Migrant justice project secures ten-year funding
Dr Cailean Gallagher’s Workers’ Observatory joins Edinburgh’s £15 million community fund.
The Workers’ Observatory, co-founded and directed by the University of St Andrews Business School’s Dr Cailean Gallagher, has secured long-term funding as part of the Migrant Justice Edinburgh alliance.
The alliance is one of 11 organisations and partnerships chosen to share in Edinburgh’s Regenerative Futures Fund. This £15 million programme commits to ten years of support for community-led work on poverty, racism and the climate. A Residents’ Panel of local people with direct experience of poverty and racism made the decisions, announced last month. Each award provides up to £100,000 a year for ten years.
Migrant Justice Edinburgh brings together three organisations: the Workers’ Observatory, the Citizens’ Rights Project and the Empowering Multicultural Communities Alliance. Together, they will strengthen collective action among Edinburgh’s migrant communities and build a city-wide migrant network.
Dr Gallagher, a lecturer in the Department of Management, co-founded the Workers’ Observatory in 2020. The worker-led organisation brings together platform workers, researchers and organisers to examine and challenge conditions in the gig economy, working with colleagues at the University of Edinburgh. Its work connects to Dr Gallagher’s research on platform work and labour rights, including the Worker Data Science project, which uses Edinburgh’s delivery riders as a case study.
Dr Gallagher said:
“Ten years of funding is rare, and it changes what we can do. As some try to push migrants to the margins, this funding will help ensure that the most precarious workers are involved in shaping the future of our capital. It will enable the Workers’ Observatory to continue to support Edinburgh’s migrant workers to foster strong networks across the city’s communities and build the evidence to understand and challenge the conditions they face.”