrants getting their voices in the media. We provide a comprehensive training for migrants who want to speak out to the media and share stories from their communities. In this period, we trained new groups of Ambassadors in Glasgow through a series of workshops and meetings including on how to identify and pitch stories to editors, interview skills, and writing letters to the editors.
This project and the broader work of the communications team is funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and supported by other core funders. The communications capacity enabled by this grant continues to be instrumental, increasing our output of media stories and website content, and improving our visibility, impact, and social media presence and our members’ skills and media influencing.
Campaigning, advocacy and policy influencing work
Thanks to our core funders, we have continued and expanded our work to bring migrants’ voices and issues directly to policymakers with the goal of influencing policy changes.
We develop and conduct migrant-led campaigns and advocacy so that:
Migration and other policies which affect migrants are formed with migrants’ involvement, respecting and promoting migrants’ rights and dignity;
Migrants, with others, win campaigns and policy changes, individually and as groups, that improve their lives and society as a whole.
The campaign against extortionate visa costs
Together with migrants directly affected, including through our steering group, Migrant Voice has been campaigning for a fairer immigration system and against extortionate visa costs and long settlement routes since 2020. We continued to raise awareness and broaden the support from MPs, and other stakeholders, such as unions, and other organisations inside and beyond our sector. Our activities in this period have included:
We convene a civil society coalition around the issue that included the organisations Praxis, Ramfel, Reunite families UK, Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit, WeBelong, and Project17.
We provided advocacy training sessions for key groups including Haringey Migrant Support Centre and English for Action.
We conducted a number of focus groups and an online survey into the impact of visa costs on individuals, the results of which are being compiled into a report for public and parliamentary dissemination.
We held our second National Day of Action to raise awareness of the issue in the public and convene groups and individuals affected (we moved this activity online because of the riots.) Our Day of Action reached more than 150 people directly via our online event, with an estimated 1000 more through additional online engagement, across the country.
We met with several MPs and helped shape a Westminster Hall debate into Minimum Income Requirements and visa fees organised by Paul Blomfield MP.
We have sent a targeted briefing on the impact of visa costs to more than 100 MPs to coincide with party conference season.
We coordinated an open letter, signed by more than 20 organisations, to the Home Secretary calling for a reduction in visa fees.
# MyFutureBack campaign
This is our campaign for justice for tens of thousands of international students who in 2014 were wrongly accused of cheating on an English language test (known as TOEIC) required for their visas. Many of the students lost their status; many were kicked out of universities; some were detained and others were deported. We continue to capitalise on the campaign’s successes, and also to ensure all those affected receive redress.
We have had a number of meetings with the students to prepare for a meeting with the Immigration Minister Seema Malhotra. With affected students, we produced a list of recommendations to improve the situation for the students and create a simpler and fairer processes for them to pursue justice. The Immigration Minister agreed to take forward some of the recommendations and has instructed the Home Office to set up a working group to review the whole issue.
We have been working on pitching a drama about the injustices faced by the students. This is inspired by the response to the dramatization of the Horizon Post Office Scandal, due to the similarities between these two injustices. We have had a number of discussions and met with production companies, drama producers and a screenwriter and director. We organised creative writing workshops for some of the students, with the University of Westminster’s creative writing lead.
We are working with an award-winning film director on creating a documentary verbatim theatre production.
With the students we have sent a letter, signed by 100 students, to the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary calling on them to end this injustice and to meet with us.
Our work for regularisation of undocumented migrants
A large part of our work to support migrants with irregular status continues to be through our active engagement with and support for the StatusNow4All network, where we sit on the reference group. This is a coalition of more than 150 groups, politicians, local authorities and organisations calling for the regularisation of undocumented migrants.
As part of a small steering group we helped set up the LEAP Project (Lived Experience Advocacy Project). This is a development from the StatusNow4All network, that seeks to nurture the confidence and leadership, media and campaign skills of undocumented migrants to be at the forefront of the campaign for regularisation and their rights. In total we have 36 leaders in the programme across London, Birmingham and Manchester.
We co-organised 3 strategy events for the LEAP leaders, to engage individuals with lived experience in developing and engaging in the whole process of the campaign and its plan of work and activities.
We delivered tailored training to individuals and organisations of StatusNow4All network in Birmingham and Manchester on how best to tell their stories, speak to the media and advocate for their rights.
