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New migrants in Northern Ireland at risk of financial exclusion
16 December 2010
New migrant groups to Northern Ireland are at risk of financial exclusion, according to new report from ICAR@Runnymede.
Low income migrants in particular meet barriers when hoping to open a bank account, for example.
This is largely a result of incoherent and inconsistent bank policies on what documentation needs to be provided, according to the report, produced by the Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees (ICAR) and the Citizens Advice Belfast (CAB).
Julie Gibbs, senior analyst at ICAR and author of the report, highlighted that the denial of financial services to migrants puts them in a wholly vulnerable position in society, where the can be “totally excluded”.
She explained: “without a bank account these migrants struggle to find work, save any cash or keep any savings safely.”
Dr Omar Khan, Runnymede’s head of financial inclusion research pointed out that the financial exclusion of migrants affects everyone in society, because impeding new migrants’ integration into the wider UK economy “is bad for all of us”.
Minister for social development in the Northern Irish Assembly Alex Attwood welcomed the publication of the report He said: expressing his belief that as the report is “based on real life experiences”; it will help the “government to better understand the barriers too often experienced by local migrant communities”.
Read the full press release here
To download a copy of the full report, visit the ICAR website: www.icar.org.uk
