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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