Our journey towards co-liberation
Since I stepped into the role of CEO of the3million permanently last year, we’ve spent time in the team thinking about the future and our role in the migration sector. the3million started organically, as a grassroots movement, and we’ve kept our ethos and focus throughout the years, ensuring the interests of EU citizens in the UK are represented in front of decision makers, at the highest levels.
For the last two years, we’ve spent even more time connecting to the grassroots, delivering dozens and dozens of listening sessions with local groups across the country, truly paying attention to people’s experiences and making sure our campaigns are addressing pressing needs.
This process has made it clear: EU citizens are suffering at the hands of systemic injustice. From the hostile environment affecting migrants up and down the country, to the harsh cost of living crisis which is pushing people into destitution without a safety net, and the negative narrative that’s being pushed on migration, power and privilege play a crucial role in people’s ability to get justice and live a fulfilling life.
We acknowledge that problems don’t affect everyone equally. We aim to represent millions of people, from 27 EU member states, and their family members from non-EU backgrounds. Every single person brings with them a unique story of migration, of what brought them to the UK, how they relate to their European identity, and how systems of oppression are impacting them. Race, class, gender, sexuality, age, nationality, and many more characteristics - all affect how much power we have, in any given moment, to affect change and access our rights. Structural inequalities play out in our daily lives and even more so when we interact with the state.
Our role at the3million is to minimise harm to our communities, through our campaigns, policy and advocacy. When we focus on the people most impacted by the hostile environment, and propose solutions that are best for the most vulnerable, then everyone benefits. We want to extend the access people have to rights, challenging the idea that only some should be able to live with dignity, and reduce the harm the hostile environment has on people today.
How do we encourage an equitable future?
At the beginning of this year, we took another step forward in our journey towards a world of co-liberation, meaning moving forward with people towards a world where all of us are empowered, and liberated from systemic oppression. We were supported by our partners at OpenEdge to add new skills to our toolbox to be able to to do this.
We see co-liberation as an ongoing practice, of exploring both our differences and our shared experiences, understanding our inter-dependencies and aiming to free ourselves from violence.
For me, an important learning point has been that we need to accept and embrace our differences. We all hold our own lived experience: of the world, of systemic oppression, of the immigration system in this country. Some people’s truth is given less space and is centred less than others’, depending on their structural privilege.
By building spaces where we can safely bring these lived experiences together, we get to a much deeper understanding, and we foster inclusion. In our workshops and activities, in our networks and relationships, we aim to interrupt day to day and systemic moments of oppression, and focus on learning from each other - from the impact these systems have on us.
We aim to be guided by respectful curiosity - to learn about others and together build a bigger picture, where we examine the systemic patterns that reveal themselves to us. We encourage feedback, and work towards implementing our learnings, focused not on who is right or wrong, but on the impact we have on each other.
Our approach is that through implementing these tools in how we work with each other, focusing on accountability, equity, justice and restoring relationships, we can then nourish new equitable systems to emerge in the future.
Thank you for joining us on this journey.
In solidarity,
Andreea
Andreea Dumitrache is CEO of the3million
