This report highlights the transformative impact of the Citizens Rights Project Link Service in supporting EU migrants and their families across Scotland. From August 2023 to December 2024, the service addressed critical issues such as financial hardship, systemic barriers, and complex challenges like housing disputes, Universal Credit appeals, and employment rights.
By providing multilingual, holistic support and bridging gaps in service provision, nearly  200 individuals have benefited from this service, either through direct support, queries addressed, or attending information sessions and workshops, and reached more than 37,000 people through awareness initiatives. The report showcases inspiring case studies, systemic challenges faced by migrants, and the need for sustained funding to continue empowering communities and preventing financial trauma. Read the full report to discover the difference we’re making and how you can support our mission.

This briefing provides a comprehensive analysis of the ongoing impact of Brexit on the rights, welfare, and inclusion of EU migrants in Scotland. It highlights the challenges faced by individuals navigating the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), accessing essential services, and combating misinformation and discrimination. Readers will gain insights into the work of the Citizens Rights Project (CRP), including its support for late EUSS applications, assistance with welfare and financial inclusion, advocacy for vulnerable migrants, and the broader implications of post-Brexit policies. The briefing underscores the urgency of addressing these issues to ensure the well-being and integration of EU nationals in Scotland.

This response is a report of the different views and experiences of community conversations of migrants to contribute to the development of the Human Rights Bill for Scotland, in the hope that the Scottish Government can take into account their lived experience in relation to their human rights and in accessing the services providing these to shape the Human Rights Bill and its implementation. These community conversations initially focused on access to information, advice and advocacy; accessing public services; and on access to justice or complaints procedures and remedies when human rights are not met. Conversations grew branches into several other topics and themes of the consultation questions.

The Citizens Rights Project conducted a series of four discussions in September, specifically engaging with EU migrants. These conversations were undertaken to gather insights and information to contribute to a report by the Human Rights Consortium Scotland. This report was then submitted as part of the consultation process regarding the new Human Rights Bill for Scotland. This report do not encompass any analytical or reflective examination of the responses received. Instead, they faithfully reproduce the experiences, ideas, and comments shared by the participants.

This report gathers case studies of late applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme and the barriers and vulnerable situations some people face when submitting an application. It highlights that in most cases late applicants are eligible to apply and that people tends to submit more than one application because they struggle with the process, rather than because they want to trick the system.

In July 2020, Citizens Rights Project produced the document “EU Settlement Scheme: Citizen Report”1, to respond to the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) call for evidence to make recommendations to the Home Secretary regarding the EU Settlement Scheme overall governance, efficiency and communication. 
This report looks back to that document to analyse whether the issues identified, and the recommendations made are still relevant today. 

On 16th November 2021 we launched the survey “Would EU citizens benefit from a physical proof of their pre-settled or settled status?”. This report gathers the findings of the 717 responses received to conclude that citizens with pre-setttled and settled status in Scotland want a physical proof of their immigration status on top of their digital profile. It also includes information about the reasons behind that demand and issues faced by EU migrants and their family members due to the lack of physical evidence.
You can read a summary of the report here.

A paper on the situation and issues faced by the Spanish community in the UK after Brexit put together by several organisations and immigration experts across the four nations, including the Citizens Rights Project. This paper also include recommendations. It has been shared with authorities from the Spanish State in Spain and the UK.

The new report ‘Human Rights for All: Some recommendations for the Scottish Human Rights Bill on protecting migrants’ human rights‘ is now available. This was part of a project coordinated by the Human Rights Consortium Scotland, aimed to exploring what is necessary to ensure that the upcoming enhanced Scottish human rights framework improves the realisation of rights for people who have migrated to Scotland. Citizens Rights Project was one of the organisations consulted for this report. We held conversations with migrant communities in Spanish, Italian, Romanian and Polish. These fed some of the conclusions and recommendations included in this report. You can access the full report in the link at left hand side of the page, or read a summary here.

The Citizens Rights Project has joined other Scottish civil society organisations in Scotland to help in the collation of questions for UK and Scottish Government after UK withdrawal from the European Union. In particular, we have helped with questions related to the protection of EU citizens.
This report provides a useful summary of these key concerns that should inform future work amongst, and with, Scottish civil society on the impacts of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
It was coordinated and written by Human Rights Consortium Scotland and the Scottish Universities Legal Network on Europe (SULNE) as part of their partnership Civil Society Brexit Project, funded by The Legal Education Foundation.

A report about the difficulties and issues that EU citizens could face after the deadline to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme on June 30, 2021.

Research briefing on access to welfare benefits and pensions for EU citizens with pre-settled and settled status prepared by Nina Miller Westoby, a socio-legal researcher based at the University of Glasgow.
This paper addresses a number of questions relating to the welfare benefits and pension entitlements of European Union citizens who began living in Scotland (or the UK) before the end of the transition period (31 December 2020) and who continue to live here. The Withdrawal Agreement (WA) governs the rights of this group of Union citizens.

We submitted the report EU Settlement Scheme: Citizen Report to the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) at the end of July 2020, in response to their “call for evidence”, which will make recommendations to the Home Secretary Regarding the EUSS overall governance, efficiency and communication.
We investigated the experiences of EU nationals when applying for the EUSS and reported on our findings, as wells as concerns, recommendations and needs when raising awareness online and face-to-face around Scotland, among citizens, but also representatives, local authorities and third sector organisations.
This report describes the findings of that exercise, which were obtained via a combination of direct communication and an online survey ‘Let’s Settle This’. It gives valuable insight into how participants have experience the EUSS, some of whom are vulnerable or have faced challenges due to a lack of service provision or awareness of those challenges.

The insights from this paper derive from the work undertaken by the Citizens Rights Project in Scotland between February 2018 and April 2019.
The Citizens Rights Project was launched in February 2018 and was initially funded by the European Commission Representation in Scotland (February-May and September-October 2018), and next by the Scottish Government (September-December 2018). The project aims at raising awareness of EU citizens’ rights after Brexit and delivers information and advice on these through public events in various parts of Scotland.

What support do EU citizens in Scotland need to deal with Brexit? What challenges related to Brexit do they and those working with them currently face? To what extent are they aware of their rights post-Brexit? What longer term challenges but also opportunities do EU Citizens in Scotland expect in result of Brexit?
To help answer these questions we launched a research project. It involved community consultations and focus group discussions on issues raised by Brexit and the resultant longer term opportunities and challenges for EU27 citizens in Scotland. The preliminary report was presented to central and local government, other key decisions makers, and to Scotland’s civic society more generally, who contributed to the research on an event on 10.12.2018 in Edinburgh.
The study was led by Dr. Paulina Trevena, an experienced researcher who specialises in EU migration to the UK and Scotland.