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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF

@shadowsnrpf.bsky.social
56 followers 105 following 21 posts

Shadows is a research project investigating social reproduction, or how migrant families and unaccompanied young people make and sustain their lives with NRPF nrpfintheshadows.com

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Reposted by Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF
Malte Gembus @maltegembus.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
It's been an amazing couple of years on @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social alongside a wonderful team of colleagues and co-researchers, partner orgs and some really inspiring participants. I am proud to have been part of this project highlighting the harsh effects of #NRPF and hostile environment policies
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Throwback to when our workshop "Gathering fragments and tracing threads" brought people together as part of our exhibition — a space for connection and expression around the harsh realities of NRPF. Missed it? The exhibition is now available online: nrpfintheshadows.com/exhibition/ #NRPF
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Reposted by Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF
Praxis, for migrants and refugees @praxisprojects.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
In his first speech as Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledged to end rough sleeping in this country. If he wants to end rough sleeping, he must scrap the hostile immigration rules that push people onto the streets. Here's why 👇
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
We're honoured to share 'Fragments of Existence': a free resource bringing together powerful testimonies from families and young people living under No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF). These stories demand to be heard. nrpfintheshadows.com/learn-more/#... #NRPF #MigrantRights #SocialJustice
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Inspiring exchange at yesterday's talk on Curating Social Research. Rachel Rosen in conversation with Alice Millar and @anilsghost.bsky.social about the politics of representation and the Fragments of Existence Exhibition nrpfintheshadows.com/fragments-of...
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Reposted by Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF
Yasmin Gunaratnam @anilsghost.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
If you can make it to Shoreditch visit Rich Mix & the Fragments of Existence exhibition on the lives of families and unaccompanied young people with insecure migration status @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Our exhibition at Rich Mix is opening next week! Still time to sign up for our exciting event programme. richmix.org.uk/events/fragm...
richmix.org.uk
Fragments of existence: testimonies of life with no recourse to public funds - Rich Mix
NRPF is an immigration condition which prevents people from accessing welfare support, social housing and other services. Based on personal accounts of children, young people, and parents living with ...
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Our exhibition programme at Rich Mix is packed with interesting events Join us on Tuesday 19May 6pm for 'Curating social research:Experiments in public sociology' @anilsghost.bsky.social and Alice Millar in conversation with Rachel Rosen about Fragments of Existence www.outsavvy.com/event/35865/...
outsavvy.com
Curating social research: Experiments in public sociology Tickets - London - OutSavvy
Yasmin Gunaratnam and Alice Millar in conversation with Rachel Rosen about the Fragments of Existence exhibition. What are the political and ethical questions animating efforts to make social research...
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Our exhibition at Rich Mix is approaching and we’re excited to share our upcoming event programme! Join us on Tuesday 26May 10am–3pm for an engaging Family Day with storytelling and arts activities for children and parents to learn more about #NRPF Please register www.outsavvy.com/event/35682/...
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
📢'Gathering Fragments and Tracing Threads' A Workshop. 22nd of May, 5-7 pm. We are excited to announce this special event and workshop with artist Meera Shakti Osborne to explore our exhibition on people's experiences of living with #NRPF Sign up here www.outsavvy.com/event/35346/...
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Southall Black Sisters (SBS) @sbsisters.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Today we launch the first commentary in our Real Impact Series, analysing the government’s strategy to tackle violence against women and girls and its failure to address No Recourse to Public Funds. Read here: southallblacksisters.org.uk/news/nrpf-th... 1/ 🧵
Graphic for the first blog in Southall Black Sisters’ Real Impact series on the government’s strategy to tackle violence against women and girls, with this first instalment focusing on No Recourse to Public Funds. The design features black and white text on a maroon background set against a beige textured paper.Graphic for the first blog in Southall Black Sisters’ Real Impact series on the government’s strategy to tackle violence against women and girls, with this first instalment focusing on No Recourse to Public Funds. The design features black and white text on a maroon background set against a beige textured paper.Graphic for the first blog in Southall Black Sisters’ Real Impact series on the government’s strategy to tackle violence against women and girls, with this first instalment focusing on No Recourse to Public Funds. The design features black and white text on a maroon background set against a beige textured paper.
