Lucy Leon

Lucy is a Senior Researcher at the Global Exchange on Migration and Diversity at the University of Oxford's Centre on Migration, Policy & Society, focusing on local government policy and provision for migrants and refugees. She has recently worked on research projects exploring UK local government policy and provision for vulnerable destitute migrants, a comparative analysis of European local-level policies around irregular migration and education outcomes for newly arrived young people from Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Ukraine. Lucy has worked in the migration and children’s sector for over twenty years as a frontline practitioner, service manager, policy adviser and researcher.

Before joining COMPAS, she worked at UCL on the Children Caring on the Move research project, collaborating with a team of peer researchers who used participatory methods to explore the experiences of care among separated children and young people. She also worked as a policy and practice adviser for migrant children and families at The Children's Society, leading the charity's policy and research work on immigration issues. Lucy’s work focuses on knowledge exchange, promoting the reciprocal sharing of expertise among academics, policymakers, practitioners and people with lived experience.