I am currently the Deputy Director of Asylum Matters, a national charity that works to improve the lives of refugees and people seeking asylum through social and political change. During my Fellowship I also worked as a policy officer for the Scottish Refugee Council, and as a policy and research officer for Migration Yorkshire.

My Fellowship looked at how people seeking asylum are housed in four different European cities – Amsterdam, Hamburg, Barcelona and Athens – and tried to explore how different types of housing provision can be a tool for (or a barrier to) welcoming new arrivals into communities.

My primary hypothesis was that countries with higher levels of regional devolution, federalism or general regional autonomy were able to trial more transformative approaches to housing for people seeking asylum, particularly following the 2015 refugee crisis. I looked at both state-led and non-state approaches to housing provision, but focused on cities with innovative approaches.

My Fellowship has given me a unique insight into different innovative housing models for people seeking asylum and I have been able to build this learning into my work.