Episoder
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What’s the significance of migration for the making of ‘Global Britain’? And what are the theoretical and conceptual tools that can help to unpack this question? In this episode, we turn our attention to the value of racial capitalism for understanding migration to and from the UK after Brexit. Elena Zambelli explains what we mean when we talk about ‘Global Britain,’ its political trajectory, and the role of coloniality within it. Ida Danewid, Lecturer in Gender and Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex joins us to offer insights into the relationship between racial capitalism, migration and borders. As she highlights, mobility controls produce the exploitable labour force necessary for capitalist accumulation and how those migrantized resist state violence. And co-hosts Nando Sigona and Michaela Benson consider what a racial capitalism lens adds to understandings of the UK's new suite of humanitarian visas, and more broadly to the role of migration in the making of Global Britain.
You can access the full transcripts for the episode, further resources and active listening questions over on our website: Who do we think we are?
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What are the UK Government’s ‘safe and legal routes’? How do these relate to ‘stop the boats’, the Rwanda Plan, and the curtailment of asylum as laid out in the 1951 Refugee Convention? What can we learn from listening to the Hong Kongers and Ukrainians beneficiaries of these humanitarian visas? And what if these routes are not so safe after all?
In this episode we explore the UK’s safe and legal (humanitarian routes). Elena Zambelli explains what ‘asylum’ is, looking its history, scope and challenges to these international protections since 2015 ‘refugee crisis.’ Fizza Qureshi, CEO of the Migrants’ Rights Network, board member of Migrants at Work and of the honorary advisory committee for the Black Europeans, joins us to offer a critical overview of the UK’s immigration and asylum reforms over the past decade. Asking what this tells us about migrants’ rights, she highlights how these reforms impact disproportionately on brown and black migrants who try to make the UK their homes. And co-hosts Nando Sigona and Michaela Benson consider the ongoing contestations surrounding the figure of the ‘refugee’ as well as the asylum system as a whole. They reflect on how beneficiaries of the Hong Kong BN(O) and Ukraine visa schemes experience these humanitarian visas, and what we can learn from them about the limits of these.
You can access the full transcripts for the episode, further resources and active listening questions over on our website: Who do we think we are?
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Manglende episoder?
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What’s Brexit got to do with the ‘small boats’ crisis? What does racialised border violence in the Channel tell us about 'Global Britain’? And what can we learn about the UK’s approach to its borders from the Hong Kong BN(O) and Ukrainian visas? We discuss all of this and more as we turn a lens onto Fortress Britain.
Elena Zambelli explains what we mean when we talk about migrants’ irregularisation. We’re joined by Arshad Isakjee and Thom Davies talk about their research on the racialised border violence enacted by Fortress Europe and why we need to turn our attention to how this relates to the EU’s liberal values. And Nando and Michaela turn the lens back onto UK and its post-Brexit borders as they discuss the new suite of ‘safe and legal (humanitarian) routes’, and what these signal about the future of asylum within and beyond the UK.
You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on our website Who do we think we are?
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Migrant laborers worldwide are engaged in care work, but who provides care for them? And where can they seek care? In this discussion with Ethel Tungohan, the author of 'Care Activism', we go beyond the headlines that portray migrant domestic workers as victims or heroes. By focusing on their daily lives and the experiences of migrant care workers, we explore various sites of everyday resistance, ‘dissident friendships’, and the politics of critical hope and care.
You can access the full transcripts for each episode on the Who do we think we are? website.
In this episode we cover …
Migrant care workers in Canada and the UK Migrant agency and everyday lives Resistance and care activismActive Listening Questions
What can we learn from looking at the everyday lives of the migrants? How does Ethel explain why migrant care workers’ organisations emerged? And what do they offer to migrant care workers that states do not? Why might migrant care workers resist the idea of being ‘sisters’? And what alternative ways of understanding the relationships of care between them are discussed in the episode? What does care activism make visible about migrant agency?Read …
Ethel’s book Care Activism and article with Jon Careless on how Canadian news media frames temporary migrant workers
Anja K. Franck’s article Laughable Borders
Listen to …
Academic Aunties
Call to action
Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms.
