The multi award-winning Our Migration Story represents the culmination of a decade of innovative interdisciplinary collaboration between Professors Claire Alexander, Joya Chatterji from Cambridge and The Runnymede Trust.

It has taken original research into schools to tell the untold stories of the generations of migrants who came to and shaped the British Isles, and to trace the complex threads of their journeys, arrivals, encounters and experiences that weave British history and identity across nearly 2,000 years.

The resulting website aims to inspire young people and teachers to engage with family and community history as a way of understanding the historical roots of contemporary multicultural Britain.

The team partnered with over 80 historians, national and local museums, and archives, schools and educationalists to create a resource to accompany new GCSE modules around ‘Migration to Britain’.

The website brings together original research and resources such as images, quotations, newspaper clippings, parliamentary reports, videos, poems and extracts from novels. It functions as an online textbook written by academic experts and as a knowledge hub through which further resources can be discovered, such as lesson plans and classroom activities for teachers.

“This project brought together, in a ground-breaking way, academic historians and schools with a site that enables rigorous study of an issue of crucial importance at a time crying out for understanding based on evidence.”
Martin Spafford, Schools history Project

Since its launch in 2016, the website has received over 140,000 visitors and has had significant national TV, radio and press interest. It has also been used by a wide range of national organisations, including third sector groups, museums and archives, teachers’ unions, teachers and historical associations.

Our Migration Story represents a unique collaboration to transform the curriculum and retell the story of Britain, an endeavour recognised in the 2019 Guardian University Awards (Research Impact).

Key stats 

• 142,000 website hits (2016).
• Over 112,000 users 53% (60,000) from the UK, and 47% (52,000) from across the world.

Find out more about Our Migration Story: The Making of Britain