Organising with Front Line Communities – Migrant Specific

In the current crisis of neoliberal politics and economy, migration policies and border regimes are increasingly shaped by fear, othering, and scapegoating. Organising as migrants—or in solidarity with migrants—can feel especially depleting and disempowering. On top of this, we face familiar movement-wide challenges: internal fragmentation, short-term or project-based thinking, and the limitations of our theories of change.

This training is designed to help us navigate the complex terrain of migrant and migrant-solidarity organising, taking into account our distinct roles and experiences in relation to the nation-state and the emotions that often accompany this work.

We will unpack these dynamics and together, co-develop tools and strategies to engage with them more intentionally and sustainably.

Key topics:

There are many different ways of thinking about organising within the ‘social change’ paradigm. Some of the conceptions we will be exploring are:

Community Organising: Aiming to build power within communities, focusing on addressing local issues and injustices. It emphasises leadership development, relationship-building, and collective action rooted in everyday experience.

Transformative Organising: A more expansive approach to organising that seeks not only to address immediate issues but also to transform underlying systems of power and oppression, and the economic, political, and social structures that perpetuate the status quo and injustice. Early thinking on this practice has been defined by US-based organisers in “Demand Everything: Lessons from the Transformative Organising Model”.  Applications to the European context and the learnings and adaptations of this approach to organising are illustrated in “The power of Organising: Stories from Community Organising Campaigns Across Europe”.

Movement Building:  A broader approach that goes beyond specific campaigns or issues to build a sustained, interconnected ecosystem of organisations and networks working toward social transformation. Key aspects of Movement Building focus on developing shared visions and narratives, building alliances and networks between organisations, and creating responsive and agile structures that can adapt to changing contexts.

We will explore ideas and practices related to:

Theories of Change: How change happens in the world. Understanding systems and complexity as well as power and influence in today’s increasingly volatile and uncertain conditions. Exploring how individuals and organisations contribute to change.

Approaches to Organising: Looking at different traditions and practises from Community and Transformative Organising to Movement Building.

The Role of the Organiser: Reflections on identity, positionality and aspects of inhabiting the ‘role’, as well as sharpening practical skills and tools.

Alliance building: Effective Organising (of whatever kind) is most successful when performed in resilient alliances. This course will explore the pathways to building strategic, meaningful, empowering relationships.

Resilience: Looking at ways to manage stress and build wellbeing, and weather the impacts of repression and suppression, so that they don’t undermine our organising efforts.

So the aims of the training are to:

• Support strategic thinking in and for organising processes
• Develop key skills and learn applicable practices for organising
• Explore, understand and find ways of skilfully navigating tensions that arise from inhabiting distinct social positionalities in migrant and migrant solidarity organising
• Develop skills to manage stress, replenish energies and find sources of inspiration to stay involved for a long haul.

Who is it aimed at?

Anyone with experience in socially engaged action addressing political and social justice issues, specifically in the area of migration and border violence. We embrace a broad definition of activism, including: Resistance – action preventing further damage to ecosystems and social justice; Renewal – action focused on developing and creating alternatives for healthier societies and communities; and Building Resilience – action supporting increased resilience in communities to weather the uncertain times ahead.

The course will be delivered in accessible, international English.