Exploring how refugees, asylum seekers and migrants use community assets in their daily lives so that these assets can be collectively identified, strengthened and better supported to improve health outcomes for these communities.
Why the research is needed?
Health, social and economic inequalities shape people’s ability to access and benefit from community‑based support, yet these assets are unevenly distributed and often difficult to integrate into formal health and care systems. While integrated care structures offer opportunities for closer collaboration between the NHS, local authorities and the voluntary and community sector, the complexity of the community ecosystem makes it challenging to commission and scale these assets effectively.
For refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, these challenges are intensified by multiple structural and cultural barriers, including mobility, legal status, language, digital exclusion, safety concerns and limited awareness of rights or available services. Understanding which community assets are used or avoided, how provision is accessed, and how services can work together more effectively is essential for designing and commissioning support that genuinely meets the needs of these diverse populations.
What are we doing?
Rooted in a broad approach to the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), our study focuses on the particularly complexities inherent in ensuring that community assets which support, enhance and underpin the health and wellbeing of Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants are both accessible, and utilised effectively by the above diverse populations.
We are working across 12 field‑sites in the East of England and London to understand how refugees, asylum seekers and migrants use community assets that support their health and wellbeing. Through co‑production with community partners, we are running workshops, focus groups and walking interviews to document the statutory, voluntary, faith‑based and informal services that people rely on, as well as those they avoid.
We are mapping where these assets are located, how they are accessed and how they shape everyday experiences, using creative and arts‑based methods to explore issues such as housing, access to general services and food and nutrition. Alongside this, we are mapping the local public health infrastructure to identify opportunities and challenges for improving provision.
Working with community members, partners and stakeholders, we will use these insights to identify scalable, cost‑effective models of integrated, place‑based care that strengthen health resilience among Roma, Asylum Seekers and Migrant populations.
How are we working with communities, services and organisations?
We are working through close, ongoing collaboration with communities, statutory services and VCSE organisations across all 12 field‑sites. The project was co‑designed with strong community input and is supported by an advisory board of public health professionals, specialist academics and GPs experienced in refugee and asylum‑seeker health. In each location, we partner with local community organisations, ICBs, GPs, local authorities and VCSE groups to ensure the work reflects local needs.
We have established 12 community forums, one in each field‑site, to gather insights, share knowledge and validate findings with refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. Participants are remunerated in line with NIHR guidance, and trained community co‑researchers support interviewing and analysis. Data collection uses focus groups, walking interviews, one‑to‑one interviews and creative methods such as storytelling, zines, photography, music and theatre.
Between November 2024 and March 2026, 71 community‑focused events have involved 890 participants (583 unique individuals), with increasing repeat engagement as trust has grown. Alongside this, 25 additional forums with statutory and VCSE stakeholders have supported data gathering and validation.
What will the impact and benefits of this research be?
Through this project we are identifying and developing of scalable and transferable models to feed into the post NHS restructuring and local Government re-organisation integrated public health terrain. Ultimately this research will ensure that assets used by local R/AS/M communities are collaboratively identified and recommendations made for cost-effective, impactful support and delivery. In turn, the benefits of the research are anticipated to both improve the health and wellbeing outcomes for refugee, asylum-seeking and migrant communities and to provide scope for broadening of provision to other vulnerable or under-served populations who share similar barriers to accessing provision.
What do we have planned for knowledge mobilisation and implementation?
In the final year of the project (February 2026–27), we will deliver a structured series of stakeholder‑facing knowledge‑exchange events, held in person, hybrid and online, to showcase good‑practice examples, highlight challenges and solutions, present worked costings and test the feasibility of transferring models across field‑sites operating in different geographic and socio‑economic contexts.
Exhibitions and linked knowledge‑exchange events will take place in each locality, co‑delivered by the regional research team and community participants. An end‑of‑project conference will be held in London, with invitations extended to key national stakeholders and policy specialists.
The team is also developing a dissemination and impact plan that includes publications, briefings and activities tailored to different stakeholder and policy audiences at local, regional and national levels. External engagement will make use of existing community dissemination opportunities, such as events in accessible local venues, ICB Research Engagement Networks and NIHR/ARC conferences, and the project team’s wider networks, including All Party Parliamentary Groups and emerging post‑devolution and NHS/ICB structures, to support influence on policy and practice across multiple levels
Related papers, outputs and resources
In addition, we will:
- Report on audit and synthesis of literature, data and community assets.
- Digital counter-cartography living community asset map on project website.
- Written report of methodological issues + findings from data collection.
- Journal articles on methodologies/co-production and economic modelling of best practice examples of community assets to support wellbeing.
- An accessible output on best practice in collaborative governance of research and project development focused on the SDOH which impact community wellbeing.
- Development of place-based models which support embedding system change and building capacity within institutions/across networks.
Who is involved?
- Principal Investigator: Professor Margaret Greenfields, Anglia Ruskin University
- Project Manager: Natalie Bignell, Anglia Ruskin University
- Dr Claire Thompson, University of Hertfordshire
- Dr Chantal Radley, Anglia Ruskin University
- Professor Eleonore Kofman, Middlesex University
- Professor Elena Vacchelli, University of Greenwich
- Professor Erminia Colucci, Middlesex University
- Dr Egle Dagilyte, Anglia Ruskin University
- Professor Sanjiv Alhuwalia, Anglia Ruskin University
- Dr Anna Paraskevopoulou, Anglia Ruskin University
- Dr Runa Lazzarino, Middlesex University and Greenwich
- Professor Nick Drydakis, Anglia Ruskin University
- Dr Marques Hardin, Anglia Ruskin University
- Catherine Kennelly, Anglia Ruskin University
- Tamara Joseph, Barnet Citizens
- Abigail Oyedele, Greenwich Citizens
- Dr Louise Humphries, GYROS
- Georgia Almkvist, GYROS
- Sue Lukes, MigrationWork
- Laura Marziale, Creating Ground
- Alan Robertson, Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network
- Gill Searl, Farsh Raoufi, Local Government East LGE
- Catherine Walston, Cambridge Refugee Resettlement Campaign
- Kirit Sehmbi, Queens Institute of Community Nursing
Advisory Board:
- Dr Nazee Akbari, New Citizens Gateway
- Dr Emily Clark, GP/medical doctor
- Dr Maria Faraone, Oxford Brookes University
- Dr. Maggie Pacini, Essex County Council
- Christopher White, Essex County Council
- Dr Neelam Raina, Middlesex University
- Dr Rahhiel Riasat, GP/Medical Doctor
- Dr Haroon Siddique, GP/Medical Doctor
Get in contact
Email Professor Margaret Greenfields or the project team at margaret.greenfields@aru.ac.uk or admin.migrantrefugeehealth@aru.ac.uk.