To find out more about Who do we think we are?, including news, events and resources, check out our website, follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
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What happens when borders cross families? How do families navigate these interruptions to their ability to live together? This episode considers what shifting perspective to families opens up to view in terms of thinking about the work of borders and their impact on people’s everyday lives. Helena Wray, Professor of Migration Law at the University of Exeter, explains the historical development of family migration laws and what these make visible about the racialization of the nation and its political community. Elena Zambelli explains what a ‘mixed-status family’ is, and the many ways in which states may affect its members’ everyday lives and future imaginings. And co-hosts Nando Sigona and Michaela Benson consider how the state’s regulation of family migrations is linked to the reproduction of the nation state, and draw on data collected within the MIGZEN project to show the effects of Brexit on British-European families.
You can access the full transcripts for the episode, further resources and active listening questions over on our website: Who do we think we are?
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We’re out and about in this episode! Ala and Michaela have been on the road. And in this episode they visit Manchester Museum and a new project aimed at decolonising the museum collection. They are joined by members of the Ancient History, Contemporary Belonging research project—youth researcher Senna Yousef and Dr Caitlin Nunn from Manchester Metropolitan University—which retells the history of objects held by the Museum through archival research and young people’s experiences of migration.
You can access the full transcripts for each episode on the Who do we think we are? website.
In this episode we cover …
- Decolonising Museums
- Participatory and arts-based methods
- The Koh-i-noor Diamond and the British Monarch
Find out more about …
The Ancient History, Contemporary Belonging Project
Senna’s contribution to the exhibition ‘The Tale of Migrants’
Our headline ‘Camilla to wear recycled crown without Koh-i-Noor diamond at Coronation’
The Koh-i-Noor Diamond from these podcasts that we rate from Scrolls and Leaves and Empire
Call to action
Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms.
To find out more about Who do we think we are?, including news, events and resources, check out our website, follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
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Borders around the world are becoming increasingly digitised. But who does the digitisation of borders serve? How are these technologies related to state-led projects of securitisation and surveillance? And what do digital bordering practices mean for migrants, migrant rights and advocacy?
In this episode we lift the lid on digital bordering. We debunk political rhetoric about how these make border control more efficient to consider what the increasing use of such technologies of border control makes visible about bordering as a practice and process around the world today. Elena Zambelli considers what we mean when we talk about digital borders and shows it is linked to the increasing precarity of legal status among migrants. Kuba Jablonowski, Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Bristol joins us with a case study that brings all of this to life: the digital and online only roll out of the EU Settled Status Scheme (EUSS) in the UK, how this was framed by the priorities of the Home Office, the consequences for EU nationals, including the racial discrimination produced through its implementation. And Nando and Michaela turn their attention to how those taking part on our research experienced such statuses, how this links to Hostile Environment, and the challenges that this presents for migrant rights and advocacy.
You can access the full transcripts for the episode, further resources and active listening questions over on our website: Who do we think we are?
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What role do diplomacy and the power play between states play in the development of migration policy? And how can turning our attention to the significance of foreign policy within migration governance help us in understanding the post-Brexit migration regime in the UK?
In this jam-packed episode, we consider how foreign policy and geopolitics shapes migration and mobility regimes. Catherine Craven explains what we mean when we talk about migration diplomacy. Fiona Adamson, Professor of International Relations at SOAS, invites us to think about how migration and diaspora feature in inter-state relations, with a particular focus on the EU. Through the discussion of the UK’s new humanitarian visas and the citizens’ negotiations, Nando and Michaela reflect on the relationship between migration diplomacy and the UK’s shifting position on the world stage after Brexit.
You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on our website Who do we think we are?
In this episode we cover …
Migration diplomacy and the geopolitics of migration
Hong Kong BN(O) and Ukraine Visa schemes
Brexit and the citizens’ rights negotiations
Active listening questions
What does ‘migration diplomacy’ mean?