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
📢New policy briefing published. In collaboration with @unitedimpactuk.bsky.social we revisited the Project 17 report 'Not seen, Not Heard' from 2019 showing powerfully how #NRPF continues to affect and punish the most impoverished children in the UK. #EndNRPF www.project17.org.uk/media/8de67c...
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Praxis, for migrants and refugees @praxisprojects.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Yesterday 100s of people from across the UK came together in Parliament to meet with their MPs about the Govt.'s disastrous earned settlement plans. Together, we shared our concerns directly with 80+ MPs. A massive thank you to everyone who joined & helped make it happen. This is just the start.
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Refugee and Migrant Justice @rmjusticeuk.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
📣📣📣 1/ Coverage in @theguardian.com of our research on how the govt's so-called 'earned settlement model' will plunge racialised British children into poverty by punishing their parents for receiving basic state support. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
UK migrant families face giving up vital in-work benefits to avoid being ‘punished’
Under Shabana Mahmood’s proposals, wait for settled status would double to 20 years if public funds used while in work
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Ilona Pinter @ilonapin.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Strong stuff from the Chancellor 💪🏻 One slight prob: her gov's NRPF policy (which restricts access to MOST benefits not just UC & which they're planning to extend to those w/ ILR) does precisely this: discriminates between children based on where parents are from www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Guardian article on scrapping two child limit
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
‘No sense of humanity’ – the hidden violence of No Recourse to Public Funds’ Our project partners from South London Refugee Association (SLRA) and Project 17 produced this powerful reminder of the impact that #NRPF policies have on people’s lives. youtu.be/zDnlxtsfI7k?...
youtu.be
'No sense of humanity' - the hidden violence of No Recourse to Public Funds
YouTube video by South London Refugee Association
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Reposted by Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF
United Impact @unitedimpactuk.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
The government released their 10 year strategy to tackle child poverty in the UK. We welcome that #NRPF is mentioned in it, but it shows a failure to end the condition, which leaves thousands of migrant children homeless and destitute ⬇️📽️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4x3...
youtube.com
The harmful impact of NRPF
YouTube video by United Impact
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Political Quarterly @politicalquarterly.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
"Lecturers, doctors, landlords and employers have been turned into border guards." A Professor of International Migration argues that states do not reduce immigrant irregularity — they create it. By @nandosigona.bsky.social Read now:
politicalquarterly.org.uk
How Europe’s Migration Rules Keep Creating the “Irregular Migrants” They Claim to Catch
What if irregular migration is not something that happens despite the system, but because of it?
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Our latest policy briefing on child poverty with Project 17 makes a clear recommendation: End #NRPF policies! Inadequate housing, food insecurity, lack of understanding children's experiences and emotional burdens are all consequences of bordering welfare. nrpfintheshadows.com/wp-content/u...
nrpfintheshadows.com
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Minnie Rahman @minnierahman.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
The proposed settlement changes are really difficult to understand and very stressful if you or someone you know is a migrant. Read our explainer below so you can stay up to date with what's happening.
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Praxis, for migrants and refugees @praxisprojects.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
“By rushing through these draconian immigration reforms now – at precisely the same moment the Government proclaims it is investing to end homelessness – we know the very opposite will happen: more people at risk of destitution and even sleeping on the streets." @josephinewy.bsky.social
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UCL Social Research Institute @sriucl.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Through ethnographic fieldwork, decolonial policy analysis, and creative co-production Shadows project @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social explores how migrant families and young people with no access to public funds survive and create lives in England. Learn more: nrpfintheshadows.com #NRPF #SocialJustice
Black and white sketch of a person in derelict setting. White text reads "Social reproduction in the shadows"
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Reposted by Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF
Malte Gembus @maltegembus.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
On the train back from meeting with a young research participant. It's surreal sometimes to have such positive and amazing interactions with people just to then be bombarded by divisive rhetoric and politics that demonise refugees #NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Among the other draconian changes proposed by the Home Secretary, this opens a completely new horizon of 'welfare' as bordering. We are reaching a new dimension of #NRPF policies in the UK which leads to nothing but more suffering for more people. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
theguardian.com
UK government set to make support for asylum seekers ‘discretionary’
Home secretary expected to change system to deny help to those who can work or who have assets
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
In 2021, Shadows team members Eve Dickson & Rachel Rosen wrote about the “impossibility of the 10-year route” to ILR after the 2012 family migration reforms. In 2025 the government’s #WhitePaper proposes this route as the norm for all applicants, drastically extending #NRPF doi.org/10.1177/0261...
