Centre for Research on Migration, Refugees and Belonging

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The Centre for Migration, Refugees and Belonging is located in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of East London.

The Centre for Migration, Refugees and Belonging  (CMRB) grew out of the Refugee Research Centre, which was founded in 2004. It is located in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of East London.

Mission

Our mission is to build knowledge and understanding of the related issues of migration, refugees and belonging. We aim to foster interdisciplinary conversations and provide a space for debate and creative thinking amongst academics, practitioners, activists, migrants, and refugees in order to make positive changes to society at large.

About the Centre

CMRB benefits from its unique location at the heart of East London, an area which has seen some of the highest rates of international settlement in Europe - historically and in the present day. 

The University of East London prides itself in being a diverse, innovative and globally aware group of scholars, students and local and international community partners.

CMRB research seeks to engage with political and policy debates as well as theoretical concerns that have local and global relevance.

The work of CMRB is closely integrated with that of the Refugee Council Archive at UEL.

Core activities

Research

CMRB provides interdisciplinary, innovative and critical scholarship on the relationship between migration, refugee and belonging, including on the intersectional relationship between race, gender, and citizenship. 

The Centre supports scholarship and debates on contemporary issues of migration, refugees and belonging through the work of its members and by fostering partnerships between academics, policymakers, practitioners, activists and migrants from a wide range of backgrounds.

Teaching

CMRB aims to integrate research and teaching programmes that are designed to support the capacity of students in academia, as practitioners and activists locally and globally.

People

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Directors

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Members

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Research Associates and Student Members

  • Chiara Cestaro - research assistant
  • Hannah Flint - (Development Studies and Administration Intern)
  • Gabriella Ibba
  • Helen Moore Start - researcher
  • Roxanne Nanton - Unaccompanied Minors and Covid-19, MA in Refugee Studies alumni and Refugee Council (Research Associate)
  • Jessica Oddy - Education across the Displacement Linear: Experiences of Displaced Adolescents (Doctoral Student)
  • Mienna Rasuli - undergraduate student and university intern

Dissemination and impact

We aim to disseminate our work widely through publications, online information resources, media, and networks.

Research projects

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Gujarati Voices

Gujarati Voices is a collaborative community-based project bringing together the UEL Archives, CMRB staff and UEL students to work with external partners and the Gujarati Community in the UK. Funded by UEL Public and Community Engagement Funding, "Roots and Changes - Gujarati Influences" comprises an oral history project, exhibition and event series to be held at both Brent Museum and Archives and at UEL in 2020. 

For more information on the Gujarati Archives, visit the Refugee Living Archive.

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Refugee University Education

'Refugee University Education' is a collaborative, participatory and interdisciplinary project that aims to build capacity, promote interdisciplinary innovation and evaluate impact. Building on UEL's existing 'Life Stories' higher education work and existing collaboration with the NGO Mosaik Education, and its educational work with refugees in Jordan and Lebanon, this research project funded through the Global Challenge Research Fund (2018-2019) has three main aims:

a) To support the innovative peer to peer "Guidance and Support" programme implemented by Mosaik Education. The peer-to-peer mentoring programme uses student ambassadors to address information and psycho-social barriers to accessing higher education for refugees through a combination of academic guidance workshops, informative digital content and peer mentorship. Activities include online content of inspirational and informative advice for refugees interested in higher education; emblematic stories and story-questions to encourage exchange; guidance workshops on higher education options and how to evaluate them; and peer mentorship on programme and subject experiences.

b) To conduct evaluation research on the "Guidance and Support" programme, specifically about the impact of storytelling and co-construction of stories between students, but more generally about all the activities implemented, and the trajectories, barriers and access to higher education for refugee students participating in the "Guidance and Support" programme. Through participatory design methods that build sustainable research and education capacity amongst all stakeholders, UEL staff and students contribute by providing evidence-based research that addresses the challenges faced by refugees in DAC countries in the area of refugee education. Expanding on the existing UEL model that offers certified tailored trainings and courses to refugees, in collaboration with Mosaik Education, UEL staff and students facilitate the planning and implementing of dedicated workshops, and provide certified and/or credit-bearing training.

c) To strengthen national and international collaborations and exchange of innovative participatory best practices in the provision of support to overcome barriers to higher education for refugees through joint production of online materials, organisation of collaborative workshops and events and joint presentations and publications.