We convened sector organisations working on regularisation for a meeting to share information and discuss collaboration.
We coordinated a letter to the Home Secretary signed by over 80 organisations calling for the government to create pathways to regularisation.
We sit on the board of PICUM (Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants) and on its regularisation taskforce where we exchange learning and experiences and influence its regularisation campaign.
Nigerian nurses
We have been supporting a group of Nigerian nurses who were accused of cheating in a test that’s required to work in the UK. They were struggling to be allowed to appeal, after meeting all the requirements made of them, including passing the test again in the UK.
We have worked with over 60 of the nurses delivering training focused on advocating in the media and to their MPs. As a result they wrote letters to the Health Secretary, to MPs and other stakeholders.
A crucial part has been support to speak out in the media. This ked to two Guardian articles and stories in Nursing Times.
We wrote a letter jointly with ILPA (Immigration Law Practitioners Association) to the Home Office and Immigration Minister. As a result we were offered a meeting with the Home Office, which led to various measures of support.
Other policy influencing work
Our work bringing the voices and experiences of migrants to policymakers has also included the following areas:
We organised an event with the Human Rights Consortium Scotland focused on migrants’ perspectives on their rights and the role of the Scottish Government in guaranteeing and delivering them. The findings were fed into the Scottish government’s policies on human rights.
During the year Migrant Voice was involved in more than 10 open letters, focusing on a range of issues facing migrants. This included our open letters to Home Office Ministers regarding the urgent need for better, and faster routes to regularisation for undocumented migrants and on the impact of visa fees on migrants. Among the organisations and groups we have collaborated with, including signing on these open letters are: Amnesty, FLEX, Words Matter, Refugee Legal Support, Runnymede Trust, BRAP, Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, PRAXIS, IMIX and Haringey Migrant Support Centre.
The ‘Putting Ourselves in the Picture’ project
This project, a partnership with Glasgow Life Museums, continues to work to address the missing representation of migration stories in the heritage of Scotland. The project aims to ensure migrants are engaging in dialogue about how they are represented in museum collections. The vision is to see the heritage of migrants being better identified as part of Scottish history and life. Some of the activities this year include:
Our ongoing exhibition at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum continues to attract visitors and groups. We aorganised guided tours of the exhibition, which was added to the museum’s offer for schools. The exhibition running from September 2023 to October 2025 has so far reached an estimated 175,000 people, including 773 individuals who came to the events we held there.
The culmination of our workshops in photography, illustration, storytelling and curation led to the launch of three new exhibitions in this period together with the trained migrant co-curators:
‘Outside In’ launched for International Migrants’ day 2024, saw photos displayed alongside writing, maps, a short film, and keepsakes with information about migrants’ heritage in Scotland and the connection between Scotland and the world. Events included tours of the exhibition followed by taking part in migrant heritage activities.
Ye awright, pal?’ exhibition brought together over 100 participants from different countries to take part in drawing sessions producing 200 drawings.
In Glasgow and Edinburgh, we produced large public billboard displays of zines created by our members in order to reach people where they are, and those who may not come to our exhibitions at museums.
The project also led to further exhibitions of our zines including at the University of Glasgow as part of Unesco Rila spring school in May, at a Persian shop, and at the Crannog Festival, among others. Migrant Voice’s Scotland team received the Above and Beyond Participant award for our programme at Doors Open Days festival award ceremony.
Alongside one of our zine exhibitions, we organised a human library during which young migrants aged under 25 shared their stories in one-to-one or small-group settings.
The ‘Putting Ourselves in the Picture’ project is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. With thanks to National Lottery players.
Migration. Making Britain Great / Migration Making Scotland Great
This partnership project with Show Racism the Red Card and IMIX tackles the hostile rhetoric on migration. Using the educational model of Show Racism the Red card the project educates and informs on how migrants contribute to developing a stronger and healthier country.
The project has created a number of films featuring migrants, and a main project film which features Gary Lineker and other sports celebrities promoting positive messages on migration. In April we launched the latter film at an event at the National Education Union to a packed room of sports and union representatives.
The project has been showing the educational videos we created with migrants to schools, and In April 2024 two of our members from Glasgow and Birmingham as well as two staff members spoke to groups of students from four schools in Newcastle about migration and their experiences as migrants at an event organised by Show Racism the Red Card.
