Resisting an increasingly hostile environment

Europe’s continuous shift to the right and far right is fuelling increasingly restrictive migration policies and turning social rights into tools of migration enforcement. Human rights are under attack, with growing criminalisation of migrants and racialised communities, including undocumented people. Detention and deportation increasingly trump protection and inclusion.

Across the EU and national levels, new laws and reforms clash with international rights standards. Civic space is shrinking, and rights defenders face mounting legal, financial, and political pressure – including harassment and prosecution for offering humanitarian aid or defending migrants’ rights.

During PICUM’s 2025 General Assembly, we explored collective strategies to resist and respond to such an increasingly hostile context. We discussed areas for common advocacy, for building solidarity across movements, and strategies to reinforce the role of civil society in defending the rights and dignity of all migrants, regardless of status.

What opportunities in an era of hostile migration policies?

In our first plenary session, we discussed opportunities for resistance in research, the political level, the human rights framework, and local action.

Fatima Diallo, Chair of the UN Migrant Workers’ Committee, discussed how international human rights frameworks and bodies can monitor states’ actions and promote and develop international standards. Diallo especially underlined the role of the Committee she chairs in promoting an intersectional and decolonising approach to migration management, encouraging states to ratify the UN Migrant Workers Convention, and in urging actions to eradicate racial discrimination and xenophobia.

Attacks on civil society are increasing across the EU and in neighbouring countries where the EU is striking deals to block departures. Greens MEP Tineke Strik pinpointed how recent EU proposals, like the EU Facilitation Directive and the EU Returns Regulation, disregard the core rights of asylum seekers and undocumented people as if they are not protected by international human rights law. On the draft Returns Regulation, Strik invited civil society to engage with faith-based organisations, journalists and lawyers, and build larger alliances overall, without forgetting efforts to counter the dehumanisation of migrants and to mobilise citizens.

Emilio Puccio, Secretary General of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Children’s Rights, said that restrictive narratives on migration have weaponized children as a problem, increasingly portraying them as criminals and radicalised. Puccio denounced the overall negative framework around child rights in the EU Migration Pact, and criticized how child safeguarding concerns were used to require children as young as six to be fingerprinted. He highlighted the need for political commitment that children are not a political threat and need protection, which would also mean that immigration detention of children should be eradicated and that we need legal aid and clear rules around guardianship. He echoed Strik’s calls to mobilise more broadly, to engage with faith-based organisations and grassroots civil society, and try to reach actors which may echo calls for protection of children and be listened to by centre-right policy makers.

Albert Kraler, MIrreM research coordinator and assistant professor at Krems University, Austria, discussed opportunities to counter the politicisation of migration by reframing the debate into more technical questions, where research and evidence play a bigger role. Citing the example of MIrreM, an EU-funded research project about irregular migration, Kraler noted that while regularisation is often portrayed as a political taboo, most countries do have some form of regularisation mechanism in place.

Researchers themselves can be actors of change. When the European Commission presented a new draft Returns Regulation as being backed by EU-funded research, key research consortia came together and issued a joint statement denouncing such instrumentalisation of their work to justify new restrictive measures. The statement was then used to open a communication channel between the Commission and the researchers.

Linnea Näsholm of the Health Center for Undocumented Migrants in Oslo, Norway, shared the experience of local health centres in improving access to health care for undocumented people by collaborating with municipalities, feeding politicians with knowledge and solutions, and mobilising unions and the health sector at large. Successful initiatives have sprung up in Bergen, Kristiansand, Oslo, and Trondheim.

At the end of our panel, we took a look at resistance by migrants’ rights organisations in the United States. Helena Olea, Deputy Director of Alianza Américas, underlined the many struggles facing civil society there, including limited capacity, anti-migrant narratives and funding cuts. The overall context on migration has severely worsened, with many undocumented parents no longer sending their children to school for fear of being arrested, while due process rights are being eroded. On resistance strategies, Olea highlighted the need to combine different types of work, from litigation to advocacy, from narrative work to campaigns to empower people with knowledge of their rights, especially in the face of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids. Olea also underscored Alianza Américas’ work in building alliances with other groups hit by hostile policies, such as black communities, LGBTQ+ and feminist organisations, and groups defending people with disabilities.

Strategies to counter hostile narratives and policies

In our second plenary session, we invited people who could share with us experiences and perspectives on civil society strategies to counter hostile narratives and policies inside and outside the migration space.

Aarti Narsee, Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer at the European Civic Forum, discussed how civil society in Europe is resisting the worsening context, from strategic litigation to mass mobilisation, to establishing new alliances. In the Netherlands, for instance, public interest litigation succeeded in challenging the sale of weapons to Israel and anti-Muslim discrimination in the banking system. In Belgium, the pro-Palestine movement is working with trade unions to block shipments of weapons to Israel. In Spain, grassroots mobilisation around housing rights gathered housing cooperatives and tenants’ associations in challenging real estate investors and local administrations.

Nadia Cornejo, spokesperson at Greenpeace Belgium, illustrated how the environmental organisation is responding to increasing judicial arrests, longer detention and prison sentences. Greenpeace has integrated the right to protest in its work and launched the “Time to resist” global campaign, in coalition with other NGOs, unions, and other actors to protect the right to protest. When organising protests, Greenpeace informs participants about legal risks and puts in place other precautionary measures, with a view of deescalating violence as much as possible in encounters with law enforcement.

Fezile Osum, Legal coordinator of the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN), spoke about litigation work in European courts and highlighted a recent judgment from the European Court on Human Rights which condemns Greece for systematic pushbacks. Osum also presented BVMN reports exposing the criminalisation of migrants and human rights defenders, including prosecution, defamation, intimidation and extensive financial control, as well as the “In Defence of Defenders” toolkit which indicates avenues for protection and redress, including UN and Council of Europe bodies, to approach in cases of criminalisation.

Finding hope: wins and inspirations from the network

Our last panel showcased the wins and stories of inspiration from our network. All contributors underlined how change was possible but was only achievable through the tireless work of broad civil society coalitions.

Lucía Maquieira, Director of Red Acoge, spoke about recent reforms that grant residence and work permits in Spain. The reform of the arraigo (or “rootedness” in English) system means that conditions to access residence and work permits are easier to meet and that more people will be able to obtain them. Despite continuous shortcomings, a specific regularisation passed after the Valencia floods is expected to grant residence and work permits to some 25,000 undocumented victims.

Daan Bauwens, Director of Utsopi, celebrated a recent law that finally recognises and protects  labour rights for sex workers in Belgium, including when undocumented. This includes minimum working conditions and compensation for exploitation. Bauwens also reported that beginning of May sex workers went on their first ever spontaneous strike in Belgium.

Alicia Adams, Partnerships and Donor Relations Officer at FiZ, shared how a 30-year long fight by Swiss civil society achieved an important legislative change that makes it easier for dependent partners to access a residence permit in Switzerland when their relationship ends. The change also applies to unmarried and same-sex couples, and makes it possible for civil society to bring evidence of abuse experienced by one of the partners, often a migrant woman.

Janneke Wijman, Case manager at ASKV, celebrated a recent regularisation adopted by the Dutch government for Surinamese nationals living in The Netherlands who had lost their Dutch nationality after Suriname’s independence. Wijman recounted how various allies joined the struggle, from researchers to migration lawyers, from NGOs to members of the Surinamese community, and managed to achieve success through strategic litigation and political pressure.