ENLIGHT Thematic Networks

CROSS-ACCESS – Inclusive Systems Transformation for Migrants Experiencing Disability-Related Disadvantage

Across Europe and globally, migrants who experience disability-related disadvantage often encounter fragmented support in health, legal, social, and educational systems. These systems frequently operate in isolation, rely on inaccessible procedures, and fail to reflect the lived realities of people navigating multiple forms of vulnerability—mobility, linguistic barriers, legal precarity, and diverse disability-related needs. Despite international frameworks, the intersection of migration and disability remains insufficiently addressed in research, policy, and institutional practice.

CROSS-ACCESS responds to this gap by bringing together an interdisciplinary network of researchers from law, global health, social work, international development practice, migration governance, anthropology, and inclusive pedagogy. The initiative aims to reshape how institutions understand and address disability-related disadvantage in migration contexts. Its core mission is to build people-centred, participatory, and rights-based approaches that strengthen access, dignity, and continuity of support across borders and sectors.

The network focuses on analysing how systemic barriers arise within legal, health, social, and pedagogical environments, and how they can be transformed through inclusive design, co-production with communities, and evidence-informed institutional reform. Working with organisations of persons experiencing disadvantage, migrant-led groups, practitioners, and local stakeholders, CROSS-ACCESS places lived experience at the centre of its activities.

Based on its findings, the project will co-develop practical, ethically grounded frameworks that can inform universities, service providers, policymakers, and community actors. The broader ambition is to contribute to more equitable, responsive, and interconnected systems—capable of supporting migrants experiencing disability-related disadvantage in ways that are accessible, coordinated, and grounded in human rights.

Project duration: 01.01.2025 – 31.12.2027
Budget: 100 000 EUR
Partners: Comenius University in Bratislava, University of Galway, Georg-August University Göttingen, Uppsala University

CROSS-ACCESS is supported by the ENLIGHT European University Alliance within the ENLIGHT Thematic Networks programme.