What actors do and can engage in migration diplomacy?
What diplomatic instruments can states use to govern international migration?
Which new visa routes and trade and mobility agreements has Britain negotiated and/or implemented since Brexit?
Find more about …
The uses of Migration Diplomacy in World Politics
Why migration deals such as the Rwanda plan are here to stay
How the UK’s exit from the EU turned the Mediterranean ‘refugee crisis’ into a British ‘border crisis’
Our podcast picks ...
Explore background debates and concepts in International Relations theory more generally at Whiskey and International Relations Theory
Hong Kong BN(O) visa scheme
NPR’s Throughline on Hong Kong
Call to action
Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed.
Get all the latest updates from the MIGZEN research project on Twitter and Instagram
Follow Who do we think we are? on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
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What’s changed in the UK’s approach to migration since Brexit? How has this impacted on migration flows? Who is and isn’t migrating to the UK ?
In A New Plan for Migration? we consider the shape and structure of the UK’s regulation and governance of migration since leaving the European Union. Catherine Craven explains what we mean when we talk about Migration Regimes, and shows how this works in practice. Barrister, author and Founder of Free Movement Law Colin Yeo, shares his thoughts on what has and hasn’t changed in terms of laws and policies on UK immigration since Brexit. And our presenters Michaela Benson and Nando Sigona consider the politicisation of migration, and how this is reflected in rhetoric and the framing of new legislation, policy and guidelines, and what EU citizens in the UK and British citizens in the EU have to say about it. And they ask the question is the post Brexit regime just?
You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on our website Who do we think we are?
In this episode we cover …
Migration regimes
New plan for migration
Post-Brexit borders and immigration controls
Active listening questions:
How would you define a migration regime?
What do migration regimes do for states?
In what ways has the UK’s migration regime changed since Brexit, if at all?
Find out more about …
Why some migrants are deemed more deserving than others in Global Britain in Michaela and Nando’s piece for Open Democracy
The injustices inherent in the UK’s current immigration system from Colin’s book Welcome to Britain: Fixing Our Broken Immigration System
An early call for the institution of a fair global migration regime in this article by Stephen Castles
Podcast recommendations:
Colin on the Politico podcast: Westminster Insider: Can Rishi Sunak ‘Stop the boats’?
Listen to the Free Movement podcast for regular updates and commentaries on UK immigration law
Check this episode of WDWTWA Beyond the Headlines where Colin joined Michaela and Ala Sirriyeh to discuss Suella Braverman
Call to action
Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed.
Get all the latest updates from the MIGZEN research project on Twitter and Instagram
Follow Who do we think we are? on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
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Understandings of migration are invariably reduced to immigration, framed by the policy agenda of receiving states. But what about the people who leave? And why does it matter that we remember, as French-Algerian sociologist Abdelmalek Sayad stressed, that ‘every immigrant is also an emigrant’?
From the role of emigration in the making of the British empire and other European colonial powers to its neglect in public and political conversations about migration today, this episode explores what is opened up when we turn the spotlight onto those leaving the sovereign territory of a nation. Elena Zambelli explains what we mean when we talk about emigration. Mukti Jain Campion, founder of the independent production company Culture Wise, reminds us of the relationship between emigration and the making of the British Empire. Nando and Michaela reflect on why we need to talk about emigration today. We look into how states engage with emigration from its role in net migration figures through to policies and concerns over brain drains. And we turn to consider who is leaving Britain today, drawing on what British citizens and EU nationals taking part in our research told us about the significance of Brexit to their emigration decisions.
You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on our website Who do we think we are?
In this episode we cover …
Emigration and colonisation
Leaving Britain today
Brexit and Brits Abroad
Active listening questions
Do you have any family members who have emigrated from their country of origin? What do you know about their reasons for leaving? What do you think understanding emigration can add to our understandings of migration? What is the relationship between British emigration and British colonialism? And how does this shape the experiences of British citizens emigrating today? What relationship does your country have with its citizens who have moved abroad?Hear more from Michaela and Mukti about British emigrants today
Learn about The Migration Museum’s Departures exhibition
Explore the Brexit testimonies of British citizens living in the EU
Our podcast picks ...