A report from the university of Newcastle on the project’s engagement with children in schools shows that the educational programme has had a positive impact on the school children.
We organised three International Migrants Day events in 2024 on the theme of Migration Making Britain/Scotland Great, also showcasing films from the project.
This partnership project is funded by the European Philanthropic Initiative for Migration (EPIM).
‘Digitising Identity’ Project
We have been raising awareness of the challenges migrants are experiencing in proving their status due to new digital requirements. This work is part of a new partnership project ‘Digitising Identity’ with Universities of Leicester and Warwick, and the Open Rights Group. Migrant Voice has hosted the first stakeholder meeting bringing together key sector organisations. Members from London and Birmingham have been sharing their experiences for the partnerships’ research.
This project is funded by the ESRC Digital Good Network
Volunteering and in-kind support
All Migrant Voice activities are supported by a large number of volunteers (including journalists) giving their time and skills to support the work.
In addition, Migrant Voice receives a significant amount of in-kind support in the form of venues, expert trainers, legal advice for our members and to support our campaigns, editors, etc.
The ongoing maintenance and hosting of our website in this period was done through in-kind donation to a value of £4,000.
Financial review
The Charity's income was £450,572 in the year ended 31 March 2025 compared to £386,662 in the year ended 31 March 2024. The total expenditure amounted to £452,716 the year to 31 March 2025 compared to £425,434 in the year ended 31 March 2024.The fund balance carried forward at 31 March 2025 was £64,660 on general unrestricted funds. The fund balance carried forward on restricted funds was £89,118 on 31 March 2025. The full Statement of Financial Activities is set out on page 15 of these accounts.
The financial outlook for 2025-26 is positive.
Reserves Policy
The Board of trustees aims to develop and maintain a level of unrestricted reserves which ensures that there are
adequate funds to meet current and known future liabilities.
A formal policy on reserves was agreed at the 4 December 2012 meeting of the executive committee and last
updated 18 November 2019. It states:
The trustees have set a reserves policy which works towards achieving that:
Reserves be maintained at a level which ensures that Migrant Voice's core activity could continue during a period
of unforeseen difficulty. A proportion of reserves be maintained in a readily realisable form.
Most of MV’s funding is restricted in some way and any restricted funds will be treated as restricted. MV will build
its reserve from the unrestricted funding and through prudent savings. The organisation will build its reserves to
reach the target by increased fundraising, increased earned income through e.g. training or presentation delivery,
through donations, and through reducing expenditure.
We will aim to allocate an amount of £250 per month for the reserve (£3000 per year). This must come from
unrestricted funds.
MV aims to have reserves equivalent to a minimum of 3 months running costs. At the moment our reserves are
£64,660.
Investment policy and performance
The Memorandum & Articles of Association provides that the organisation invests moneys not immediately
required for its own purposes in or upon such investments securities or properties as may- be thought fit. At the
present time the trustees' policy is to maintain all such monies on deposits earning a market rate of interest.
The trustees have assessed the major risks to which Migrant Voice is exposed, and are satisfied that systems
are in place to mitigate exposure to the major risks.
Future plans for financial year 2025-2026
- Continue to implement our Theory of Change and our Strategy 2022-27, that builds migrants’ voices, power, and influence further to challenge structural inequality and injustice faced by migrants by increasing our strategic impact and secure funding to undertake this work. We will also start the work to update our strategy for the next few years to respond to changes in the external environment.
- We will work to strengthen existing collaborations and build new working relationships with partners and key stakeholders, to build solidarity and increase our impact; we will continue strengthening our convening role.
- We will continue strengthening our organisational infrastructure and our monitoring and evaluation, and will fundraise to increase staff and organisational capacity.
- We will continue to strengthen our network of migrant hubs as the foundation for all our work including introducing new training and activities such as the Newsroom and Meet the Press.
- We will continue our work to bring migrant voices into the public arena, be it in the media, or other policy or public platforms regionally, nationally and in Europe.
- We will continue our work to build migrants’ collective power and influence, ensuring our rights are protected and migrants set the agenda on migration, especially through our visa fees campaign.
- We will work to increase the effectiveness of our media and campaign/advocacy work to affect systemic change directly engaging policy makers and building on our work with editorial teams.
