© Andrew Testa/Panos Pictures for the Open Society Foundations

As an Open Society Fellow, Spencer is investigating the provision of essential services to irregular migrants across Europe. Her aim is to identify the economic and social imperatives that lead governments—at the national or local level—to provide access to services, which she believes will strengthen the case for inclusion at a time when these arrangements are increasingly under threat. She will look to the US experience for insights into the contentious politics of this issue.

Spencer is the chair of the Equality and Diversity Forum, the network of equality and human rights organizations in Britain. She is also a Senior Fellow at  the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society at the University of Oxford, and an advisor to Atlantic Philanthropies, providing the foundation with guidance on strategy and funding of NGO initiatives on migration and human rights in Ireland and Northern Ireland. In 2007, she was awarded a CBE for her work on human rights and equal opportunities.