Departures – 400 Years of Emigration from Britain
BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking, Emigration
Bad Bridgets Podcast
Call to action
Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed.
Get all the latest updates from the MIGZEN research project on Twitter and Instagram
Follow Who do we think we are? on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
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This bonus episode features the full length recording of Elspeth Guild, legal scholar and counsel and our guest in Season 3 Episode 2, offering deep insights into the development of the EU's free movement regime, from its early form as a structure supporting the mobility of workers to its current form linked to EU citizenship. She reflects on the conditions that led to its introduction, how it's understood by governments, but also those who have taken up the opportunities it offers, as well as how is sits in the broader context of Fortress Europe and the ongoing politicisation of asylum.
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We’re talking Freedom of Movement, its role in the formation of an EU–wide imagined community, and the experiences of people who have lost their FOM rights due to Brexit. Catherine Craven explains what we mean when we talk about Freedom of Movement within the EU, its institutional underpinnings and social implications. Elspeth Guild, legal scholar and counsel, joins us to talk about the history and evolution of Free Movement rights within the EU, what Freedom of Movement does for Europeans and the meaning of EU citizenship, as well as the significance of the external EU border and the politicisation of asylum in the story of EU Free Movement. Nando and Michaela reflect on changes to who moves within Europe, how mobility within the EU relates to feelings of identity and belonging, as well as the inequalities that exist amongst EU citizens when they exercise Free Movement rights, and the impact of Brexit on those people who have lost their rights to FOM since Brexit.
You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on our website Who do we think we are?
In this episode we cover …
1 Freedom of Movement
2 EU citizenship, identity and belonging
3 What Brexit and the loss of FOM has meant for British citizens in the EU and EU citizens in the UK
Active listening questions
How would you describe Freedom of Movement? What factors might shape people’s experience of moving within the EU? And relatedly, what challenges or opportunities might people face when they move within the EU? What role does migration play in creating and maintaining a ‘community of Europeans’? In what ways has Brexit changed how you - your family & friends - can move to or within the EU?Find more about …
How migration and asylum relate to the “European way of life” from Elspeth’s article in the European Law Journal
How British People of Colour experience Brexit in Michaela Benson and Chantelle Lewis’ article in Ethnic and Racial Studies.
What Brexit means for British citizens in the EU-27 in this short animation
What place has got to do with identifying as European in this piece on Brexit, emotions and belonging by Nando Sigona and Marie Godin
And why is London the (best) place to be for Roma? Watch this short video
MIGZEN research on European belongings and political participation beyond Brexit.
Our podcast picks ...
Brexit Brits Abroad: Social mobility, free movement and the impermanance of citizenship rights
Borders & Belonging – How has Brexit changed the UK for Migrants?
Free Movement on EU Settled Status
Call to action
Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed.
Get all the latest updates from the MIGZEN research project on Twitter and Instagram
Follow Who do we think we are? on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
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What does Eurovision have to do with the Coronation? We’re talking about what we learn about ‘Global Britain’ and its imagined community from looking at how migrants understand major cultural events.
Elena Zambelli explains what social scientists mean when they talk about the imagined community. Laura Clancy, sociologist of the royal family, joins us to talk about the missing voices in conversations about the future of the British monarchy. Co-hosts Nando Sigona and Michaela Benson reflect on what British citizens living abroad, EU citizens and others who have made the UK their homes told them about how they understand Britain and their place within it following Brexit. And consider what hearing from them about the monarchy, the Commonwealth Games and Eurovision makes visible about the new borders of political membership and symbolic boundaries of belonging.
You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on our website Who do we think we are?
