Background to ICAR

The Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees (ICAR) was “founded by Kirsteen Tait in 2000” (Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees, 2009) and was active through to [confirm date].  ICAR was initially located at King’s College London’s School of Social Science and Public Policy before relocating to City University.  Following City’s withdrawal of funding for ICAR in 2010, £25,000 was raised to help secure their future with ICAR moving to the offices of the Runnymede Trust during June 2010. (Amas, 2010; Migrants’ Rights Network, 2011; Runnymede Trust, 2012)  ICAR was initially funded through charitable trust funds (Crosland, 2002).

ICAR was established as an independent centre with the focus of responding “to the need for authoritative, independently generated information on which to base democratic discussion of this subject.  Its overall aim is to promote understanding of asylum and refugees in the interests of everyone in the community.” (Crosland, 2002).

“ICAR exists to promote understanding of asylum and refugees in the UK and to encourage information-based debate and policy-making.” (Crosland, 2002).

ICAR’s goal was to be the provision of the `most comprehensive information resource on UK refugee and asylum issues’ (Crosland, 2002) to help raise the level of public debate on the refugee and asylum issues alongside supporting and encouraging informed and evidence-based policy-making.  ICAR took an holistic approach to how it sourced information, drawing on academic (including postgraduate) research; data and information from refugee agencies and associated service providers; alongside drawing on the lived experiences of refugees and asylum seekers. Key dissemination outputs produced by ICAR included digests of relevant information alongside navigation guides to key issues; statistics and project and documentation databases. 

ICAR were involved in a number of projects during their active years of operation, examples of which include:

• `Making better use of refugee agency and other service providers’ data and information.’ A project focused on `developing a cross agency database of available data and information’ (Crosland, 2002) in support of policy and advocacy work. This project was funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
• `Understanding the Stranger.’ A project focused on `recording the experiences of host and asylum seeking communities.’ (Crosland, 2002).
• The Refugee Communities Project which aimed to `map refugee settlement across the UK …. and … will examine what makes refugees feel part of a community and what sets them apart.” (Crosland, 2002). The Patterns of Refugee Settlement Pilot Project focused on “developing and testing methodologies for finding out from refugee groups, about their experience of settlement in the UK.” (Crosland, 2002).
• ICAR also worked in collaboration with other partners including the UNHCR; Student Action for Refugees (STAR) Postgraduate Network and the Forced Migration Online.

The ICAR Archive

The ICAR Archive moved to the Refugee Archives at the University of East London in 2015 following a consultation with the Black Cultural Archives, which had taken on the responsibility for managing the archives of the Runnymede Trust (‘Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees’, 2022). 

Further Information

An historical snapshot of the ICAR Website can be found on the Wayback Machine at:  https://web.archive.org/web/20090227131859/http://www.icar.org.uk/2078/about-us/about-icar.html

ICAR Publications

EU accession and asylum ; Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK. Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK.
London : Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK; 2004
https://uel.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UEL_INST/1rgarhd/alma999897640001121

Media image, community impact : assessing the impact of media and political images of refugees and asylum seekers on community relations in London : report of a pilot research study : commissioned by the Mayor of London ; Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK.
London : The Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK; 2004.
https://uel.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UEL_INST/1rgarhd/alma997834480001121

Media image, community impact : executive summary : assessing the impact of media and political images of refugees and asylum seekers on community relations in London : report of a pilot research study : commissioned by the Mayor of London ; Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK.
London : The Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK; 2004.
https://uel.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UEL_INST/1rgarhd/alma9910722230001121

Reflecting asylum in London’s Communities : monitoring London’s press coverage of refugees and asylum seekers : an analysis of press reporting January-February 2005 ; Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK.; Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK. Public Images Partnership.
London : Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK; 2005.
https://uel.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UEL_INST/1rgarhd/alma999218410001121

Doing case studies for the refugee sector : a DIY handbook for agencies and practitioners ; Esterhuizen, Lea.; Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK.
London : Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK; 2004.
https://uel.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UEL_INST/1rgarhd/alma9910722210001121

The Somali community in the UK : what we know and how we know it ; Harris, Hermione.; Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK.
London : Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK; 2004.
https://uel.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UEL_INST/1rgarhd/alma9910722220001121

Understanding the stranger : final report ; D’Onofrio, Lisa.; Munk, Karen.; Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK.
London : Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK; 2004.
https://uel.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UEL_INST/1rgarhd/alma9910722110001121

Gathering evidence effectively : a rough guide to navigating secondary sources of data and information on refugees and asylum seekers in the UK ; Gibbs, Julie.; Quevedo, Gabriela.; Peach, Esme.; Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK.
London : Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees; 2009.
https://uel.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UEL_INST/1rgarhd/alma997951510001121

Reflecting upon experience ; Blaker, Candida.; Mann, Katherine.
London : Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK; 2006.
https://uel.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UEL_INST/1rgarhd/alma999879880001121

Bibliography

Amas, N. (2010) Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees : ICAR @ Runnymede Trust : ICAR @ Runnymede. Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20100901140038/http://www.icar.org.uk/12428/icar-runnymede-trust/icar-runnymede.html (Accessed: 4 September 2022).

Crosland, B. (2002) Presentation by Beth Crosland of ICAR to Leicester City Council `Asylum seekers, refugee and EU nationals one day awareness course.’. London: Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees.

Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees, (2009) Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees : About us : About ICAR. Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20090227131859/http://www.icar.org.uk/2078/about-us/about-icar.html (Accessed: 4 September 2022).

‘Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees’ (2022) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Information_Centre_about_Asylum_and_Refugees&oldid=1081887668 (Accessed: 4 September 2022).

Migrants’ Rights Network, (2011) Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees (ICAR) faces potential closure | Migrants’ Rights Network (MRN). Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20110821232801/http://migrantsrights.org.uk/news/2010/information-centre-about-asylum-and-refugees-icar-faces-potential-closure (Accessed: 4 September 2022).

Runnymede Trust, (2012) ICAR Press Release. Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20120623035921/http://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/PressReleases/ICARPressReleaseJune2010.pdf (Accessed: 4 September 2022).