Latin America
- Bolsonaro’s paradox: a far-right leader’s pro-immigration strategy?A special series from the Migration Research Group of the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol. By Maeli Farias. Immigration is a highly politicised and election-defining issue. Across the Global North, conservative, liberal, left-leaning and far-right leaders alike typically adopt hostile, dehumanising stances toward immigrants and refugees, as most explicitly exemplified by… Read more: Bolsonaro’s paradox: a far-right leader’s pro-immigration strategy?
- ‘Slaves’, migrants and museums: the struggle for places of African memory in BrazilA 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
- Moving as being: introducing the SPAIS Migration Group blog seriesA 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
- Across the waters: Caribbean mobilities, itineraries, historiesBy Orlando Deavila Pertuz and Bethan Fisk. What stories are told about the Caribbean? What do these narratives exclude? How can we broaden the story? And how can we teach a wider vision of the Caribbean to students of all ages and wider publics? Orlando Deavila Pertuz from the Instituto Internacional de Estudios del Caribe… Read more: Across the waters: Caribbean mobilities, itineraries, histories
- ‘We’ll double your change!’ The materiality and mobility of cash in contemporary ArgentinaBy Juan Luis Bradley. In January 2024, the Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA) announced that two new, higher denomination banknotes (ARS10,000 and ARS20,000) would be placed into circulation by the summer. The rift between the value to be printed on these notes and the highest denomination note currently available at the time of writing (ARS2,000)… Read more: ‘We’ll double your change!’ The materiality and mobility of cash in contemporary Argentina
- Chilean exile in the UK: music, memory and the making of futuresBy Simón Palominos Mandiola. In 2023, Chileans worldwide marked the 50th anniversary of the 1973-1990 civilian-military dictatorship, which aimed to dismantle decades of progress in wealth redistribution, cultural development and democratisation in Chile. Alongside arrests, torture and murders, exile became a widespread repressive tactic, with over 200,000 individuals forced to leave, significantly altering migration patterns.… Read more: Chilean exile in the UK: music, memory and the making of futures
- (Im)mobility in Buenos Aires (1929-2023)By Jo Crow. I travelled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in November 2023 to research the First Conference of Latin American Communist Parties, a key transnational meeting that took place in 1929. I also presented my work at the Universidad de San Andrés, thanks to an invitation from the head of its History postgraduate programme Dr… Read more: (Im)mobility in Buenos Aires (1929-2023)
- Obstacles and aspirations: stories from young refugees in the UK education systemBy Jáfia Naftali Câmara. ‘Refugee Stories: Education: Obstacles and Aspirations‘ draws on findings from my doctoral research project on young refugees’ educational experiences in the UK. The study investigated how young refugee people and their families have encountered the education system while considering the implications of living as refugees in England. Young refugee people’s right… Read more: Obstacles and aspirations: stories from young refugees in the UK education system
- Invisible: domestic workers’ commutes in Latin AmericaBy Valentina Montoya Robledo and Rachel Randall. Read the Spanish version here. Domestic workers make up one in every five working women in Latin America, totalling approximately 13 million individuals. In recent decades, a significant transformation has occurred as many domestic workers have shifted from living in their employers’ homes to commuting daily from their… Read more: Invisible: domestic workers’ commutes in Latin America
- The ethics of mapping migrant violence through MexicoBy Sylvanna Falcón. From October 2021 through to May 2022 undergraduate students from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of California, Berkeley, participated in a human rights investigation with Human Rights First (HRF) and El Instituto para las Mujeres en la Migración, AC (IMUMI, The Institute for Migration of Women). Under the… Read more: The ethics of mapping migrant violence through Mexico
- From Bristol to Brasilia: collaborating on migration and mobilities researchBy Anamaria Fonsêca. In April this year I visited the University of Brasilia (UnB), Brazil, with Professor Foluke Adebisi from the Bristol Law School to take part in a series of lectures organised by the postgraduate programmes in Law and in Human Rights. I have been collaborating with UnB’s Research Group on International Private Law,… Read more: From Bristol to Brasilia: collaborating on migration and mobilities research
- Roots and routes: debating indigenous rights in twentieth-century Latin AmericaNew writing on migration and mobilities – an MMB special series By Jo Crow. My recent book Itinerant Ideas (2022) explores the multiple meanings and languages of indigeneity (Merlan, 2009) circulating across borders in early twentieth-century Latin America. It takes readers through an extensive visual and written representational repertoire to show how ideas about indigenous… Read more: Roots and routes: debating indigenous rights in twentieth-century Latin America