Learn more about the "Mosaik +UEL: University Partnerships Providing Tools for Student-Led Learning" that offers insights into the co-creation of digital e-learning platforms that apply Life Stories as a research and pedagogical tool for and with refugees.

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Mapping and Mobilising the Rwandan Diaspora in Europe for Development in Rwanda

Mapping the Rwandan Diaspora in Europe offers a comparative analysis of the diaspora engagement in the development of their country of origin. Sponsored by the International Organisation for Migration in 2019, the comparative analysis presents an overview of socio-demographic characteristics of the Rwandan diaspora in four European countries - Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The desk-review of individual countries mapping exercises examines convergences and divergences in current and planned engagements, knowledge and skills transfers, motivations, practices and barriers. It provides the evidence base for shaping diaspora engagement programme interventions in Rwanda, guiding the Government of Rwanda's future strategies and policies enabling diaspora members to participate and contribute to the development of the country.

For more information contact CMRB co-director Giorgia Donà or visit the IOM site.

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EUBorderscapes

EUBorderscapes, financed through the EU's 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, is an international research project that tracks and interprets conceptual change in the study of borders. It is a large-scale project with a consortium that includes 22 partner institutions from 17 different states, including several non-EU countries. The EUBorderscapes project studies conceptual change in relation to fundamental social, economic, cultural and geopolitical transformations that have taken place in the past decades. In addition, major paradigmatic shifts in scientific debate, and in the social sciences, in particular, will also be considered. State borders are the frame of reference, rather than ethnographic/anthropological boundaries. However, this approach emphasises the social significance and subjectivities of state borders while critically interrogating "objective" categories of state territoriality and international relations. The research is not only focused at the more general, at times highly abstract, level of conceptual change but also compares and contrasts how different and often contested conceptualisations of state borders (in terms of their political, social, cultural and symbolic significance) resonate in concrete contexts at the level of everyday life.

CMRB's Role 
CMRB's Professor Nira Yuval-Davis is coordinating work package 9 of the project - Borders, Intersectionality and the Everyday. The central objective of the work package has been to promote hitherto neglected areas of border research agendas that address lived, experienced and intersectional (e.g. gender, age, ethnicity) aspects of state borders. Situated intersectional everyday bordering perspective has analysed discursive, practical and interpretational categories that reflect issues of citizenship, identity and transnational migration. This work package also explores how everyday bordering affect groups with regard to gender, race, citizenship, socioeconomic status and sexuality. The comparative perspective encompasses in-depth case studies that involve internal Schengen borders (UK/France) and the external EU border (Finland/Russia). Another focus of the WP9 research has been everyday bordering in Metropolitan cities (London, Barcelona, St. Petersburg). In addition, the WP9 research has carried out comparative research (UK, Hungary, Finland) of Roma and everyday bordering. As part of CMRB's involvement in the EUBORDERSCAPES project, they have also produced a film called 'Everyday Borders' (dir. Orson Nava). It examines the impact of the 2014 Immigration Act on British society, exploring the way the 'border' is increasingly entering into everyday life. It can be viewed here.

Working alongside Professor Yuval-Davis will be:

All can be contacted on + 44 (0) 208 223 2399 or + 44 (0) 208 223 2399

Partners
University of Eastern Finland • Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen Centre for Border Research • Middle East Technical University, Center for Black Sea and Central Asia • Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences • Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona • University of Tromsø • The Queen’s University of Belfast • Ben Gurion University of the Negev • Umeå University • University of Bergamo • University of Gdansk • V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University • Leibniz-Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning • Centre for Population, Poverty and Public Policy Studies, Luxembourg • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Pacte / Université Joseph Fourier • Research Centre for Economic and Regional Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences • Centre for Independent Social Research, St. Petersburg • University of Helsinki • Centre for Advanced Study Sofia

Findings from the research project.

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Racism and Political Mobilisation, Thinking Historically and Transnationally

This is an ESRC funded series.

