How we work

Fundamental rights –to livelihood, to health, to housing, to education –should not be contingent on immigration status. These rights were once considered universal. If they’re not universal, they’re no longer rights, but privileges.

Frances Webber, PPT Hearing Brussels 2019

The role of Transnational Migrant Platform – Europe (TMP-E) as a platform is twofold: 

  • Facilitate building of a network of grass-roots migrant and refugee organizations in Europe. The goal is to contribute to the projection of the voice and perspectives of migrants and refugees in strengthening the protection of Human Rights in Europe and internationally. The activities will aim to advance capacity by popularising analysis, systematising and disseminating experiences and strategies to fight against violations of human rights of migrant and refugee peoples including: criminalisation, xenophobia, racism and islamophobia.
  • Initiate or strengthen collaboration with social movements, and engaged academe and scholar/activists such as with trade unions and other movements on labour rights; on women, gender and youth rights movements. The goal is to enable a participative and mutual exchange–cross fertilising migrant and refugee peoples’ expertise enhancing analysis and projection in a Look With us-not Atus approach. Together,  we develop a joint transnational advocacy, lobby and campaign strategy grounded in a multi-dimensional and intersectional narrative on development issues that are root causes of migration and addressing the impunity of violations of human rights of migrants and refugees.

The TMP-E platform functions as a hub and a wheel – this combines a co-ordinating Focal Point facilitating a number of operational and/or thematic Working Groups and supports communication of  all participants. Participants in the network include:

  • Self-organisations of grass roots organisations and networks of migrants and refugees.
  • Strategic partners and allies working in Thematic working groups & campaigns – Social movements, activists in different disciplines and engaged academe,
  • Planning & Evaluation is done during bi-annual general meetings.

TMP-E partnerships and Work Groups being developed on priority Themes:

  • Weaving a new Migrant and Refugee Narrative and discourse. 
  • Movement building – particularly, advancing women’s  leadership. 
  • Meeting Youth Challenges.  
  • Advancing Rights in Labour Migration – issues of restructuring of Labour & digitalization. 

Approaches to action

Re-claiming –  Migrant Rights are Human Rights

Migration needs to be viewed as a demonstration of agency and full realization of the right of peoples to self-determination to exercise their inalienable right to human development including their mobility rights – the right to move, to stay and return.

In the context of migration and asylum, the protection and access to human rights for migrant and refugee peoples has been systematically rolled-back and denied – with extreme impact especially in the past decade. This has been experienced worldwide, parallel to the globalisation of the world economy, and in Europe this has now reached a systematic denial – impacting disproportionally on women and children. 

A practice of rights discrimination in relation to decent livelihood and work and institutionalised racism in society has been paralleled by the closing of legal pathways for mobility which assigns people to becoming “undocumented”. In addition, this is matched with militarisation and externalisation of borders, prohibition of rescue at sea resulting in mass deaths, and deportations, detention, and the building of Camps and hotspots across the continent. Besides migrant and refugee organisations, this situation has been protested by human rights organsations, social movements, citizen solidarity organisations and UN Human Rights bodies as violations with impunity of the rights of migrant and refugee peoples. The Permanent Peoples Tribunal (PPT) based on the testimonies heard in six Hearings (2017-2020) judged these violations as “crimes against humanity and system crimes”. TMP-E aims to reclaim Migrant and Refugee Rights as a priority in narrative, campaigns and policy change.  

(Acting Together) – Transnational Social Actors 

As protagonists, migrants and refugees are transnational social actors. Migrants do not only transform their own development and their community here in specific countries in Europe, but also of their family or communities in the country of origin. From a transnational perspective, migrants although uprooted become active participants in both host societies and home countries to achieve social justice. 

Mobility and interconnectedness are important key social processes, “a relationship through which the world is lived and understood” and are foundations of development and social transformation. This means engaging with the struggles for de-globalisation and capitalist/corporate extractivism and climate justice. Together with other social movements we hope to develop a joint transnational strategy – for advocacy, campaigning and action grounded in a multi-dimensional and intersectional narrative and finding common ground with marginalized citizens in a context of “what is injustice for one is injustice for all”.