Policy, Politics and Practice

This blog series, unlike our others has not been curated, but brings together posts discussing issues of policy, politics and practice in relation to migration, citizenship, asylum and integration. The series will grow organically as relevant blogs are posted. Visit our page for further details on MMB’s members, projects, events and publications in this area.

Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash

Selected Blog Posts

• Breaching two worlds: seeing through borders in CalaisJuly 25, 2023
  The first of four MMB blogposts exploring the material and symbolic infrastructure of border regimes in the port city of Calais. By Bridget Anderson. As we walked around […]
• Imperial denaturalisation: towards an end to empireJuly 11, 2023
  By Colin Yeo. As the British empire gradually remodelled itself into a British nation state over the course of the twentieth century, it was inevitable that problems would […]
• Disablement and resistance in the British immigration systemMay 23, 2023
  By Rebecca Yeo. The distinction between deserving and undeserving individuals has always been core to immigration policy in the UK. However, the hostility and restrictions directed at those […]
• Many Turkish people in Europe are worse off than those who stayed at homeMay 10, 2023
  New 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 […]
• Access to healthcare: human right or civil liberty?April 18, 2023
  By Ella Barclay. A right to health is enshrined in many international agreements, indicating the perceived importance of wellness and accessible healthcare for the development and flourishing of […]
• ‘An asylum ban’: why the Illegal Migration Bill must be stoppedApril 4, 2023
  By Bridget Anderson. The Athenian Laws introduced by Draco c. 621 BCE were said to be written not in ink but blood. This government’s Illegal Migration Bill currently […]
• The ‘Rwanda Solution’: using Australia’s playbookMarch 28, 2023
  By Juan Zhang. On 19th March, 2023, British Home Secretary Suella Braverman caused yet another controversy during her two-day visit to Kigali, Rwanda, with a photo of her […]
• No Recourse to Public Funds: The Big Issue tackles vulnerability to NRPF in BristolMarch 13, 2023
  By Paula Gombos. The Big Issue is a street magazine founded 30 years ago that tackles homelessness and social exclusion in the UK. It also supports individuals to […]
• Working with the Colombian Truth Commission on illegal drug economiesJanuary 31, 2023
  By 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 […]
• Bad intentions: the UK government and migrantsDecember 13, 2022
  By Ryan Lutz. At the MMB postgraduate workshop in July, ‘How Not to Think Like a State,’ visiting scholar Nandita Sharma talked to us about the throughlines of […]
• Researching best practice in supporting refugee and migrant entrepreneursNovember 15, 2022
  By Udeni Salmon and Ann Singleton. Since January 2021 the University of Bristol has been collaborating with ACH in a research project to bring about social and economic […]
• Institutional encounters by non-citizens in the Nordic welfare state – a dialogueSeptember 6, 2022
  By Valter Sandell-Maury and Liselott Sundbäck. How is access to the Nordic welfare state services navigated and negotiated by non-citizens? What is the role of social workers and […]
• Thinking about the positive value of free movementJuly 12, 2022
  By Chris Bertram. One of the consequences of Brexit is that British people are more limited in their freedom of movement. Whereas previously they could travel, work, retire, […]
• Linking up public policy and research: the case of migrationJune 28, 2022
  By David Jepson From the Policy, Politics and Practice blog series How do public policy interventions come about and how are they delivered? What are the respective roles […]
• Learning from the past: a humanitarian response to Ukrainian refugees in SwedenMay 30, 2022
  By Pieter Bevelander Currently many West European countries and more East European societies are meeting the flow of refugees from war-torn Ukraine with openness and great solidarity. In […]
• How water stress impacts on migrationMay 3, 2022
  Special series on Migration, Mobilities and the Environment, in association with the Cabot Institute for the Environment. By Anita Etale. In 2015, Ioane Teitiota and his family were […]
• The politics of climate justice, migration and mobilityApril 26, 2022
  Special series on Migration, Mobilities and the Environment Migration Mobilities Bristol (MMB) and the Cabot Institute for the Environment bring together researchers from across the University of Bristol […]
• UK-Rwanda refugee deal: first thoughtsApril 20, 2022
  By Miranda Butler. The UK-Rwanda memorandum of understanding on asylum processing is now available. It sets out the terms of the agreement between the countries at a high level […]
• The power of collaborative art in research for social changeMarch 8, 2022
  By Rebecca Yeo. On Human Rights Day, 10th December 2021, a mural on the wall of Easton Community Centre was officially opened. It brings together and promotes messages […]