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Identity, Performance and Social Action: Community Theatre Amongst Refugees (IPSA)

This is an ESRC research project which brings together theatre and social sciences in the study of the lives and identities of refugees.

Directed by Professor Nira Yuval-Davis it investigates refugee identities and social actions by using an innovative methodology of Playback and Forum theatre performances and workshops run by research fellow Erene Kaptani while working with four refugee groups in London. 

The research aims to explore constructions and politics of identity and belonging amongst refugee communities in London. These identity constructions are narrated and performed during interactive community theatre events and consequent reflections in several community centres in London - Kosovan, Kurdish, Somali and a mixed refugee course. For this purpose the research project has used, as its main methodological techniques, two experimental theatre techniques, Playback and Forum Theatre, which allow participants to reflect on the performance, intervene in it and explore in the performance alternative strategies of social action. The research examines crucial situations of the refugees' lives since coming to Britain, highlights conflicts between constructions of self, community and society, and explores modes of identity authorisation and resistance involved in the multiplex processes of settlement in London and integration into British society. Of particular interest have been the roles of community organisations, statutory agents and the state.

Read more about the project

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Digital Social Care Provision for Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children: DEAS Principles in the Charity Sector: A Case Study of the Refugee Council

The consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic have meant that many organisations have had to provide their services online. There is a need to understand the degree of efficiency, security and effectiveness of digital service provision and the extent to which these changes will impact service delivery in the charity sector in the future. Vulnerable clients such as Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC) are likely to face additional challenges in adapting to digital support due to language proficiency, IT literacy, lack of assistance and heavy dependence on multiple social protection services simultaneously.

This research examines how the Refugee Council can incorporate the digitally innovative and advanced systems (DEAS) into organisational models that will therefore, result in added value to young beneficiaries.

Methodology: It collates data from staff and young refugees about their online encounters with legal, social, immigration and welfare service providers in the wake of Covid-19, and it provides recommendations on how DEAS principles can be adapted to the charity's sector.

This study aims to improve digital working experiences, upskilling and career paths for staff, to inform changes in guidelines on working digitally with children and to raise awareness amongst the refugee youth charity sector.

For more information >

Project by:

Research

Giorgia Dona: Co-Director Centre for Migration, Refugees and Belonging (CMRB) at the University of East London 

Roxanne Nanton: Refugee Council the leading charity supporting refugees in the UK

University of East London

The proposed project will be conducted in partnership with the Refugee Council (RC)

Period 1 September 2020 - September 2021

A partnership between the Centre for Migration, Refugees and Belonging (CMRB) at the University of East London (UEL) and the Refugee Council (RC), the leading charity supporting refugees in the UK.

Funder Deas + Network

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The Digital Storytelling Project

Accessing good education has always been important for every individual. Whilst some may have it easy, for many refugees, they are unable to access the benefits higher education. As a result, the  United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) have committed to working with partners on helping young refugees' access and benefit in the education system. This is why both the University of East London  and the Centre for Migration, Refugees and Belonging (CMRB) invite you all to a talk where we will discover the findings from the living refugee archive (LRA) and discuss findings on the refugee’s experience in terms of their education.

The University of East London, who have been leading the CMRB have also collaborated with a range of partners and non-governmental organisations (NGO). The CMRB have been lucky enough to have collaborated with Mosaik on a Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) project. Mosaik is an NGO that uses technology to support refugees accessing university.

For more information about the Mosaik and UEL Partnership Providing Tools for Student Led Learning, follow this link.

Guest speakers include:

  • Professor Giorgia Dona: Co-director of the CMRB at the University of East London
  • Jessica Oddy: A PhD student at the CMRB
  • Paul Dudman: A UEL archivist, also responsible for the Refugee Council Archive and Living Refugee Archive Online Portal

'Refugee University Education' is a collaborative, participatory and interdisciplinary project that aims to build capacity, promote interdisciplinary innovation and evaluate impact.