- Working with the Colombian Truth Commission on illegal drug economiesBy Mary Ryder. In June 2022 the Colombian Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition launched its final report, Hay Futuro Si Hay Verdad: Hallazgos y Recomendaciones (There is a Future if There is Truth: Findings and Recommendations). This was the culmination of three and half years of work investigating the causes and… Read more: Working with the Colombian Truth Commission on illegal drug economies
- Migration, mobilities and the ecological contextSpecial series on Migration, Mobilities and the Environment, in association with the Cabot Institute for the Environment. By Jane Memmott. Migration can make you happy. When I see the first swifts arrive in the spring, I stop in my tracks and smile broadly at all and everyone. I have to restrain myself from telling people… Read more: Migration, mobilities and the ecological context
- Mobility and identity in the Patagonian ArchipelagoBy Paul Merchant. Cast your eyes over a map of Chile, from top to bottom, and you’ll notice a strange development. South of Temuco, the lakes become more frequent and larger, and eventually, after Puerto Montt, the land fragments into hundreds of islands, some quite large, like Chiloé, and many that are very small. You… Read more: Mobility and identity in the Patagonian Archipelago
- Domestic workers and COVID-19: Brazil’s legacy of slavery lives onBy Rachel Randall. On 19 March it was confirmed that Rio de Janeiro’s first coronavirus-related death was that of Cleonice Gonçalves, a 63-year-old domestic worker who suffered from co-morbidities. When Gonçalves fell ill on 16 March, she was working at her boss’ apartment in the affluent neighbourhood of Leblon, in the city of Rio. Her… Read more: Domestic workers and COVID-19: Brazil’s legacy of slavery lives on
- Bristol Colombia Week 2019: Truth-seeking and the Colombian DiasporaBy Mary Ryder Three years on from the negotiated peace agreement between the FARC-EP and the Colombian state, MMB co-hosted members of the Colombian Truth Commission (CTC) to participate in ‘Truth, Memory and Diaspora: The Seeds of Peace in Colombia’, a week of transnational dialogue and collaboration between UK and Colombian institutions. The University of… Read more: Bristol Colombia Week 2019: Truth-seeking and the Colombian Diaspora
- MMB hosts the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of MigrantsBy Diego Acosta, Bridget Anderson and Lindsey Pike On 3 July 2019, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, Professor Felipe González, visited the University of Bristol. The event was organized by Migration Mobilities Bristol (MMB) with funding from PolicyBristol. Here we outline the scope of his work and focus of his… Read more: MMB hosts the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants
North America
- Who’s in the fast lane? Will new border tech deliver seamless travel for all?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?
- Footsore/footloose: mobile foot technologiesBorderland 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
- Migration and mobilities research: making connections for social justiceBy Bridget Anderson. Happy New Year all. Let’s hope that 2024 brings more peace and justice than 2023. We need it. It is difficult to be hopeful in the face of the ongoing Gaza horror, more needless (and nameless) deaths in the Mediterranean and Channel, the fall out from the Illegal Migration Act, and the… Read more: Migration and mobilities research: making connections for social justice
- Borderscapes: policing withinBorderland Infrastructures – an MMB special series exploring the material and symbolic infrastructure of border regimes in the port cities of Calais and Dover. By Victoria Hattam. Governments around the globe have been building border walls for decades: Calais is no exception. At least since the Touquet Treaty, the UK government has helped fund the… Read more: Borderscapes: policing within
- Organising against fear: migrant nannies and domestic workers during COVIDNew writing on migration and mobilities – an MMB special series By Maud Perrier Migrant nannies and domestic workers were largely absent from mainstream feminist commentary during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as from public discussion of childcare. In the UK broadsheets, most of the media coverage of the childcare crisis during this time was dominated… Read more: Organising against fear: migrant nannies and domestic workers during COVID
- Somatic shifts: the politics of movement in the time of COVIDLetter from Afar – the blog series about life and research in the time of COVID-19. By Victoria Hattam. Dispatch from Brooklyn, NY.September 2020 COVID-19 has returned questions of migration and mobility to the centre of politics by upending the distribution of mobility privileges. Who is allowed – or required – to move is changing;… Read more: Somatic shifts: the politics of movement in the time of COVID
Europe
- Ukrainian refugees – the new white Other in British discourses?A special series from the Migration Research Group of the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol. By Magda Mogilnicka. This year has marked the 20th anniversary of the EU enlargement when eight countries from Central and East Europe, with Poland as the largest accession state, joined the European Union. The UK was… Read more: Ukrainian refugees – the new white Other in British discourses?
- Who’s in the fast lane? Will new border tech deliver seamless travel for all?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?