In this episode we cover …
1 The imagined community
2 The monarchy and the myth of the British nation
3 Eurovision, the Commonwealth Games and Royal Events
Active listening questions
What imagined community, or imagined communities, do you feel that you belong to? Are there public events during which you do or could celebrate your belonging to this or these communities? Which ones? Who do you think is excluded from this imagined community and how? And what does this tell us about the symbolic boundaries of this community?Find more about …
What EU citizens in the UK and British citizens in the EU think about the monarchy in Elena and Catherine’s article in the Sociological Review Magazine
The concept of imagined community in Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities and the critique offered by Partha Chatterjee’s The Nation and its Fragments
Laura’s sociology of the royal family in her book Running the family firm and the Surviving Society podcast miniseries The Global Power of the British Monarchy
Our podcast picks for this episode are:
Academic Aunties on ‘Harry and Meghan’
The Allusionist on Eurovision
Coversations with IRiS on Political Demography
Call to action
Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed.
Get all the latest updates from the MIGZEN research project on Twitter and Instagram
Follow Who do we think we are? on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
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Too often, talk about security seems to belong to politicians and psychologists; to discussions about terrorism and defence, individual anxiety and insecurity. But how do sociologists think about it? And why care?
Daria Krivonos – who works on migration, race and class in Central and Eastern Europe – tells Alexis and Rosie why security matters. What’s the impact of calling migration a “security threat”? How does the security of the privileged rely on the insecurity of the precarious? And, as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues, what would it mean to truly #StandwithUkraine – from ensuring better job security for its workers abroad, to cancelling its debt?
Plus: pop culture pointers; from Kae Tempest’s “People’s Faces” to the movie “The Mauritanian” – and Alexis’ teenage passion for Rage Against the Machine.
Guest: Daria Krivonos
Hosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu Truong
Executive Producer: Alice Bloch
Sound Engineer: David Crackles
Music: Joe Gardner
Artwork: Erin Aniker
Find more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.
Episode Resources
Daria, Rosie and Alexis recommended
Kae Tempest’s song “People’s Faces”
Rage Against the Machine’s song “Without a Face”
Kevin Macdonald’s movie “The Mauritanian”
From The Sociological Review
“Brexit On ‘Plague Island’: Fortifying The UK’s Borders In Times Of Crisis” – Michaela Benson and Nando Sigona
“Organised State Abandonment: The meaning of Grenfell” – Brenna Bhandar
“Food Insecurity: Upsetting ‘Apple Carts’ in Abstract and Tangible Markets” – Susan Marie Martin
By Daria Krivonos
“The making of gendered ‘migrant workers’ in youth activation: The case of young Russian-speakers in Finland”
“Ukrainian farm workers and Finland’s regular army of labour”
“Who stands with Ukraine in the long term?”
“Racial capitalism and the production of difference in Helsinki and Warsaw” (forthcoming)
Further readings
“The Death of Asylum” – Alison Mountz
“What was the so-called ‘European Refugee Crisis’?” – Danish Refugee Council
World Food Programme Yemen and Ethiopia statistics
“In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All” – UN Secretary-General
“Ukrainian Workers Flee ‘Modern Slavery’ Conditions on UK Farms” – Diane Taylor
“Bordering” – Nira Yuval-Davis, Georgie Wemyss and Kathryn Cassidy
Anthony Giddens’ sociological work; including “Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age”
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Here’s a little season end bonus, where our presenter, Michaela Benson and podcast researcher, George Kalivis go behind the scenes at Who do we think we are? They reflect on the origins of the series, the role of the podcast in challenging taken for granted understandings of migration and citizenship in the UK today. They unpack what goes into the making of each episode and what they’ve learned along the way. And consider the stories that didn’t make it into the series and those that stuck with them, and the importance of making audible the dialogues at the heart of academic scholarship.
You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on our website Who do we think we are?
Call to action
Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed.
