What do we do?

Migrant Democracy Project addresses the democratic deficit and participation gap in the UK’s migrant population.

We promote and facilitate the civic and democratic participation of migrants in the UK at all levels so they are empowered to vote and inform policies that better reflect their needs and can work in solidarity towards social change.

In 2022, Lara Parizotto and Alex Bulat founded Migrant Democracy Project to fill the gap in the participation and representation of first-generation migrants in the UK.

Since setting up, we have won The Democracy Network’s Empowerment, Transparency, and Democratic Rights Award.

Why do we need this work?

Migrants have unequal access to democracy in the UK - some have full voting rights, others have local election voting rights, while some do not have any formal democratic say. Generally, participation levels of migrant communities are relatively low.

  • Electoral Commission data shows how Commonwealth and EU citizens with voting rights have significantly lower democratic participation rates compared to British and Irish citizens (who despite their migrant status have equal democratic rights as British citizens as a result of historic ties to the UK).

  • Academic and third sector research shows participation gaps and a lack of migrant representation in elected positions.

  • Polling shows that a majority of British people agree every resident should have local election voting rights.

Our story

In 2020, Our Home Our Vote started as a the3million campaign encouraging EU citizens and all UK migrants to participate in UK politics. 

Our Co-Director Alex Bulat also produced valuable research on EU citizen's political participation in the UK: 

In 2021, we started working in partnership with Polish Migrants Organise for Change (POMOC)’s #SheVotes campaign informing EU migrants about their voting rights. Together, we collaborated on leaflets, videos, and resources on democratic participation.

For the 2021 local elections, Co-Directors Lara Parizotto and Alex Bulat took Our Home Our Vote to Peterborough, Corby and Northampton encouraging EU citizens to register to vote and participate in the local elections. We spoke to hundreds of EU citizens who ended up voting for the first time!

After the 2021 local elections, the Elections Bill was announced. Our campaign gained more momentum and took its current shape. The Bill announced the removal of some EU citizens' voting rights. In response, we decided to campaign for every resident, no matter where from, to have a right to vote - like they do in Scotland and Wales. Our advocacy efforts during the Bill's passage through Parliament can be found here.

At this stage, POMOC joined as an official partner of the Our Home Our Vote campaign. Together, we hired 4 voting rights Ambassadors who worked on media, research, and advocacy and have since been extending our campaign reach.

In 2022, the campaign moved to a new home - Migrant Democracy Project.