Lucy Williams

Lucy Williams is a freelance researcher and Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Kent. She has been involved in community work and research with refugees and asylum seekers since 1998. 

When working at the University as a Lecturer, Lucy designed and taught modules at MA, BA and Certificate levels promoting the health and social care of migrants including refugees and asylum seekers. She supervised PhD studies on various aspects of the mental health and social care of refugee communities, on sex trafficking in Turkey and social work responses to migrant and refugee clients.

Lucy has carried out consultancy for the King Baudoin Foundation, the International Organization for Migration, the Quality Care Commission, Kent County Council and the South East Strategic Partnership for Migration as well as for voluntary organizations.  

Lucy’s current research focuses on migrants facing forced return to countries of origin. She has have been working with a small number of migrants over a number years as they resist deportation and continue to argue for refugee or other claims to remain in the UK. This research has been carried out in homeless shelters, detention centres and in section 4 accommodation. The majority of these participants are adults, but she has also worked with unaccompanied asylum seeking children now reaching adulthood and facing deportation to their countries of origin. She is also working with a group of foreign national prisoners held under Immigration rules, after their sentence is completed, in prisons. 

Lucy’s previous work has involved ethnographic research on the social networks of asylum seekers and refugees, a qualitative study with interpreters and various studies on marriage migration including a book - 'Global Marriage' 2010 Palgrave. Most recently Lucy has been involved in supporting participative research with people living in poverty. 

Since leaving the University as a lecturer, Lucy has continued to teach occasional sessions on various modules including for the MA in International Migration on the Brussels campus.

Publications

Recent publications include:

• Williams, L (2019) Durable solutions’ when turning 18 Book chapter in Unaccompanied Young Migrants: Identity, Care and Justice edited by Sue Clayton, Anna Gupta and Katie Willis Policy Press 
• Robinson, K., & Williams, L. (2015). Leaving care: unaccompanied asylum-seeking young Afghans facing return. Refuge: Canada's Journal on Refugees, 31(2), 85-94. 
• Klein and Williams (2012) Immigration Detention in the Community: Research on the Experiences of Migrants Released from Detention Centers in the UK Population, Space and Place 18(6)741-753  
  

See Academia for a full list.