There are three aims:

a) Supporting the innovative peer to peer "Guidance and Support" programme implemented by Mosaik Education. Student ambassadors are available to address information and psycho-social barriers to give refugees access to higher education. The activities include online content to inform refugees about higher education; sharing stories and story questioning to encourage exchange, guidance workshops, peer mentorship on program and subject experience.

b) To conduct evaluation research on the ‘’Guidance and Support’’ programme about the impact of storytelling, activities and trajectories or barriers for refugee students to access higher education that are in the program. UEL staff members and students will contribute evidence-based research to address the challenges faced by refugees in DAC countries also planning and implementing workshops and certified and or credit bearing training.

c) To strengthen national and international collaborations and exchanges of innovative participatory to overcome barriers of higher education for refugees to the opportunity of online materials, workshops and events.

Mosaik +UEL: University Partnerships Providing Tools for Student-Led Learning

For more information:

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Climate change and the Politics of Belonging: A situated intersectional approach

The research, which focuses on both the UK and Israel, aims to explore how the growing concern over the extreme effects of climate changes affects governments and everyday politics. Natural disasters have brought a new sense of urgency into ongoing debates on climate change. International conferences, from the Rio UN Framework Convention in 1992 to the Madrid Summit in December 2019, have tried to reach international agreements on these issues, as it has become clear they cannot be solved within national boundaries and policies.

The aim of this research is to explore the levels and ways in which these two political debates are interrelated in public discourses and more importantly, to examine the extent to which they tend to be carried out by different social groupings, distinct by gender, generation, class ethnicity and/or other axes of belonging. One hypothesis is that those concerned about climate change tend to be of a more cosmopolitan political orientation and thus generally advocating open borders and international cooperation, while those mainly concerned to limit the number of migrants and with the securitisation of borders tend to focus on finding political solutions by, as the popular Brexit slogan has been, 'taking back control over our borders'.

The proposed research will use the approach of 'situated intersectionality' developed by (Yuval-Davis& al., 2019). Debates on climate change as well as migration and belonging will be examined

The findings of the research shares light on the interrelationship as well as the tension between narrative on climate change and political projects of migration and belongings. Climate change is viewed as a factor in decreasing and increasing process of everyday bordering.

References:

  • Castles, S., 2013. The forces driving global migration. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 34(2), pp.122-140
  • Dessler, A.E. and Parson, E.A., 2019. The science and politics of global climate change: A guide to the debate. Cambridge University Press.
  • Trombetta, M.J., 2014. Linking climate-induced migration and security within the EU: insights from the securitization debate. Critical Studies on Security, 2(2), pp.131-147
  • Yuval-Davis, N.,(2011), The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations, Sage.
  • Yuval-Davis, N., Wemyss, G. & Cassidy, K. (2019), Bordering, Polity Press

Project by

Nira Yuval-Davis, BA, MA, PhD, FAcSS

Professor Emeritus and Honorary Director of CMRB

(Centre for Research on Migration, Refugees and Belonging)

The University of East London

Research

Field of study - Sociology

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Seafarers, Empire and Belonging

This is a long-term project aimed at raising awareness about the implications for citizenship and belonging in twenty-first century Britain of the invisible histories of racialized seafarers who were subjects of the British Empire but whose settlement in Britain was prevented by maritime and other colonial-era legislation. It has the grown out of the theoretical approach and empirical evidence from Georgie Wemyss' monograph, The Invisible Empire: White Discourse, Tolerance and Belonging (Routledge 2016)  

Period: Active since 2012 

Team: Dr Georgie Wemyss 

Funder:  TBC

Partnership:  TBC

 Contact: Georgie Wemyss g.wemyss@uel.ac.uk

List of publications 

Public engagement:

Impact:  

Ongoing work with schools: TBC

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Navigating Digital Resources; Meet Miniila For Young Migrants In Transit Across Europe

More than 18,000 young migrants have disappeared in Europe over the last three years. As a result, they face increased risks of trafficking and exploitation that undermine their ability to seek protection. Furthermore, the Covid-19 outbreak has exacerbated these risks, as children on the move in Europe face border closures, limited support services, poor camp conditions and social isolation. Due to the influx of migrants, this situation has highlighted the need for young migrants to access information and resource.

Missing Children Europe developed the Miniila App to give young refugees online access to resources and information about services across eight countries in Europe in five languages.

This study conducted in partnership with Missing Children Europe is an evaluation of the impacts of the Miniila app and young people, families and partner organisations.