To find out more about Who do we think we are? On our website, Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
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For the final episode of Season 2, we bring you a set of conversations about what Who do we think we are? achieves through dialogues with archival and social science research around migration and citizenship in the UK and beyond. We’re joined by former guest, Bolaji Balogun (University of Sheffield) who reflects on what excited him about taking part the podcast and offers tips for future guests. Niamh Welby, our former student intern, describes on how working on the podcast opened her eyes to the power and presence of resistance to present-day immigration controls and why words matter when we talk about migration. Michael J Richardson (University of Newcastle) explains why and how he has been using the podcast in the classroom with his first year undergraduate students. We’re also joined by his student Olivia Allerton who tells us what listening to the podcast has done for her knowledge and understanding and calls for the broader inclusion of podcasts on undergraduate reading lists. Listen for recommendations, reflections on podcasts as a form of public engagement with social science and value in the classroom.
You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on our website Who do we think we are?
In this episode we cover …
1 Dialogue and academic knowledge production
2 Podcasting and the public engagement with social science
3 Podcasts in the classroom
To find out more about …
Louisa Lim’s podcast ‘The King of Kowloon’
Social Geographies, an introduction, by Michael J Richardson and his colleagues at the University of Newcastle
Scholarly Podcasting, we recommend Ian Cook’s new book
Podcasts in the classroom, read Michaela’s reflections for The Sociological Review blog
And don’t forget to listen to our back catalogue!
Call to action
Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed.
To find out more about Who do we think we are? On our website, Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
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What does the characterisation of those from Europe’s east as migrants by politicians and in some corners of the media make visible about the politics of migration? What is distinctive about the ways in which they are migratised and racialised? And what does this offer to understandings of racism and racialisation? We’re joined by Aleks Lewicki (University of Sussex) to discuss how critical race theory and postcolonial scholarship can deepen our understandings of repertoires of racism as these play out between ‘Europeans’. Presenter Michaela Benson explores how borders within Europe shifted over the course of the twentieth century. Podcast researcher George Kalivis goes back in the archive to consider the 2003 EU Accession Treaty. And Aleks introduces us to her work about how those from Europe’s east are migratised and why we need to carefully consider what their racialisation makes visible about the distribution of power, past and present, within Europe.
You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on our website Who do we think we are?
In this episode we cover …
1 Unequal Europes and unequal Europeans
2 The 2003 EU accession treaty
3 Capitalism and the formation of European nation-states
Quote
‘Postcolonial approaches draw our attention to the longer durée of precarious labour mobility … there were parallel processes of extractivism occurring. Where Europe ventured out as part of colonialism, and positioned the colonies subsequently as peripheries, at the same time, there was also an extraction of resources and cheap labour from Europe's east, which thereby became positioned as a semi periphery. If we consider these longer histories, it becomes apparent what this meant for the region … generation after generation of people had to at some point, move west to make a living and engaged in various forms of precarious labour mobility’. —Aleks Lewicki
Find out more about … Aleks’ research and her paper on the ambiguous racialisation of ‘Eastern Europeans’
If you liked this episode, check out our previous episodes on this topic with Bolaji Balogun and Marius Turda on European identities, Nando Sigona on EU citizenship, and Manuela Boatcă on citizenship and Global Social Inequalities
Call to action
Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed.
To find out more about Who do we think we are? On our website, Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
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There is nothing politically neutral about classifying and categorising people as migrants. This is a process through which certain individuals and populations are defined as migrants, whether they have crossed borders or not. It has political consequences and impacts for those who find themselves labelled as such. In this episode we turn to this always-political question to consider what this means for how we study and research migration. Researcher George Kalivis goes back to the 1970s to consider the Grunwick industrial dispute. Presenter Michaela Benson considers what the UK’s post-Brexit immigration system, makes visible about class and migration. And Bridget Anderson Professor of Migration, Mobilities and Citizenship at the University of Bristol joins us to talk about why we need to turn our attention to how the distinctions between citizens and migrants are made and to what ends, and what conceptual tools might be useful in excavating the connections between migrants and citizens as we consider the always-political question ‘Who is a migrant?’
You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on our website Who do we think we are?