- We will continue working with our trained Ambassadors and undertake further ‘Meet the Editors’ meetings.
- We will launch the report from our survey with migrants on the impact of visa costs and long settlement routes
- We will continue to work in partnership on the research project on the impact for migrants of proving status digitally, and launch the report.
- We will conclude our collaboration with Glasgow Museums with a learning event.
The organisation is a company limited by guarantee and a charity. It is operated under the rules of its memorandum and articles of association dated 11/02/2010 and most recently amended 11/07/2011. lt has no share capital and the liability of each member in the event of winding-up is limited to £1.
The trustees, who are also the directors for the purpose of company law, and who served during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were:
None of the trustees has any beneficial interest in the company. All of the trustees are members of the company and guarantee to contribute £1 in the event of a winding up.
Overall management of the company is the responsibility of the trustees who are elected and co-opted under the terms of the memorandum and articles of association. Day to day project activity is managed and carried out by paid staff and/or volunteers.
The trustees' report was approved by the Board of Trustees.
I report to the trustees on my examination of the financial statements of Migrant Voice (the Migrant Voice) for the year ended 31 March 2025.
Having satisfied myself that the financial statements of the Migrant Voice are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006 and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of the Migrant Voice’s financial statements carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011. In carrying out my examination I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act 2011.
Since the Migrant Voice’s gross income exceeded £250,000 your examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the 2011 Act. I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of ICAEW, which is one of the listed bodies.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
accounting records were not kept in respect of the Migrant Voice as required by section 386 of the Companies Act 2006.
the financial statements do not accord with those records; or
the financial statements do not comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the Companies Act 2006 other than any requirement that the financial statements give a true and fair view, which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination; or
the financial statements have not been prepared in accordance with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice for accounting and reporting by charities applicable to charities preparing their financial statements in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the financial statements to be reached.
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
Migrant Voice is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is VAI, 200a Pentonville Road, London, N1 9JP, United Kingdom.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Migrant Voice's governing document, the Companies Act 2006 and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)” (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2016). The Migrant Voice is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The Migrant Voice has taken advantage of the provisions in the SORP for charities applying FRS 102 Update Bulletin 1 not to prepare a Statement of Cash Flows.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the Migrant Voice. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, [modified to include the revaluation of freehold properties and to include investment properties and certain financial instruments at fair value]. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.
At the time of approving the financial statements, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the Migrant Voice has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.
Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors or grantors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.
Income is recognised when Migrant Voice is legally entitled to it after any performance conditions have been met, the amounts can be measured reliably, and it is probable that income will be received.
Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once Migrant Voice has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.
Legacies are recognised on receipt or otherwise if the Migrant Voice has been notified of an impending distribution, the amount is known, and receipt is expected. If the amount is not known, the legacy is treated as a contingent asset.
Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to transfer economic benefit to a third party, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement, and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably.
Expenditure is classified by activity. The costs of each activity are made up of the total of direct costs and shared costs, including support costs involved in undertaking each activity. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs which contribute to more than one activity and support costs which are not attributable to a single activity are apportioned between those activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources. Central staff costs are allocated on the basis of time spent, and depreciation charges are allocated on the portion of the asset’s use.
Liabilities are recognised as resources expended as soon as there is an obligation committing the charity to the expenditure. All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all costs related to the category.
Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost or valuation, net of depreciation and any impairment losses. The charity has a minimum value for all assets costing more than £350 capitalised.
Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:
The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in the statement of financial activities.
At each reporting end date, the Migrant Voice reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any).
Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less.
Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the Migrant Voice is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.
Payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are charged as an expense as they fall due.
In the application of the Migrant Voice’s accounting policies, the trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.
Charitable income
Charitable income
Income from charitable activities
Governance costs
During the year Trustees received reimbursement of expenses amounting to £1,425 (2024 - £1,302 ).
The average monthly number of employees during the year was:
The charity is exempt from taxation on its activities because all its income is applied for charitable purposes.
The net book value of assets £2,190 breaks down as follows: The National Lottery Heritage Fund £514, John Ellerman £323 and unrestricted funds: £1,353. These would be written down to nil in subsequent years
The restricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used.
The unrestricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants which are not subject to specific conditions by donors and grantors as to how they may be used. These include designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes.
There were no disclosable related party transactions during the year.