The Migration Podcast

Natalie Brinham talks about the rich field of statelessness studies, how survivors of state crime disrupt dominant discourse around “legal identity”, and her experience of conducting qualitative research with Rohingya in the wake of the genocide in 2017. At that time, she was set to carry-out fieldwork for her PhD, but instead, took a bold step back, and changed her plans to enable a more ethical...

Migrants are natural adopters of mobile technologies. Rob Sharp interviews Koen Leurs about his book Digital Migration . Among other things, they discuss the datafication of migration and that migration researchers need to avoid enabling mechanisms of migration control. Read about the book here: Leurs, K. (2023). Digital migration. London: Sage. https://www.uu.nl/en/publication/digital-migration T...

In this episode Amanda Alencar speaks to Ayham Dalal about how refugees living in camps adapt the space around them to fit their needs. Ayham Dalal is an urban planner and architect specialised in the field of Forced Migration. He is the author of the book “From Shelters to Dwellings: The Zaatari Refugee Camp” published by Transcript Verlag (2022). He has been a research fellow at the Refugee Stud...

We only just get started with Season 4 and there is important news already: -Fiona will be on leave for a while, leaving you in Kate’s capable hands. ("bye bye!"~Fiona) -The annual IMISCOE conference is about to start; we hope to see you in great numbers online or in person in Warsaw from July 3-6th 2023. https://www.imiscoe.org/conference -We have a new podcast team! Follow the IMISCOE channels t...

In this episode, we explore how participatory filmmaking can be used in research. Amanda Alencar spoke to Kevin Smets about studying borderlands through film. Learn more about the project REEL Borders here: https://reelborders.eu/ Kevin Smets is Associate Professor at VUB (Vrije Universiteit) in Brussels. This is the final episode of this season. The Migration Podcast team will be back after a bre...

In this episode, Asya speaks to Birgit Glorius about refugee reception in Germany. They discuss whether refugee reception and reception infrastructure have changed over time, and how the reception experienced by asylum seekers in 2015 differs from that experienced by Ukrainian refugees arriving in Germany since early 2022. Birgit Glorius is Professor of Human Geography, focusing on European Migrat...

Since 2019, I was involved in PERCEPTIONS, a research project exploring perceptions and imaginaries of Europe, how these came about, how they circulated, and enquiring about their role in migration decisions. As the project comes to a close, I am discussing some of the findings with my colleagues Diotima Bertel, Sara Carrasco Granger, Elizabeth Kassinis and Alagie Jinkang. Diotima Bertel is a rese...

Our guest today is Viktoria Sereda, a Ukrainian scholar whose research expertise straddles the formation of sociopolitical identity, cross-regional mobility, as well as internal and international displacement of Ukrainians following the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. Our associate producer, Asya Pisarevskaya, speaks with Viktoria about researching forced displacement as her home country has...

Complementary pathways are safe and legal pathways outside of traditional resettlement for asylum seekers and refugees looking to relocate. Such pathways make use of existing legal migration routes leading to, for example, residence titles for the purpose of education, employment, or family reunification, or acquired through humanitarian and sponsorship schemes. Here to tell us more about compleme...

Perhaps you remember Bella from an earlier episode (Calling our listeners) in which we asked you to participate in her research project on Academic podcasting. Maybe you even participated in her survey. Listen to this episode if you want to find out what Bella found. -------------------- Academic podcasting is enjoying a steady increase in engagement across all fields. But who is it for? My study...

People do not only migrate across borders. Very often, they move within countries. Our guest Gediminas Lesutis spoke to Jolynna Sinanan about the displacement and resettlement of small-scale farmers because of mining activities in Mozambique, and how these farmers cope with the ensuing changes to their lives. Gediminas Lesutis is a Marie Curie Fellow at the Department of Geography, Urban Planning,...

In this episode, we turn our attention to exploring the relationship of migration with climate change. Patrick Sakdapolrak, who explores migration as a climate change adaptation strategy, is here to speak about his research on translocal social resilience, and whether migration can impact sustainability practices. Patrick Sakdapoldrak is Professor for Population Geography and Demography at the Uni...

