We Belong – campaigning and youth-led organisation
We Belong is a migrant, youth-led organisation, campaigning for the rights of young migrants and developing young leaders by providing advice, support and training. It works closely with young people to create a strong counter-narrative to the UK’s hostile environment.
We Belong’s first campaign, Let Us Learn, was in 2014, and aimed to raise awareness and change government policy that prevented 2,000 young migrants from accessing student finance for British students, despite the UK being their home. The campaign was entirely led by young people, who developed a 300+ community of changemakers. They were inspired by the US Dreamers, a group of young migrants who were also fighting for equal access to education.
After successfully changing government policy for student loans and ensuring equal access to higher education, the young people recognised that they had the power to create social change and have a positive impact on society. A more recent campaign win resulted in a Home Office decision to remove the ten-year route to settlement for young people who came here as children, replacing it with a five-year route and positively impacting the lives of its staff with lived experience and potentially over 300,000 others.
