The Migration Oxford Podcast

What does migration have to do with missionary work? We explore how Baptist and Presbyterian missionary work as socioreligious institutions have impacted and influenced mobility in Northeast India, both pre- and post-colonialism. What does migration have to do with missionary work? How do socioreligious collective institutions (Baptist and Presbyterian missionary work) and indigenous religious cosmologies impinge on the youth of Northeast India? As they leave home and embark on arduous journeys in search of employment and education in different parts of India, we discuss how migration is experienced not just as a singular or individual experience but also as a relational experience as identities of young migrant students are mediated by community-based organisations which represent and look out for them in Delhi. What role does religio-cultural groups play in supporting migrant youth? How do relationships and friendships amongst young individuals emerge within collective spaces?

In this episode of The Migration Oxford Podcast, we question how the term ‘migrant’ gets recast in light of changing sociopolitical dynamics in Northeast India. Examining contested land claims, histories of militarization and entangled ethnic and clan relationalities, we explore the impact of missionary interventions and the struggles for citizenship in the context of Mizoram, Nagaland, and Assam.

We welcome experts Dr. Zarzosanga Pachuau, Government Serchhip College, Mizoram; Dr. Tiatemsu Longkumer, Anthropology Department of the Royal Thimphu College, Bhutan; and Shivangi Kaushik, PhD candidate at Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford. Colonial and post-independence cartographic redrawing of the region continues to mediate movements of communities and individuals both within the Northeast and beyond. As individuals who have lived their lives in the region, they seek to connect mobilisations of identities back home and the entangled histories and movements that can be drawn from Mizoram, Nagaland and Assam.

Geopolitics, irregular movement, the rise of the far-right: these are just some of the buzzwords populating your morning news headlines. But where is the relationship between Europe and the U.S. heading? What are the implications In this episode of The Migration Oxford Podcast we host a timely discussion on the shifting political landscapes in Germany and the United States, as both nations grapple with pre- and post-election changes that are reshaping approaches to immigration policy.

Germany’s Hesse and Bavaria provincial elections in 2023 have seen significant gains for the political party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), expanding far-right influences beyond their traditional stronghold in eastern Germany. We explore how this surge has prompted mainstream parties to reconsider their stance on immigration, with the Green Party, currently a coalition partner in the national government, also signalling a potential shift towards stricter policies. As Germany continues to grapple with its immigration policies, what does this mean for the federal elections of February 2025 and beyond? If tighter border controls and expedited deportation processes are implemented across Germany, what might this mean in real time?

Looking to the United States, the recent presidential election of Donald Trump has thrown the future of U.S. global leadership into doubt, with questions of immigration policy at the helm of his administration. We discuss the implications of Trump's return for U.S. immigration policy, labour shortages and migratory routes. How is this affecting international agreements? What are the broader effects on EU-wide policies and transatlantic relations, especially between Germany and the U.S.?

We welcome Tarik Abou-Chadi, Professor of European Politics at the Department of Politics and International Relations and Nuffield College; and Naika Foroutan, Professor at the Institute for Social Sciences (ISW) at Humboldt Universität, Berlin, and Director of Germany’s Federal Center of Migration research (DeZIM) to this episode. Guided by our experts, the conversation explores potential future scenarios for immigration policy in both countries, considering the gravitational pull towards right-wing politics in 2025. This episode was pitched by Dr Gokce Yurdakul and is supported by the Berlin University Alliance's Oxford-Berlin Research exchange between The Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), University of Oxford and the Berlin Institute for Migration and Integration Research (BIM).

Note: This episode was recorded on January 21 2025, and reflects the policies and political landscape as they stood at that time.

What does migration sound like? Migration Sounds features 120 sounds of migration across 51 countries from Argentina to Australia, with personal stories from diaspora communities and people who have migrated all over the world. Note: The sound at the beginning may seem like static, but it's intentional - don’t adjust your headphones!

In this special episode of The Migration Oxford Podcast marking the end of our 2024 series, we turn the microphone to Migration Sounds. A partnership between global sound project Cities and Memory and the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), University of Oxford, Migration Sounds is the world’s first collection of the sounds of human migration.

Migration Sounds features 120 sounds and stories of migration across 51 countries from Argentina to Australia, with personal stories from diaspora communities and people who have migrated all over the world. Every recording within the project’s digital library tells a story about the experience of migration - but Migration Sounds didn’t stop there. Each sound has been reimagined by an artist to create a brand-new composition that responds creatively to the original, offering a different perspective to each compelling story. How did the project begin? Where has it taken us?

