Conversations with Iris: Podcast on migration, diversity and displacement

Nando Sigona speaks to Nandita Sharma, professor of Sociology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Nandita's work examines the historical and political production of migration, borders, and national belonging, with a particular focus on how distinctions between “natives” and “migrants” are created and sustained. In her work, she challenges the “figure of the migrant” as a taken-for-granted c...

We begin Series 6 of Conversations with Iris with an interview with Professor Michelle Pace, author of Un-welcome toDenmark , a critical examination of Denmark’s restrictive turn in asylum and migration policy, published in December 2025. We are recording this episode a week after the UK Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood , confirmed her firm intention to draw on the Danish model for the reform of th...

Is the UK immigration system really 'fairer' as the government claims? Fairer to whom? Nando Sigona asks Luke Piper, Head of Immigration at the Work Rights Centre. In this episode of Conversations with IRIS we examine the production of exploitable and precarious migrant workers at the intersection of the immigration and labour regime in post-Brexit Britain. We explore the structural factor...

Dr Seb Rumsby, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at IRiS, speaks with Mariko Hayashi, Executive Director at Southeast and East Asian Centre (SEEAC) about the challenges facing Southeast and East migrants and diasporas based in the UK, before comparing post-Brexit UK with East Asian labour migration regimes to explore how policies lead to labour migrant exploitation and rights abuses and what can be d...

This episode of Conversations with IRiS offers insights into the experiences of Brazilians in London and questions assumptions on 'community' and its boundaries. Nando Sigona speaks to Angelo Martins Jr, the author of 'Moving difference' an ethnographic exploration of how race, class and gender constructions travel with migrants and shape their migratory plans and trajectories as w...

In this new episode, Anna Papoutsi discusses with Inka Stock, author of the excellent book ‘Time, migration and forced immobility: Sub-Saharan African migrants in Morocco’, published by Bristol University Press. The episode examines the temporalities of forced immobility, and the long-term impact of specific migration policies, which forcibly immobilise migrants in intermediary or ‘transit’ countr...

In this conversation, Birmingham Fellow Dr Jennifer Allsopp and Professor Michael Jackson from the Harvard Divinity School discuss the inter-relational aspects of migration research and how literature has informed their fieldwork both in terms of method and interpretation, from Sebold to Dante. In a wide-ranging and deeply personal discussion, they cover topics including the nexus between autobiog...

In this conversation, Paladia Ziss ( @pyziss ) talks with Meena Sadr, student from Afghanistan, and Hannah Pool (Max-Planck-Institute Cologne) about the ethics and politics of collaborating with research assistants in research in and on Afghanistan. Hannah is the author of the award-winning PhD dissertation '"Doing the Game": The Moral Economy of Coming to Europe" ( @hnnhpool ). Meena ( @meenasadr...

In this episode, Dawn River talks to Zhenya Tramvay Yevhen Trachuk from Kyiv Pride. Zhenya focuses on the achievements of LGBTQI people in Ukraine and their hope for the future, issues related to the border crossing of transgender people and the frictions and potential alliances between the Russian and Ukrainian LGBTQI movements.

To mark the 6th anniversary of the 2016 Brexit referendum we spoke with Dr  Djordje Sredanovic (Free University of Brussels), author of Implementing Citizenship, Nationality and Integration. In this analysis, Sredanovic compares and contrasts the experiences of citizenship and integration policies in the UK and Belgium. In-depth interviews with officials show both the everyday application of...

This episode explores transnational political mobilisation by migrant communities. Catherine Craven (Research Fellow on the MIGZEN project) speaks to Ashwini Vasanthakumar (Associate Professor at Queen’s University, Canada), about her recently published book The Ethics of Exile: A Political Theory of Diaspora , which explores the normative and political agency of exiles. In their conversation, Ash...