doi.org
‘Punishing those who do the wrong thing’: Enforcing destitution and debt through the UK’s family migration rules - Eve Dickson, Rachel Rosen, 2021
In 2012, the ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) condition was extended to long-standing migrant families in the UK who had previously achieved rights to resid...
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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 31/10/2025
🚨 Saeema Syeda, of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), said the poll shows: "It's a manufactured panic, pushed by some politicians and parts of the media to distract from what actually matters to people. bit.ly/4oekHXR
news.sky.com
'Manufactured panic': Immigration not near top of most people's concerns, poll suggests
The cost of living, health, crime, and housing are much higher on people's lists of personal worries, a YouGov survey has suggested.
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UCL Thomas Coram Research Unit @tcru-ucl.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
What happens when national migration policies grow harsher – but local people still care? New research from Mette Berg & Eve Dickson shows how local advocates & welfare workers quietly build solidarity and challenge hostile systems. #MigrationPolicy #Asylum @ioe.bsky.social tinyurl.com/mynxynxn
tinyurl.com
Research reveals disconnect between national and local level migration policies
As national migration policies are becoming more hostile, local advocates and welfare interlocutors step in to show solidarity with migrants, accoring to research on ideas and practices of deservingne...
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Great summary of the age assessment process by @freemovement.bsky.social New proposals of using AI for facial age estimation is just the latest escalation of a system based on weaponising age and 'childhood' to draw borders of deservingness #NRPF
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Southall Black Sisters (SBS) @sbsisters.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Together with 70+ organisations we recently called on the government to scrap the Immigration White Paper. Yesterday we came together with a simple message: safety, dignity and justice for ALL women – regardless of immigration status. #ScrapTheWhitePaper southallblacksisters.org.uk/submissions-...
A group of women stand in front of a government building holding signs protesting harmful immigration policies, with slogans such as “Safety of women should not depend on immigration status.” The image features the campaign hashtag #ScrapTheWhitePaper and logos of organisations including Step Up Migrant Women UK, Latin American Women's Rights Service, Southall Black Sisters, Hibiscus, and the End Violence Against Women Coalition.
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
📢Join us for this Lunch Hour Lecture at UCL on the 13th of November. Rachel Rosen and Eve Dickson will present their long-term research on #NRPF 'Destitution by design: Immigration policy and the conditions of life-making' www.ucl.ac.uk/events/event...
ucl.ac.uk
Lunch Hour Lecture | Destitution by design
In this lecture, Prof Rachel Rosen and Dr Eve Dickson report on the impacts of impoverished migrant families without access to mainstream welfare in the UK.
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Another painful example of 'deservingness' in migration policies and welfare being used as a border mechanism: 'It creates a tiered model of membership: citizens at the top, enjoying unconditional rights; long-term migrants below, required to constantly demonstrate they are "good enough" to remain.'
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The Sociological Review Foundation @thesociologicalreview.org · 15/09/2025
How are racially minoritised children central to the bordering of Britain? @alasirriyeh.bsky.social @lancasteruni.bsky.social reflects on theories of migratisation, the work of Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian and the erasure of belonging. #OpenAccess @journals.sagepub.com buff.ly/vkEHpXp
Ala Sirriyeh 
Bordering through unchilding: The case of Britain’s child migrants
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00380261251366887 
The Sociological Review #OnlineFirst
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
'You lose yourself. You lose your sense of identity.' Powerful words from mothers living with #NRPF in this latest Shadows piece for @theconversation.com Rachel Rosen & Eve Dickson show how mothers and their children make lives in the absence of state support. theconversation.com/homelessness...
theconversation.com
Homelessness, fear of starvation and racism – destitute migrant mothers and their children on the reality of life in the UK
Over six years, researchers have worked closely with 25 single-mother families living in the shadow of this policy - which even affects British citizens.
