As part of Forward Carers continued mission to ensuring all communities are recognised, valued, and able to access support, we are committed to strengthening how we engage with and support unpaid Carers from migrant communities.
This work also forms part of our National Lottery-funded project to identify hidden Carers within communities across the West Midlands.
With this in mind, Research and Evaluation Lead at Forward Carers, Anna Lockley-Scott, has been working to discover more about the importance of identifying and supporting hidden Carers in Migrant Communities.
Here, Anna talks us through that work.
Identifying Unpaid Carers in Migrant Communities
In my role as Research and Evaluation Lead at Forward Carers, I recently presented in front of a team of advisers at the Refugee and Migrant Centre in Birmingham.
Among the people coming through their doors may be someone looking after a partner who is unwell, a parent supporting a disabled child, or a young person helping a family member to manage appointments and everyday life.
They may be doing many of the things we associate with being an unpaid Carer but never have used the word Carer to describe themselves.
These are some of the people we mean when we talk about ‘hidden Carers’. People who are providing unpaid care but have not yet recognised themselves as a Carer, been identified by services, or connected with the support available to them.
In my role at Forward Carers, I have been developing our relationships with organisations working alongside migrant communities.
The more conversations I have, the clearer it becomes that finding hidden Carers isn’t simply about translating the word Carer.
It is about helping people recognise the caring role in a way that makes sense within their family, culture and community.
Why might a Carer remain hidden?
There are around 5.7 million people identified as providing unpaid care through the 2021 Census. But we know that not everyone who provides care necessarily identifies themselves as a Carer.
There can be additional factors for people who have recently arrived in the UK that make their caring role less visible.
The word Carer may not have a direct equivalent in someone’s first language. People may not know that support for unpaid Carers exists or that it could be relevant to them.
Language can also make navigating health and support services more difficult, while cultural attitudes towards disability, mental health or asking for outside support can also influence whether somebody talks about their caring responsibilities.
This matters because remaining hidden can also mean missing opportunities for information, a Carer’s Assessment or other support that could make caring more manageable.
At the same time, it is important that we don’t define migrant Carers only by the barriers they may experience.
Migrant families and communities bring enormous strengths: strong family relationships, community networks, resilience, cultural knowledge and a commitment to supporting one another.
Our role is not to replace those strengths. It is to make sure people know that recognising themselves as a Carer can open the door to additional support.
Taking Carer awareness into communities.
If somebody doesn’t identify themselves as a Carer, they are unlikely to search for a Carers service.
My recent visit to the Refugee and Migrant Centre gave me an opportunity to talk directly with advisers who already have trusted relationships with migrant families.
Rather than expecting every Carer to find their own way to a Carers service, we can help the organisations they already know to recognise Carers and signpost them towards support.
I have also taken this conversation to the Birmingham Migration Forum, speaking with organisations working with migrant communities across the city.
Through these conversations, I have been raising awareness of Birmingham Carers Hub and explaining that support can be relevant to people with many different immigration circumstances.
This includes asylum seekers and people living and working in the UK on visas, who have no recourse to public funds.
We have also discussed practical ways to help people recognise and communicate their caring role.
For example, a Carer ID Card can provide a simple way for somebody to show that they are an unpaid Carer when attending a GP practice, hospital or other service. This could be particularly valuable for somebody who is less confident communicating in English.
Forward Carers is already working to make support more accessible.
Birmingham Carers Hub information is available online in several languages, including Arabic, Pashto and Romanian. Our wider work to identify Carers also increasingly involves working through community, health and voluntary-sector partnerships.
Recognising young Carers
A particularly important part of these conversations is recognising the children and young people who may be providing care within migrant families.
A young person might translate during appointments, help a parent understand letters or services, or take on other responsibilities at home.
Translation alone does not necessarily make somebody a young Carer. But it can be one of the signs that encourages professionals to ask more about what life is like for that young person.
Schools can play an important role in recognising this.
Connecting migrant organisations with schools and young Carer support provides another opportunity to make sure children and young people are not overlooked.
Where do we go next?
These conversations are a starting point rather than the end of the work.
We want to continue strengthening relationships with organisations across our service areas.
There are several opportunities we can explore next, including:
- working with trusted community organisations to develop culturally relevant messages about caring
- increasing the confidence of frontline advisers to identify and signpost Carers
- listening directly to migrant Carers about what would make services easier to access
- exploring how language support can be strengthened
- looking at how the Carer ID Card could help people communicate their caring role in health and other settings
Most importantly, we need to listen.
If we want more people to recognise themselves as Carers, we need to understand how caring is described and experienced within different communities.
We already have services, partnerships and practical support that can make a difference to Carers’ lives.
The next step is making sure more people can see themselves in that offer whilst knowing that it is there for them.