In this new episode, Dr Stefano Piemontese, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at IRiS, speaks with Dr Karolina Nikielska-Sekula (Jagiellonian University, Krakow) and Dr Amandine Desille (University of Bordeaux) about their co-edited book "Visual Methodology in Migration Studies. New Possibilities, Theoretical Implications, and Ethical Questions", published in Summer 2021 in the Springer IMISC...

To mark 2021 International Migrants Day, we are releasing a new episode of Conversations with IRiS (#CWI29) dedicated to understanding the policy encounter between climate change and international migration, how it began, who was involved and where it is heading. Professor Nando Sigona, Director of IRiS, speaks with Dr Sarah Louise Nash, author of "Negotiating Migration in the Context of Climate C...

Anna Papoutsi talks to Natani Petros about identity and belonging among second generation individuals of African decent in Athens (Greece). We discuss the experience of growing up under a citizenship regime that is based on jus sanguinis, meaning that nationality is determined by the nationality of the parents and not the place of birth (jus soli). While born and raised in Greece, children of Afri...

In this episode of Conversations with Iris we examine the unresearched phenomenon of indigenous migration with a focus on Guatemala, Mexico and the US diaspora. Despite the heterogeneity of indigenous populations in terms of language culture, age, gender and family make-up, they often face a range of specific vulnerabilities on the move. The challenges they meet both on their journey and once they...

In the new episode of Conversations with Iris, Nando Sigona talks with professor Andrew Geddes, director of the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute, about his recent book 'Governing migration beyond the state' (Oxford University Press). The conversation explores the role of regional actors in migration governance and how responses to mobility are negotiated across differen...

When travelling across the world, people are being subjected to multiple forms of tracking and profiling by unaccountable state agencies. Local and international travel is changing radically as concerns about terrorism and migration increase. Security agencies require access to travellers’ information before they leave their homes, compulsory identification of travellers now includes the collectio...

Laurie Hartley, Asylum Seeker Support Worker at Rainbow Migration (previously known as UKLGIG), speaks to IRiS academic Dawn River about the experiences of LGBTQI+ people seeking asylum in the UK.

IRiS Director Professor Nando Sigona is joined by Zoe Gardner, Policy Advisor with the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) to discuss the UK’s new plan for immigration.

Sarah Hamed, dentist and PhD researcher at the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University and Dr Suruchi Thapar-Bjorkert, docent and senior researcher at the Department of Government at Uppsala, discuss with Professor Jenny Phillimore from IRiS on findings from an interdisciplinary project looking at understanding racism and healthcare.

ILGA-Europe staff Akram Kubanychbekov and Cianán Russell speak with Dawn River from IRiS. Their research reveals there have been significant impacts on the health, socioeconomic security, and physical security of LGBTIQ individuals, as well as impacts on the function and funding of LGBTIQ organisations.

How has Brexit redrawn the boundaries of membership in the UK? IRiS Director Nando Sigona talks to Professor Adrian Favell about the ESRC-funded Northern Exposure project on the impact of Brexit on northern towns and small cities, and how the end of freedom of movement doesn’t mean less immigration, but immigration with less rights and protections.

IRiS researcher Dr Marisol Reyes talks to Brenda Ochoa, Director of the NGO Human Rights Centre Fray Matias de Cordova AC, on the effects of border closure at the Guatemala and Mexico border on Central American migrant caravans in the context of Covid-19 public health crisis.

Jenny Phillimore talks to Chip Gallagher (LaSalle University, US) about immigration and racism and how they are shaping voting behaviours in the US Election as well as the prospects for change with the election of a Biden/Harris-led government. Chip Gallagher is Professor of Sociology at LaSalle University, US. His research focuses on social inequality, race relations, whiteness and immigration, a...

Prof Nando Sigona, Director of IRiS, dialogues with Cecilia Menjívar, Professor of Sociology at UCLA and President-Elect of the American Sociological Association- ASA on the impact of the Trump administration and COVI-19 on migrant lives.