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Nando Sigona @nandosigona.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
Next #SSAHE webinar: Bordering/Mothering, 9 October is a double book launch! ssahe.net/2025/09/03/n... Book via eventbrite
ssahe.net
Next webinar: Bordering/Mothering, 9 October
Register on EventBrite to receive a Zoom link. In this event, we will celebrate two new books by SSAHE members: Bordering social reproduction: Migrant mothers and children making lives in the …
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
📢Book Launch 'Bordering Social Reproduction' by Shadows team members Rachel Rosen & Eve Dickson. Hear from the authors about #NRPF and making lives in the shadows, in conversation with Gargi Bhattacharyya & Shirin Rai @isrfoundation.bsky.social Please register here: isrf.org/events/borde...
isrf.org
Bordering Social Reproduction | 25th September 2025 | Barnard's Inn Hall, London & Online
An in-person & online book launch and conversation with Professor Rachel Rosen & Dr Eve Dickson, authors of 'Bordering Social Reproduction: Migrant Mothers and Children Making Lives in the Shadows'.
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
'If these reforms go ahead, we will continue to see high levels of poverty among children in families subject to immigration control.' @ilonapin.bsky.social analyses the Immigration White Paper and shows how denying access to benefits increases the hidden costs of prolonged poverty #NRPF
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Southall Black Sisters (SBS) @sbsisters.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
We’re proud to stand in solidarity with over 200 organisations to call for communities and the country to be brought together for a different way forward – one that’s compassionate and humane. This must be a turning point. Read the letter 👇🏾 @refugeestogether.bsky.social
Letter on a beige background with the "Together With Refugees" logo at the top right, featuring an orange heart partially shaded in black. The heading reads, “Dear Party Leaders.” The letter condemns recent anti-refugee protests in the UK, comparing them to riots from the previous summer. It describes the suffering of targeted refugees from countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, Sudan, and Syria, who now face hostility, unemployment, and fear due to delays and a broken system. The letter calls for leaders to unite against racism, hatred, and divisive politics, urging them to promote cohesion instead. It highlights public support for refugees and stresses solidarity, stating, “This is what represents our country, this is who we are.” Signed, “Yours sincerely, 213 organisations.”
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Shadows team members Dr. Eve Dickson and Professor Rachel Rosen submitted evidence for the Child Poverty Taskforce this week nrpfintheshadows.com/learn-more/ You can read the full report here: nrpfintheshadows.com/wp-content/u...
nrpfintheshadows.com
Learn more | NRPFintheshadows
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United Impact @unitedimpactuk.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
We are very grateful to MP @kateosamormp.bsky.social for submitting written questions to the Secretary of State for the Home Department in support of our campaign. Migrants are living in extreme poverty due to immigration & health charging. This disproportionately affects racialised women.
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Bordering social reproduction: Rachel Rosen & Eve Dickson published this important book with @manchesterup.bsky.social spotlighting how UK immigration control reaches inside families via #NRPF policies and drawing attention to how migrant mothers and children make lives in the shadows
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UCL Thomas Coram Research Unit @tcru-ucl.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
New research by Eve Dickson and Rachel Rosen @sriucl.bsky.social @ioe.bsky.social reveals the impact of lack of state financial support for children in migrant families. Read their new piece in Children and Young People now: tinyurl.com/3r9wuwp5 #NRPF #destitution #children #migration
tinyurl.com
'I was worried I was going to starve' - children's experiences of the NRPF system - CYP Now
Experts set out findings from latest research that reveals the impact of lack of state financial support for children in migrant families.
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Shadows: Making Lives with NRPF @shadowsnrpf.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Welcome to the Shadows research project, which will investigate the deep and enduring effects of #NRPF on the lives of families and unaccompanied young people with insecure migration status in England. Read about our project, team & partners here 👇 nrpfintheshadows.com
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