Helen Moore Start - Researcher

Final report >

Key findings

Key recommendations

Positive stories

To learn more about the app watch this video.

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Imagining the Future: Engaging young people on environmental challenges to create new and sustainable livelihoods in Algeria

Brief summary of the project 

Since 2018, Dr Latefa Guemar (University of East London) and Dr Jessica Northey (Coventry University) have been working together to build links between Algerian and British Universities. Since 2019, they have worked with Jijel University in Algeria, where Latefa is originally from, to set up numerous initiatives to support Algerian students with research, writing and opportunities. Together with colleagues in Jijel, they developed the Imagining the Future project and succeeded in gaining funding support from the British Academy.

The project investigates innovative ideas of young people on tackling environmental challenges. The project captures creative energy of young people to understand how they imagine their own futures in Algeria rather than risking their lives by taking unsafe routes of migration. What forms of governance are fair and sustainable? How can young people be better involved in policymaking to ensure such imagined futures and livelihoods could be possible?

This research will also prove valuable across North Africa, the Mediterranean, and beyond, with many countries facing stark new challenges around sustainability, climate change adaptation as well as considerations around the future of work.

Algeria is characterised by a very young population. Almost a third are under 15, and those under 30 represent 75% of the population. Young people suffer high levels of unemployment, with figures twice as high for women. This is a major challenge for the state and society. Young people lack social, cultural, political and economic opportunities which prevents them leaving the family household, entering adulthood themselves and developing meaningful lives. If employed, they often face precarious livelihoods, low pay and if in the informal sector, limited workers' rights. This situation is even more challenging for women and those with a disability. The problems of accessing labour markets and pursuing purposeful lives are compounded as well by significant regional and spatial inequalities across the country, driving internal migration to a densely populated, heavily polluted capital and leaving once thriving heritage rich towns without their young.

The project aims to explore how young people across different cities in Algeria now view themselves, and what they think is necessary to become citizens capable of influencing policy and politics in the country, creating meaningful  livelihoods, protecting their own environments leading to a significant reduction in young people risking their lives in dangerous boats to cross the Mediterranean for better lives. 

Period : The project began in February 2019 and will run till December 2021 with possibility of extension due to the impossibility of travelling to Algeria during the pandemic. 

Team: Please find link to the team and their contacts details here: Meet the team - Youth Futures Programme (coventry.ac.uk)

Funder: British Academy (BA) Youth Futures

Partnership:

Academic institutions:

  • Coventry University Centre for Trust, Peace, Reconciliation and Social Relations (CTPRS)
  • University of East London, Centre for Migration Refugees, and Belonging ( CMRB)
  • University of Jijel-Algeria- Faculty of Social and Human Sciences for Development
  • Manchester University, Centre for Modern Arabic Studies
  • University College Cork, School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures  

 

Non-academic institutions:

 

Contact 

 

Publications

Diaspora philanthropy and migrant activism: Algerian community responses during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Latefa Guemar, University of East London, Jessica Northey, Coventry University

 

We are currently collecting data, including conducting 200 interviews with youth in Algeria which should be published  in  including articles in Journal for North African Studies and a book with I.B.Tauris.

Public engagement 

Together with our UK-Algerian team, we advanced our research initiative to analyse the actions of the Algerian diaspora in London, including young people, in responding to COVID. Drawing on objective 1, we investigated how impressive social solidarity of the Algerian diaspora were contributing to reflections about citizenship and identity, and how this might contribute to social transformations in the future. We conducted interviews with community organisations in the UK, student groups, charities and influencers, and gathered data about their activities, analysed this and wrote a joint paper (Guemar, Northey, Boukhrami).

The PI Dr Northey and consultant partner, Dr Latefa Guemar presented these findings at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations' Global Inequalities and Development Research Group, 22 February 2021.  Read more.

We then presented it alongside Dr Elias Boukhrami at the Migrant Belongings Conference at Utrecht University 

Lastly, this was also presented by Dr Latefa Guemar in our successful joint BISA panel on "Political mobilisation, youth and women’s activism and new democratic politics in the southern Mediterranean, Middle East and its Diasporas". The International Studies of the Mediterranean, Middle East and Asia Working Group, of which the PI is Co-convenor, sponsored this. The panel involved four papers, from the PI, co-investigator, partners and PhD students, with our partner Prof Salhi as discussant, and was held at 11am, 21 June 2021.

