By Bridget Anderson and Emma Newcombe.
Happy New Year to all our friends, colleagues and members! We hope the break or change in routine have left you energised for 2026. The last year has been bleak for so many. The Gaza horror, needless (and nameless) deaths in the Mediterranean and Channel, physical, legislative and verbal attacks on migrants, including refugees, are just some of the scars carried by 2025.
These injustices impact on our communities in multiple ways, and shape the society and culture we live in. At MMB we support the work you do ‘that contributes to creating a more just world’. Critical spaces for reflection and debate are precious and must be preserved.
Together, what did we manage to do last year?
We were particularly proud to have published a Bristol University Press edited collection Rethinking Migration. The volume showcases our Bristol Approach – conceptual, critical and creative – and you can read more about it and download it for free here.
Earlier in the year we produced the MMB podcast, Migration Unboxed, which has now had more than 2,000 downloads! All five episodes are available, with the final one exploring MMB’s radically interdisciplinary take on migration and mobility studies. We continue to regularly publish on the MMB blog with recent posts on digital monitoring, SIM card artworks, vigilante ‘justice’ in South Africa, and work within the UK asylum system.
In Bristol city we’ve continued to collaborate with ACH to run online webinars, most recently on environment and migration. In December, we participated in a great roundtable event discussing the theme of ‘Unstable Ground: Movement, Materiality and Transformation’, in relation to Spike’s current exhibitions by Nour Jaouda and Dan Lie. Lucy Donkin, Nariman Massoumi and Michael Malay gave interventions challenging conventional narratives of place, memory and identity, that were the subject of lively conversations with Spike Associates. We’re looking forward to more!
We also are building our international collaborations. As many of you know, we have enjoyed a very productive relationship with scholars in New York, facilitated by Benjamin Meaker grants and a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship. We are delighted that the MMB/Multiple Mobilities Collective published a joint visual essay ‘On seeing crossings: Dover/Calais’ drawing on our experiences of visits to Dover/Calais. We also were pleased to strengthen our ties with UC Santa Cruz in the US and Linköping University in Sweden and to run a solidarity event on migration research and justice.
With all that behind us what is there to look forward to this year?
The MMB Blog series will continue, and we will aim to develop a series on narrative change in the coming months. On 13th January we are holding an event to respond to the government’s consultation on a ‘Fairer Path to Settlement’. Spoiler alert: it is anything but fair. We’d really encourage people to engage in this consultation. If you are not able to attend the event, it’s not too late to contribute responses. Even if you don’t have time to complete the form yourself, send your suggestions for things to add to the collective Bristol submission to Bridget by Friday 30th January.
We have several events coming up too starting with a joint event with Centre for Law and History, who have invited Duncan Wallace, from Melbourne to speak on the legal history of deportation on the 3rd February. And a regular film club will be restarted led by Nariman Massoumi, Dept. of Film and Television. Watch this space to hear about more and we look forward to working with you in 2026!
Authors:
Bridget Anderson is Professor of Migration, Mobilities and Citizenship, and Co-Director of Migration Mobilities Bristol at the University of Bristol. She is the editor of Rethinking Migration: Challenging Borders, Citizenship and Race (2025), available in paperback or via open access here.
Emma Newcombe is the Manager of Migration Mobilities Bristol at the University of Bristol.