Bella is joining our team from July to October to find out more about academic podcasting, its use cases and what makes a podcast 'academic'. Share your thoughts by participating in the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/H7GV692 The survey is open from 28 June 2022 until mid-August. Isabella C. Gualano is majoring in Chinese studies at the University of Sheffield. She is currently completing h...

In a 2016 referendum, the British public voted to exit the European Union. Xenophobia played an important role in the outcome of that vote, and a lot of that antipathy against migrants was directed towards Eastern Europeans. Yva Alexandrova lived and worked in the UK during that time, and in the wake of the Brexit vote began writing her book, protesting the notion that Eastern European migrants in...

This is the final episode of our podcast crossover trilogy. Migration has been a characteristic of societies for centuries. Humans have always migrated to either escape harsh lives, or in search for better ones, or both. Continuing immigration flows and increasing diversity in many societies have led to more complex processes of belonging and integration, as well as the emergence of cross-border e...

To kickstart our new series of episodes, we invited Steven Vertovec to speak about ways of studying and understanding one of the consequences of migration, that is social complexity. Around 2007, Steve coined the concept 'super-diversity' to grasp the increasing diversity within migrant populations in British society, highlighting that this diversification should not merely be understood in terms...

In this second episode of the Culture & Inequality x The Migration Podcast trilogy, we discuss the linkages between race and sport, with a particular focus on football. International migration in professional football has brought together players of various racial and ethnic backgrounds. This applies, in particular, to professional men’s football which has become a highly visible platform for raci...

This a special crossover episode between the Migration Podcast and the Culture and Inequality Podcast. The first in a series of three, this episode investigates how Music and Social Media matter in Migration (and vice-versa). Our guests are Daniela Jaramillo-Dent and Marco Martiniello. The episode is hosted by Julian Schaap. For centuries, music has been a powerful source of individual and social...

In this episode, our guest Sverre Molland takes a critical look at two themes that have prominently structured humanitarian aid and funding: human trafficking and safe migration. With Jamie, he speaks about how one discourse increasingly gives way to the other, and what that might have to do with the politics of migration. Want to know more about Sverre? Check out his website: https://www.sverremo...

When we think of migration we immediately think of space. But time plays a crucial role, too. Just think of the temporal limitations of a visa, or of cross-border mobilities as part and parcel of someone’s professional and personal careers. Jolynna Sinanan spoke to Shanthi Robertson about her new book “Temporality in Mobile Lives. Contemporary Asia–Australia Migration and Everyday Time”, about the...

Co-productive and co-creative research is all the rage, but what does it entail? Can a research project in collaboration with members of the population studied indeed be realised? And is all research that labels itself co-productive, truly so? Or do we perhaps mistake consultations for the co-production of knowledge? Kasia Grabska speaks with Milena Belloni about her experiences doing collaborativ...

A central concern in debates around refugee integration is that of labour market integration. But how do displaced people create livelihoods for themselves and become self-reliant? For this episode we invited Evan Easton-Calabria to discuss the meaning of refugee self-reliance, how assistance practices have changed over time, and the important yet often overlooked role of refugee-led organisations...

Milena Belloni speaks to Valentina Mazzucato about how she explores the minute details of everyday migrant transnationalism: the ties and relationships that connect migrants with other people across nation-state borders. Our guest highlights the importance of exploring transnationalism from different locations simultaneously, the value of defocusing research from the migrants’ side of the story, a...

In April 2019, a year before we launched The Migration Podcast, I sat down for an interview with Nina Glick Schiller in New York. New York is the city where Nina had based her PhD project on Haitian immigrants, a project that laid the foundation for the book “Nations Unbound”. The book, co-authored by Linda Basch, Nina Glick Schiller, and Cristina Szanton Blanc, would deeply impact how we think ab...

Approximately a third of Singapore´s active labour force is non-resident (Ministry of Manpower, 2021), meaning they are neither Singapore citizens nor permanent residents. Of those, the majority are foreigners employed to do menial work in the construction industry, in shipyards, or in the service sector, such as domestic work in people´s homes. Much of Singapore's shiny skyscrapers, award-winning...