- Moving as being: introducing the SPAIS Migration Group blog seriesA 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
- The racist politics of ‘mindless thuggery’By Dan Godshaw, Ann Singleton and Bridget Anderson. We pay respect to the memory of the children killed and to those injured in Southport as well as their families. In early August 2024 the UK experienced a wave of fascist violence and organised hate of the kind not witnessed since the 1980s. Far right activists… Read more: The racist politics of ‘mindless thuggery’
- Bodies, things, capital – intersections in our research themesBy Juan Zhang. As co-ordinator of the MMB Research Challenge ‘Bodies, Things, Capital’ I have been reading our recent blogs under this theme and am struck by the range and depth of the projects. They cross many contexts, disciplines and research fields, and engage with critical debates around (in)justice, vulnerability, borders and the politics of… Read more: Bodies, things, capital – intersections in our research themes
- Navigating ethical emotions in European migration enforcementNew writing on migration and mobilities – an MMB special series By Ioana Vrăbiescu and Bridget Anderson. The European Union represents itself as a global champion of human rights, yet its external borders are marked by hostility, surveillance and death. Despite official claims to equality and that Black Lives Matter, the vast majority of those… Read more: Navigating ethical emotions in European migration enforcement
- Obstacles and aspirations: stories from young refugees in the UK education systemBy Jáfia Naftali Câmara. ‘Refugee Stories: Education: Obstacles and Aspirations‘ draws on findings from my doctoral research project on young refugees’ educational experiences in the UK. The study investigated how young refugee people and their families have encountered the education system while considering the implications of living as refugees in England. Young refugee people’s right… Read more: Obstacles and aspirations: stories from young refugees in the UK education system
- Migration and mobilities research: making connections for social justiceBy Bridget Anderson. Happy New Year all. Let’s hope that 2024 brings more peace and justice than 2023. We need it. It is difficult to be hopeful in the face of the ongoing Gaza horror, more needless (and nameless) deaths in the Mediterranean and Channel, the fall out from the Illegal Migration Act, and the… Read more: Migration and mobilities research: making connections for social justice
- Borderscapes: policing withinBorderland Infrastructures – an MMB special series exploring the material and symbolic infrastructure of border regimes in the port cities of Calais and Dover. By Victoria Hattam. Governments around the globe have been building border walls for decades: Calais is no exception. At least since the Touquet Treaty, the UK government has helped fund the… Read more: Borderscapes: policing within
- What fosters a sense of belonging? Refugee voices in GermanyBy Emily LeRoux-Rutledge. My children are new in Germany like those two flowers. I want my children to be allowed to stay in Germany…. We build something up. We are like LEGO, block by block. These photographs and words belong to Liam* — a young man who made his way to Germany in the midst… Read more: What fosters a sense of belonging? Refugee voices in Germany
- Many Turkish people in Europe are worse off than those who stayed at homeNew writing on migration and mobilities – an MMB special series By Şebnem Eroğlu. Many people migrate to another country to earn a decent income and to attain a better standard of living. But my recent research shows that across all destinations and generations studied, many migrants from Turkey to European countries are financially worse off than those who stayed… Read more: Many Turkish people in Europe are worse off than those who stayed at home
- Intimate state encounters: Brexit, European Roma and contested home-landsRace, nation and migration – the blog series reframing thinking on movement and racism. By Rachel Humphris. Brexit and the UK’s relationship with the European Union foregrounds questions of identity, nationhood and who is included or excluded. For those identified as ‘Roma’ these are perennial questions as purported ‘European citizenship’ made little difference to their position… Read more: Intimate state encounters: Brexit, European Roma and contested home-lands
- Lessons we’ve learned from COVID so farBy Bridget Anderson Far from being ‘all in it together’ COVID-19 is exposing the mechanisms that promote and maintain inequality within as well as between states. In the UK, Sweden and the USA, among other countries, evidence is emerging that Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people are disproportionately likely to catch and die from coronavirus.… Read more: Lessons we’ve learned from COVID so far
- ‘So far from justice’: On the frontline of the Hostile EnvironmentBy Natasha Carver ‘Esther, can you see Amir. He’s been refused Section 95 support …’ ‘Samira, I need you to do an urgent HC1 for this chap with kidney failure …’ ‘Mariana, we’ve got a young boy off a lorry just turned up. He has nothing. He’s with Muna in the main hall just now… Read more: ‘So far from justice’: On the frontline of the Hostile Environment
- The hostile environment confuses unlawful with undocumented, with disastrous consequencesBy Colin Yeo If a policy that deprives residents of jobs, homes and money is going to be introduced, one would hope it would be targeted using the best available data with strong failsafe mechanisms in place to reverse any errors. It would, you would have thought, be a disaster if innocent individuals ended up… Read more: The hostile environment confuses unlawful with undocumented, with disastrous consequences
- Everyday IntegrationBy Bridget Anderson The new Conservative leader, Boris Johnson, during the July hustings in Darlington complained that, ‘There are too many too often there are parts of our country and parts of London still and other cities as well where English is not spoken by some people as their first language, and that needs to… Read more: Everyday Integration
- SMart solutions for the self-employed beyond the ‘British Way’By Harry Pitts At first glance the UK’s current record of job creation seems impressive. But the numbers conceal more than they reveal. Self-employment represents an increasing amount of new jobs. Among these number those who have sought out self-employment to enjoy more freedom in where, how and when they work. But alongside them co-exist… Read more: SMart solutions for the self-employed beyond the ‘British Way’
- Collaborating to improve responses to migration: Employment and the labour marketBy David Jepson (ACH) and Bridget Anderson Huge changes to the labour market are underway, and digitisation is changing how people are recruited and the kind of work they do, not least in phenomenon of the gig economy. Can these changes benefit refugees and migrants and if so, how? These issues were discussed in the… Read more: Collaborating to improve responses to migration: Employment and the labour market