Additional projects 

Leadership for Sustainability

Towards a Zero Waste Future for Algeria

10-12 September 2021

Centre for trust, Peace and Social Relations (CTPSR), Coventry University, Centre for Migration Refugees and Belonging (CMRB) University of East London and Sustainability Leadership Kosova (SLK) in the framework of the British Academy funded Imagining the Future: Engaging young people on environmental challenges to create new and sustainable livelihoods in Algeria.

Hosted by the Centre for Alternative Technology, Machynlleth Wales.

Impact and public engagement

CMRB aims to engage with the public and work in partnership with civil society organisations to research and publish resources useful to a range of stakeholders and that have a positive impact on society. We welcome partnerships to develop collaborative links in our areas of expertise.

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Building a Creative Community

We  use artistic approaches to connect migrants, residents and local communities, challenge disempowering narratives and support local initiatives. We love  co-creating alternative 'maps'  that help people navigate their neighbourhoods, find their unique resources, strengthen their abilities, and support the wellbeing of local communities.

What do we do? 
We call curious people who want to create citizen spaces where our vision of our own communities is acknowledged and supported. We are committed to making visible the invisible. We run creative workshops, arts projects, and storytelling sessions to explore social realities/contradictions.  Our programme is based on co-creation and creativity  to develop  collaborations, strengthen communication skills and critical thinking amongst participants. We invite people to identify social issues that matter to them and through creative conversations together we reflect and act upon to transform social life. 

Partners: Newham Poetry Group, Queer Newham and Seeders Circle

Activities: Online and in person creative workshops, talks, seminars, and more. 

Look out for our forthcoming events at  www.newhampoetrygroup.com

For more information: please contact Sonia Quintero at squintero2@uel.ac.uk.

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Challenging the Hostile Environment

CMRB has produced evidence of the widespread effects of Hostile Environment measures, working with a wide range of local, national and intergovernmental organisations, networks and individuals.

  • Improving policy and practice about country-of-origin evidence for the government
  • Raising awareness of the effects of bordering and shaping campaigning evidence for organisations, politicians, and migrants
  • Raising international and national understanding of the racist effects of hostile environment policies and practice
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Building Inclusion for Refugees and Forced Migrants in Higher Education (HE)

The Centre for Narrative Research and CMRB have generated an influential model for refugee higher education access and progression, OMNI - Open and free; Multiple-modality and holistic; Narrative; Inclusive and gender-sensitive - which is refugee-centred, starting from refugees' own stories.

  • Refugee engagement, attainment, and wellbeing in Higher Education
  • Inclusion policy and practice for refugees beyond HEIs
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Past Impact and Public Engagement

  • REF 2014 Impact Case Study: Improving the Protection and Welfare of Children Living in Difficult Circumstances in Rwanda, Bangladesh and around the World.
  • REF 2014 Impact Case Study: Migration, Refugees and Belonging.

Publications

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Recent Books and Journal Articles

Books:

Journal articles:

Winner of the 2019 Sage Sociology Prize for Innovation and Excellence:
Yuval-Davis, N. Wemyss, G. and Cassidy, K., 2018. 'Everyday bordering, belonging and the re-orientation of British immigration legislation'. Sociology, 52(2): 228–244.

Other journal articles:

Articles in refereed journals:

  • Nationalism, a hard habit to break, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Volume 43, 2020 - Issue 8, pp1428-1435
  • Racism, class and the racialised outsider, Ethnic and Racial Studies review, volume 38, issue 13, October 2015
  • Rereading the empire strikes back, Ethnic and Racial Studies Review, volume  37, issue 10, September 2014

Book chapters:

Online articles:

Essays in edited collections:

  • Five (Bad) Habits of Nearly Successful Political Projects, Futures of Socialism, edited by Grace Blakeley, Verso, 2020 - this appeared as a Verso blog. 
  • Trying to discern the impact of austerity in lived experience, chapter in 'Popular Culture and Austerity', Routledge, 2017
  • Narrative Pleasure in Homeland : The Competing Femininities of  "Rogue Agents" and "Terror Wives" (2014) chapter in The Routledge Companion to Media and Gender, edited Cynthia Carter, Linda Steiner and Lisa McLaughlin, London, Routledge

