The main migrant communities, whose languages our service providers speak - Ukrainians, Romanians and Bulgarians - made up 36% of new clients in 2023; however, there was an increase in both British nationals and nationals of other countries reaching out to us. In fact, the top 8 nationalities reported by clients made up just 64% of the total, with one-third of our clients holding other nationalities.
In 2022, almost one-third (32%) of all our clients were Ukrainian. This reflected the influx of Ukrainian arrivals to the UK following Russia’s invasion at the start of the year, and their urgent need for assistance with immigration, employment, and benefits advice, as well as our role as one of very few organisations with Ukrainian and Russian-speaking advisers. While demand for our services from Ukrainian nationals continued into 2023, our increased capacity for in-depth immigration legal advice and strategic commitment to diversifying our client base is reflected in the new figures. We hope to keep growing our accessibility to disadvantaged Britons and migrants of all backgrounds.
Nearly half (46%) of our clients reported having a higher education, and a further 40% had a high school diploma or recognised vocational qualification. Despite this, the majority of our clients who were able to work were in precarious, low-paid employment. Unfortunately, this is unsurprising, as migrants tend to suffer from overqualification. This pattern is driven by several barriers to finding employment that matches their educational and professional background.
There was an equal split between service users identifying as male or female. We are encouraged that we were able to become increasingly accessible to women, given how the workers' rights discourse has historically been dominated by male voices.
Overall, racially minoritised clients accounted for 43% of new enquiries in 2023. This is directly related to the increased remit and capacity of our employment rights and immigration advice services, as well as the expansion of the new points-based immigration system. 2022 was also a year of ethnic diversification of our client base. Whilst those clients who identified as White Other remained our most numerous cohort (55%), we saw an increase in Black and Asian clients.