In this episode we cover …
1 Migrantisation and racialisation
2 Grunwick Dispute
3 Post-Brexit immigration regime
Quote
Given that ‘migrant’ is a social as well as a legal construction, then we as researchers are part of making the subordinated character of the migrants … migrants and migration, migrant and citizenship are not just neutral descriptors, they make power relations between each other and between a person and state.
—Bridget Anderson
Find out more about …
Bridget’s research and Migration Mobilities Bristol
Read Bridget’s work on methodological denationalism and migrantisation
We also recommend Alyosxa Tudor’s work on racialisation and migratisation
Michaela’s research on Brexit and the stratification of British people in France
The Grunwick industrial dispute from the Working Class Movement Library and the Striking Women Module
Call to action
Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed.
Visit us via our website, Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
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All eyes have been on Qatar because of the World Cup. And with it, attention to the poor working conditions and treatment of migrant construction workers. We go beyond the headlines with İdil Akıncı-Pérez (University of Edinburgh) to explore the back story to these issues. We look in depth at how the Gulf States approach migration and citizenship, from the Kafala sponsorship system to restrictions on citizenship which mean that only 10% of the resident population have citizenship. We move beyond the suggestion of the Gulf States as exceptional to consider instead how their approach converges and diverges from migration-citizenship regimes closer to home, and what this makes visible about global migration and citizenship regimes.
You can access the full transcripts for each episode on the Who do we think we are? website.
In this episode we cover …
Kafala and labour conditions History of citizenship and migration in the Gulf Legal precarity across the life courseQuote
"If you hold nationality of a country with ongoing political conflict and violence where do you go if you lose your temporary visa that is linked to employment which means you have to find a different place to live? It is really important to look at legal status together with nationality to understand inequality." — İdil Akıncı-Pérez
Find out more about …
Our guest İdil Akıncı-Pérez and her work and follow her on twitter
Our headline for this episode from Al Jazeera
We also loved this episode about Qatar and the World Cup from one of our favourite podcasts, NPR’s Throughline
Call to action
Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms.
To find out more about Who do we think we are?, including news, events and resources, check out our website, follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
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Who is unquestionably European? From Brexit to the war in Ukraine, this question has come to the fore as people of colour have found themselves disproportionately questioned as they try to exercise their rights as European citizens. We’re joined by Bolaji Balogun (University of Sheffield) and Marius Turda (Oxford Brookes) to discuss the longer history of migration between Europe the UK, how this history interplays with the development of immigration controls in the UK (and elsewhere), and the development of European identities from the early twentieth century to the present-day.
George and Michaela consider the disproportionate challenges that European people of colour have faced in securing their post-Brexit status through the EU settled status scheme. In our explainer, Michaela explores the social and political context that led to the development of the 1905 Aliens Act. And in conversation, Bolaji and Marius introduce us to the role of eugenics and race science in the development of early immigration controls in the UK and how this set the stage for the racialised exclusions at the heart of contemporary immigration controls and governance practices across Europe.
You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on our website Who do we think we are?
In this episode we cover …
The Aliens Act 1905 Eugenics, race science and immigration controls European identities and WhitenessQuote
The ways in which migration and citizenship are processes of inclusion and exclusion at the same time. As a citizen you think you're actually free to move around. But the same process of citizenship has been used to actually exclude and to reduce also, what you can have access to and what you canot. And actually eugenics provided tools for that to actually happen. —Bolaji Balogun
We attach so much importance to historical myths of origins. And those continue to fuel, often negatively, fantasies of belonging. And white supremacy and whiteness is based on the fantasy of belonging, these ideas have never gone away. — Marius Turda
Find out more about …
Bolaji and his work, follow him on Twitter, and read his paper Race, blood,and nation
Marius’s work on The Eugenics Podcast, follow him on Twitter, and read his paper Legacies of Eugenics
Dahaba Ali Hussen’s struggle for EU settled status
Black Europeans, the organisation documenting systemic racism in the EUSS scheme
Call to action
Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed.
To find out more about Who do we think we are? On our website, Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
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