Articles in refereed journals:

  • Nationalism, a hard habit to break, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Volume 43, 2020 - Issue 8, pp1428-1435
  • The Poetics of Justice: aphorism and chorus as modes of antiracism, Identities, Volume 27, 2020 - Issue 1: The Role of Intellectual Life in Struggles Against Racism, pp53-70
  • Racism, class and the racialised outsider, Ethnic and Racial Studies review, volume 38, issue 13, October 2015
  • Rereading the empire strikes back, Ethnic and Racial Studies Review, volume  37, issue 10, September 2014

Dissemination:

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Anti-Jewish and Anti-Muslim Racisms and the Question of Palestine/Israel Online Paper Series, Edited By Nira Yuval-Davis and Jamie Hakim

Sponsored by CMRB, the Runnymede Trust and the Centre for Palestine Studies, London Middle East Institute, SOAS, this series has been constructed as an open-ended forum for dialogue between academics, activists and interested parties differently situated across the globe. The editors will consider all submissions that explore any aspect of how anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim racisms and the question of Palestine/Israel intersect, from within an anti-racist normative framework.

Published 14 September 2015

Nira Yuval-Davis and Jamie Hakim, Anti-Jewish and Anti-Muslim Racisms and the Question of Palestine/Israel Series Introduction

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Online Publication Series

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Annual Reports

The following documents are referenced in the annual report and provide supporting information:

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A Selection of Member Publications

  • Rumana Hashem and Paul Vernon Dudman, (2016). "Paradoxical narratives of transcultural encounters of the "other": Civic engagement with refugees and migrants in London." Transnational Social Review. DOI: 10.1080/21931674.2016.1186376.
  • Norbert MBU-MPUTU, Les grenouilles incirconcis, suivi de Les tortues circonspectes, Guerres et prospectives de paix en République Démocratique du Congo (Pamphlet), Newport, Paperback.
  • In collaboration, Are you Happy with That? (Refugees Writings in Wales), Swansea, Hafan Books, 2014.
  • Mbu-Mputu, N. & Katya Kasereka, D., Bamonimambo (the Witnesses). Rediscovering Congo and Wales Common History, Newport, South People’s Projects, 2014.
  • Saey, Sarah & Skey, Michael (2015) The politics of trans/national belonging: A study of the experiences of second-generation Egyptians during a period of socio-political change in Egypt (Migration Studies)
  • Skey, Michael (2015) 'Mindless markers of the nation': The routine flagging of nationhood across the visual environment (Sociology)
  • Skey, Michael (2014) 'How do you think I feel? It's my country': Belonging, entitlement and the politics of immigration, Political Quarterly, 85(3), 326-332.
  • Skey, Michael (2014) 'What nationality he is doesn’t matter a damn!': Football, mediated identities and (conditional) cosmopolitanism, National Identities
  • Skey, Michael (2014) Boundaries and belonging: Dominant ethnicity and the place of the nation in a changing world in Jackson, J & Molokotos-Liederman, L (eds), Nationalism & Boundaries, Routledge, London
  • Skey, Michael (2014) Media, representation, imagination: Time to move beyond the 'Holy Trinity'?, European Journal of Communication, 29(4): 495-515
  • Skey, Michael (2014) The mediation of nationhood: Communicating the world as a world of nations, Communication Theory, 24(1): 1-20

Events

Co-POWeR: Exposing the Hidden Stories of the Pandemic

 11 November 2022, 09:00-12:00), Online

Dear all, You are invited to join this interactive workshop co-organised by CMRB co-director Gargi Bhattacharyya on Co-POWeR’s 18-month research about the impact of Covid-19 and racial discrimination on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Families and Communities in the UK.​ The event will take place on Friday The event will include the screening of a short animation and a panel discussion. ​

View more information on the session.

Festival website.
Best wishes, CMRB

SSAHE webinar Policing the Hostile Environment

 21 November 2022 5-6.30 pm on Zoom
Social Scientists Against the Hostile Environment invite you to our first webinar of 2022/23.

