Financial Inclusion amongst New Migrants in Northern Ireland - ICAR

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24Financial Inclusion amongst New Migrants in Northen Ireland4.3 ImpactThe impact of a project like this one is difficult tomeasure concretely for a number of reasons. Themain reason is that there are no official statisticsthat state how many migrants there are in thegreater Belfast area and it is therefore not possibleto understand what percentage of the populationthis project reached.Overall we can say with confidence that the servicehas helped some migrants to become financiallyincluded by providing access to a bank accountor card, by helping to resolve issues with banksand creditors and providing help with access tobenefits. The service also has clearly made animpact on the organisations who are working withmigrants in the area and they are now aware thatsuch a service exists that they can refer migrantsto avoiding duplication of effort.All of the migrants that were interviewed as a partof the project had recommended the CAB serviceto their friends and colleagues. This is importantbecause the research part of this report shows thatword of mouth is a very effective and popular wayfor new migrants to find out about services that aretrusted by others in the community.The service found that new migrants can approachthe Citizens Advice and other agencies with awide range of problems, not all of them related tofinancial issues. However, the service statisticsshow that financial advice was the top issue thatmigrants presented with especially in relation tobank accounts, credit problems and access to ordelays in the benefit system. Financial inclusion asseen elsewhere in this report involves much morethan purely having access to a bank account. Forsome migrants understanding the welfare systemsand their benefit entitlement is the key to theirfinancial inclusion.Evidence from interviews carried out with serviceusers as a part of this evaluation have shown thatthe service is effective at dealing with and resolvingproblems for migrant communities. A numberof the migrants had their problems resolved byCAB writing to or speaking with providers on theirbehalf, however, one key element mentioned byall was that thanks to the CAB service they nowfully understood the issues they had and how toavoid or deal with them in the future. CAB thereforeprovides a vital financial capability function inthe new migrant community as well as providingimmediate solutions to problems.4.4 Lessons LearnedThe Financial Inclusion project designed anddelivered by Citizens Advice Belfast is the firstservice directly intended to reach new migrantand ethnic minority communities in terms offinancial advice. This was achieved via communityoutreach activities and proactively building up thelinkages between community organizations andCAB and other networks of support organizations.Specifically, has it been able to reach newmigrants through direct links with communityorganisations and referrals from other agencies.The project has found that the key elements ofattracting migrants to a service are:• Promotion and publicity in a wide range oflanguages• Word of mouth amongst migrant groups• Advisers who are able to speak the languageand who are from the community• Access to impartial interpreters where theadviser speaks only English• Flexibility of drop in times and sessions andpossibility of telephone advice• Face to face advice is preferred• Excellent networking with other agencies whowork with migrant groups for cross referralThe demand for the service was high and thetargets set at the start of the projects for thenumber of clients seen and issues dealt withwere well exceeded. This suggests that there is acontinued and strong demand for the service andthat it should be continued where funding allows.The service also benefits other workers in theCitizens Advice agency because they have aspecific service which they can direct migrants to.In other agencies and before the service began inBelfast, Citizens Advice service staff often struggleto deal with migrant clients due to the often presentlanguage barrier, setting up special clinics atspecific times and employing often expensiveinterpreters.The lessons learned from this project lead to thedevelopment of two recommendations for theproject going forward.
Report by ICAR in collaboration with Citizens Advice Belfast 25Recommendation 1: It isstrongly recommendedthat Citizens Advice Belfastcontinue to support andfind sources of funding tocontinue and expand theservice.In particular they should;• Continue to guide good practice by employingpeople from migrant communities• Expand the financial capability workshopsby having a monthly outreach in migrantcommunity groups• Continue to work closely with other servicesproviding help for migrants across Belfast• Consider employing a full time administratorfor the service who could formalise reportingarrangements and data entry to ensure thatrecords are updated systematically freeing upadvisor time on administrationRecommendation 2:Development of the FinancialInclusion projectIn developing future services for new migrantsaround financial inclusion agencies should followbest practice identified in this project;• Employment of advisors from migrantcommunities as staff and volunteers• Access to interpreters (a database ofinterpreters should be developed acrossNorthern Ireland)• Be aware that reporting systems should beadapted to take into account;• Immigration status• Length of time in Northern Ireland• Clear referral process from other agencies withaccurate records of referrals to help monitorprogress and outreach
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Financial Inclusion amongst New Migrants in Northern Ireland - ICAR

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