From dreaming of Olympic glory on the track to reshaping how migration studies thinks about space and knowledge, sociologist Andreas Pott reflects on the intellectual detours and shifting perspectives that led him to question the very categories migration researchers take for granted.

He is joined by Christine Lang, whose work on skilled migration in the health sector illustrates what it looks like to step back from dominant policy framings and study how migration and the spaces around it are socially produced in the first place.

Guests: Andreas Pott, Professor of Geography and Deputy Director, Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies, University of Osnabrück; Christine Lang, Researcher in Migration and Urban Studies, Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies, University of Osnabrück.

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What happens when a visa category becomes a verdict on your worth? Gracia Liu-Farrer reflects on the ideas and experiences that shaped her influential work on migration, labour markets and the social construction of skill. She is joined by Helena Hof, whose research examines how labels like "high-skilled" and "low-skilled" are assigned, contested and recognised across cities, institutions and borders. 

Together, they discuss why skill is never simply what you know or what you can do, how power and place determine whose abilities get recognised, and what it would mean to think about talent as something cultivated rather than possessed.

Guests: Gracia Liu-Farrer, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute of Asian Migration, Waseda University; Helena Hof, Senior Research Fellow, University of Zurich.

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What happens when cultures meet in everyday life? John Berry reflects on the ideas and experiences that shaped his pioneering work on acculturation, integration and belonging. He is joined by Saba Safdar, whose research examines how power, discrimination, policy and even AI shape newcomers’ experiences of adaptation. Together, they discuss how acculturation theory has evolved in an era of super-diversity, why belonging is never neutral and what societies must do to create genuine inclusion.

Guests: John Berry, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Queen’s University; Saba Safdar, Professor of Psychology and Director, Centre for Cross-Cultural Research, University of Guelph.

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Adrian Favell reflects on the ideas and experiences that shaped his work on mobility, free movement and Europe's so called borderless future.

He is joined by Sarah Kunz, whose research examines how privilege, race and postcolonial histories shape who gets to move and how migration labels such as migrant, expat and mobile professional reflect power and inequality. Together, they discuss why studying privileged migration matters, how European mobility has changed over time, and how movement is increasing even as access to it becomes more unequal.

Guests: Adrian Favell, Professor of Social and Political Theory and Founding Director of the Radical Humanities Laboratory, University College Cork; Sarah Kunz, Lecturer in Migration Studies, University of Essex.

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Drawing on a childhood shaped by migration and multilingualism, migration scholar Irene Bloemraad reflects on the ideas and experiences behind her influential work on citizenship as claims-making and the contested nature of belonging. She is joined by Amanda Cheong, whose research on statelessness stems from discovering her own parents were stateless before immigrating to Canada. Together, they explore how citizenship extends beyond legal status into everyday acts of belonging, how birth registration systems can deliberately exclude populations, and where agency and exclusion intersect in the modern politics of membership.

Guests: Irene Bloemraad, Professor of Political Studies and Co-Director of the Centre for Migration Studies, University of British Columbia; Amanda Cheong, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of British Columbia.

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Drawing on a lifetime shaped by activism, art, and encounters with migration, leading migration scholar Nicholas De Genova reflects on the ideas and political commitments behind his influential work on the production of migrant “illegality” and the cyclical nature of asylum.

He is joined by Soledad Álvarez Velasco, whose research follows migrants across Latin America and draws on her own experiences migrating from Ecuador. Together, they explore how asylum systems reproduce illegality, how race and colonial legacies shape migration control, and where hope and solidarity emerge amid exclusion and enforcement.

Guests: Nicholas De Genova, Professor, Department of Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Houston; Soledad Álvarez Velasco, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, University of Illinois Chicago.

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Ayşe Çağlar shares how her experiences growing up in Turkey and living in multiple countries shaped her approach to using migrants as an entry point to explore how societies define themselves, draw boundaries, and govern communities. She is joined by Ana Ćuković, whose research looks at how displacement unfolds in cities, including Detroit through urban planning and policy, and how historical and economic contexts shape who is included or pushed out of cities.

Guests: Ayşe Çağlar, Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna; Ana Ćuković, Philanthropy Fellow, Council of Michigan Foundations and Hudson-Webber Foundation.

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From his notable research on migration aspirations and the factors that shape whether people move or stay, Jørgen Carling reflects on how his early experiences in Oslo and fieldwork in West Africa shaped his approach to understanding mobility. He is joined by Kerilyn Schewel, whose work examines why people remain in place and how life goals, family ties and social constraints influence those decisions. 

Guests: Jørgen Carling, Professor in Migration and Transnationalism studies, Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO); Kerilyn Schewel, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina.

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From growing up in suburban Chicago to studying cultural encounters in Trinidad, influential migration studies scholar Steven Vertovec reflects on how those experiences shaped the concept of superdiversity and its enduring relevance nearly two decades later. He is joined by Maria Schiller, who draws on her own research inside European city governments to show how public officials interpret and manage diversity in practice, and why policy trends often struggle to keep pace with social realities.

Guests: Steven Vertovec, Founding Director, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity; Maria Schiller, Professor of Public Governance, Erasmus University Rotterdam

To find books, publications, and media mentioned in this episode please see the show notes.

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To kick off season 4 of Borders & Belonging, host Maggie Perzyna explores the concept of "demigranticization" in migration research with Janine Dahinden and Maissam Nimer. They discuss how the label "migrant" is not objective but rather a political construct rooted in nation-state logic that can reinforce harmful power structures and exclusion. 

Both scholars argue that migration research should step back from treating migration as an isolated phenomenon and instead examine how societies create "others" to define themselves, connecting migrants' struggles with those of other marginalized groups. Despite the dark political climate and rise of populism, they find hope in growing critical voices within academia and emerging solidarities between migrantized and non-migrantized communities.

Guests: Janine Dahinden, Professor of Transnational Studies, University of Neuchâtel; and Maissam Nimer, Associate Professor of Sociology, Akdeniz University.

To find books, publications, and media mentioned in this episode please see the show notes.

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