Register on EventBrite for a joining link

The Conservative government’s new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act (2022) enacts major changes to crime and justice in England and Wales. It includes punitive measures against protest, which will likely be used against anti-racist and anti-fascist movements. It includes disproportionate punishment for damage to monuments, framed in response to global Black Lives Matters actions. The evidence is clear that more punitive policing disproportionately affects racialised minorities. The new law also includes provisions on trespass aimed at criminalising Traveller and Gypsy people by making forms of roadside stopping a criminal offence, which will further erode the right to nomadism. Other provisions target migrants, with an increase in immigration officers' access to electronic data, potentially discriminatory measures targeting "foreign offenders", and new routes to draw migrants into the deportation system – while some senior police officers have argued that it will make it harder to prosecute those exploiting precarious migrants.

Since the passage of the Act, Priti Patel’s successor as Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, has promoted a further deepening of the hostile environment against migrants. A new Public Order Bill which further criminalises protest has been passed through its first parliamentary stages. Scandalous Home Office failures to protect and fairly treat arriving and detained migrant adults and children have become increasingly manifest. The far right has been emboldened to intensify direct action against migrants and against migrant solidarity protestors, including acting as self-appointed police or border guards; most recently, a far right activist has carried out a suicide firebomb attack on a processing centre in Kent, which mainstream politicians have been reluctant to call a terrorist incident.

In this webinar, we will hear a critical social scientific and criminological perspective on the 2022 Act and subsequent policing policies, and accounts of how they are impacting on migrant communities, anti-racist activism and Roma, Traveller and Gypsy communities, including in Kent around the detentions centres and arrival points.

Speakers:

  • Introduction: Nira Yuval-Davis, UEL, for SSAHE
  • Dr Samuel Burgum, Lecturer in Sociology, Birmingham City University | Damage, Disruption, Distress: Unsettling the Police Bill
  • Dr Monish Bhatia, Lecturer in Criminology | The impact of policing law on migrants and refugees
  • Christian Agard, local activist in Kent with Freedom From Manston and Channel Rescue | The current situation at Manston – in conversation with Bahriye Kemal, University of Kent
  • Chairs/organisers: Ben Gidley, Birkbeck; Karim Murji, University of West London; Aaron Winter, Lancaster 

Missing Medals: Unearthing Invisible Seafaring Histories of Empire

Thursday 8 September 6-8 pm Livestreaming from City Hall

Independent scholar and Newham resident Asif Shakoor will be in conversation with Georgie Wemyss, Co-Director of CMRB. Asif reveals how he discovered that his grandfather served in Britain's Merchant Navy during the First World War.

Asif's research and stories include fascinating insights into the lives and treatment of seafarers born under British colonial rule dating back to the early 19th century.

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Hostile documentary released

New dates have been released to watch the documentary 'Hostile'. Congratulations to CMRB co-director Gargi Bhattacharyya for appearing in the documentary to share her authoritative views on the issue!

Hostile is a feature-length documentary written, directed by Sonita Gale that exposes the impact of the hostile environment for people who are migrants living in the UK. For tickets please see their website.

Our activities for Thames Festival 2022

Sunday 25 September 2022 London's Lost Village: East India Docks Invisible Empire.

A walking conversation through how colonial history is remembered around the former East India Docks led by Dr Georgie Wemyss.

East India Docks panel discussion - Tuesday 27 September details to be confirmed.

See our past events.

Borderless - Open Conversations

Borderless invites you to join a 10-week project to create an book about LGBTQ+ migrants (it can include different forms of creative expression, such a poetry, photos, stories, illustrations)

When: Every Wednesday from Aug 17 to Oct 26 2022. First session is the launch.

Time: 5.30 - 7pm

Where: Stratford Library, The Grove, London E15 1EL

'Borderless' is a local initiative to create a friendly, safe, and supportive space for POC LGBTQ+ refugees / forced migrants. We want to challenge prejudice and dismantle hate through raising awareness on LGBTQ issues, creating partnerships with organisations (including educational institutions and faith groups), promoting open conversations between residents and providing information on gender and sexual diversity.

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