• Collateral damage: the implications of border restrictions on practitioners working with refugee populationsFebruary 8, 2022
  By Vicky Canning. The acknowledgement that asylum systems across Europe are ‘hostile environments’ for migrant groups has increased in academic and practitioner consciousness, particularly in the aftermath of […]
• The freedom to love: mixed-immigration status couples and the UK immigration systemNovember 30, 2021
  By Melanie Griffiths and Candice Morgan-Glendinning. ‘If you are a British citizen then falling in love with someone who is not British isn’t allowed to happen, basically.’ In […]
• Hong Kongers at the borders of ‘Global Britain’October 26, 2021
  By Michaela Benson. Since it opened on 31 January 2021, the designated route for Hong Kongers to settle in the UK—the Hong Kong BN(O) visa (HK BN(O))—has received […]
• Bilateral agreements as a tool to facilitate movement of people after BrexitOctober 12, 2021
  By Diego Acosta. With the conclusion of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020, the free movement of people between the UK and the 27 member states […]
• Forced labour in supply chains: missing links between industrial and sexual labourSeptember 14, 2021
  New writing on migration and mobilities – an MMB special series By Rutvica Andrijasevic. I was in the midst of fieldwork researching the working conditions of migrant workers in […]
• The ‘New Plan for Immigration’: a further curtailment of rightsJune 24, 2021
  By Nadine Finch. Over the past three decades I have linked my practice as a human rights lawyer in the UK with research and policy development in the […]
• Parenting through ‘modern technology’: learning from the pandemicJune 3, 2021
  By Candice Morgan-Glendinning and Melanie Griffiths. Research being launched on 8th June, which looks at the impact of immigration policies on UK families, found that Home Office decision […]
• Racism and the UK’s immigration systemMay 11, 2021
  Race, nation and migration – the blog series reframing thinking on movement and racism. By Maya Goodfellow. ‘Hard Brexit,’ Labour’s Andy Burnham warned a few months after the EU […]
• Does it matter that the UK relies on migrant workers to harvest food?December 1, 2020
  By Lydia Medland. In the recent launch of the new migration research project MigResHub, agricultural labour economist Professor Philip Martin stated that he saw the future of farming […]
• Kept apart – couples and families separated by the UK immigration systemSeptember 8, 2020
  By Katharine Charsley In the wake of the report into the Windrush scandal, in which Commonwealth citizens legally resident in the UK for decades were wrongly treated as […]
• Migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in Greece during COVID-19August 4, 2020
  Letter from Afar – the blog series about life and research in the time of COVID-19. By Theodoros Fouskas. Dear friends, I hope you are staying safe and […]
• Are transnational marriages bad for integration?June 9, 2020
  By Sarah Spencer The belief that marriage partners from less developed countries are bad for ‘integration’ is firmly held by European policy makers. With pressure to curb immigration, […]
• The dismal UK Home Office response to coronavirus: the wider pictureMay 26, 2020
  Letter from Afar – the blog series about life and research in the time of COVID-19. By Colin Yeo. Dear Bridget, We’ve learned that closeness does not mean […]
• A moment of opportunity? Britain and the maritime security challengeMarch 12, 2020
  By Tim Edmunds and Scott Edwards On 28 February 2020, SafeSeas hosted an IdeasLab in Bristol on UK maritime security after Brexit, with the kind support of PolicyBristol, […]
• ‘So far from justice’: On the frontline of the Hostile EnvironmentDecember 5, 2019
  By 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 […]
• The hostile environment confuses unlawful with undocumented, with disastrous consequencesNovember 21, 2019
  By 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 […]
• Better Legal and Social Support Needed for LGBTQI+ People Seeking Asylum in GermanyOctober 31, 2019
  By Mengia Tschalaer and Nina Held  LGBTQI+ people seeking asylum in Germany often remain invisible and unrecognized within Germany’s asylum system unless they specifically come forward and out […]
• MMB hosts the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of MigrantsAugust 19, 2019
  By 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 […]
• Memorials to people who have died and to those missing during migrationAugust 1, 2019
  Reflections on the first WUN-funded workshop By Martin Preston, University of Bristol Since 2014, the deaths of more than 32,000 migrants have been recorded globally (IOM, 2019). The […]
• Collaborating to improve responses to migration: Employment and the labour marketApril 10, 2019
  By 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 […]
• New Thinking on Integration, Employment and LanguageMarch 20, 2019
  By Bridget Anderson and David Jepson (ACH) Academics have a lot to learn from people who are on the frontline. Migration Mobilities Bristol (MMB) can, for example, learn […]