Bodies, Things, Capital blogs

By Liz Hingley. ‘A person in any country begins their relationship, adventures and acquires an identity, whether temporary or long, when they put the SIM card of that country in their phone.’Kacem, from Syria to the Bibby Stockholm Barge, 2020 The words of Kacem frame the door of an old Victorian shop on the Strand… Read more: Curating Waymarkers – an exhibition visualising mobility, connection and friendship

New writing on migration and mobilities – an MMB special series By Hassan Ould Moctar. In March 2024, the Mauritanian government signed a migration partnership agreement with Spain and the European Commission, the stated aim being to address a surge of unwanted migrant arrivals on the Canary Islands. While unprecedented in financial scope, this was… Read more: After border externalisation: migration, race and labour in Mauritania

A special series from the Migration Research Group of the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol. By Nicole Hoellerer and Katharine Charsley. The UK has one of the world’s most restrictive spouse and partner immigration systems. The UK government has long suggested increasing restrictions to the rights of citizens to be joined… Read more: Are the UK’s immigration rules forcing couples into marriage?

Migration, Mobilities and Digital Technologies – a special series published in association with the ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures. By Travis Van Isacker. For the past year I have been attending border industry conferences to understand the future claims they are making as part of my research on digitised borders for the ESRC Centre for… Read more: Who’s in the fast lane? Will new border tech deliver seamless travel for all?

A special series from the Migration Research Group of the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol. By Julio D’Angelo Davies. Brazil is built on slavery. It was the Americas’ largest importer of enslaved Africans, with Rio de Janeiro serving as the country’s main port of entry. Despite receiving nearly… Read more: ‘Slaves’, migrants and museums: the struggle for places of African memory in Brazil

Borderland Infrastructures – an MMB special series exploring the material and symbolic infrastructure of border regimes in the port cities of Calais and Dover. By Radhika Subramaniam. It was the boots that first caught my eye. They sat there, two or three, on a large table, looking in good nick, creased into a visible sense of… Read more: Footsore/footloose: mobile foot technologies

A special series from the Migration Research Group of the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol. By Lydia Medland. The pen asks: ‘Need seasonal workers?’ It’s a freebie from a horticultural event aimed at fruit growers. The expected answer is, ‘yes’. On the other side of the pen is… Read more: New questions for the UK’s seasonal worker scheme

A special series from the Migration Research Group of the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol. By Samuel Okyere. Welcome to the MMB special series by the SPAIS Migration Group, a collective of researchers in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies (SPAIS) at the University of Bristol… Read more: Moving as being: introducing the SPAIS Migration Group blog series