We welcome Stuart Fowkes, a sound artist and field recordist from Oxford and the founder of Cities and Memory and Rob McNeil, Deputy Director of The Migration Observatory based at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS). Hosted by Delphine Boagey, Communications Officer (COMPAS), the trio team discuss the efforts of curating this audio-based project in anticipation of the project’s 3-day pop-up installation amplified in the Pitt Rivers Museum and the roundtable panel event held during the installation.

We consider the project situated in wider research, teaching and communications of the University and city of Oxford, and invite listeners to question what migration sounds mean to them.

What does migration sound like? Migration Sounds features 120 sounds of migration across 51 countries from Argentina to Australia, with personal stories from diaspora communities and people who have migrated all over the world. Note: The sound at the beginning may seem like static, but it's intentional - don’t adjust your headphones!

In this special episode of The Migration Oxford Podcast marking the end of our 2024 series, we turn the microphone to Migration Sounds. A partnership between global sound project Cities and Memory and the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), University of Oxford, Migration Sounds is the world’s first collection of the sounds of human migration.

Migration Sounds features 120 sounds and stories of migration across 51 countries from Argentina to Australia, with personal stories from diaspora communities and people who have migrated all over the world. Every recording within the project’s digital library tells a story about the experience of migration - but Migration Sounds didn’t stop there. Each sound has been reimagined by an artist to create a brand-new composition that responds creatively to the original, offering a different perspective to each compelling story. How did the project begin? Where has it taken us?

We welcome Stuart Fowkes, a sound artist and field recordist from Oxford and the founder of Cities and Memory and Rob McNeil, Deputy Director of The Migration Observatory based at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS). Hosted by Delphine Boagey, Communications Officer (COMPAS), the trio team discuss the efforts of curating this audio-based project in anticipation of the project’s 3-day pop-up installation amplified in the Pitt Rivers Museum and the roundtable panel event held during the installation.

We consider the project situated in wider research, teaching and communications of the University and city of Oxford, and invite listeners to question what migration sounds mean to them.

Over 2.6 million people are locked out of the welfare state in the UK and now subject to ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF), an immigration policy restricting access to social security. How can local government respond? How can local government improve the safety net for vulnerable people locked out of the welfare system due to their immigration status?

The number of people locked out of the welfare state in the UK has risen to 2.6 million people now subject to the ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) policy, an immigration policy restricting access to social security. Local government have been described as providing a "parallel welfare system" (Price & Spencer, 2015) and a "basic safety net of support" (UK Minister for Legal Migration & the Border, 2024) for vulnerable people facing destitution, regardless of their immigration status. However recent research highlights the limitations of this parallel safety net which fails to meet the rising demand and the needs of vulnerable people as local authorities find themselves operating on overstretched social care budgets and without any dedicated funding from central government to cover this provision. Despite repeated calls from the third sector, local government and cross-party parliamentarians to review the NRPF policy for vulnerable people and families, none of the major political parties appear to call for a reform of the policy.

If local government are expected to play a vital role in supporting destitute vulnerable people, what needs to change to ensure local authorities provide better support? How can authorities address wider strategic priorities such as ending rough sleeping, improving public health and tackling local inequalities?

In this episode of The Migration Oxford Podcast, we welcome Rupinder Parhar, Head of Equalities at the Greater London Authority, Ann, a community researcher and a member of COMPAS' Experts by Experience Advisory Board and Lucy Leon, a researcher at the Global Exchange on Migration and Diversity at COMPAS. Together, we explore the needs and characteristics of this vulnerable population locked out of the welfare system, the variations in support provided by local government across the UK and what needs to change to ensure vulnerable people facing destitution are provided with support, regardless of their immigration status.

Guests: Rupinder Parhar, Ann, Lucy Leon

Hosts: Rob McNeil and Jacqui Broadhead

Producer and Communications: Delphine Boagey

With war comes displacement. The full-scale invasion of Ukraine has forced millions to flee homes and rebuild elsewhere. What role does a women's agency play in navigating the complexities of displacement and building resilience? With the full-scale invasion of Ukraine disastrously continuing into 2025, what has become of the many millions forced to flee their homes and rebuild? Often as centralised figures of the home and family units in traditional Ukrainian households, many women are affected in ways that take on a gendered lens. What are some common strategies they employ to cope with their displacement and rebuild their lives?

This episode is being released to mark the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

What role does a women's agency play in navigating the complexities of displacement and building resilience? We explore the concept of 'twice displacement' and the intersection of gender and migration studies. Drawing on Dr Dvornichenko’s research findings, we discuss the outcomes of a quantitative survey among 1000 displaced Ukrainian women and 60 in-depth interviews conducted with displaced Ukrainian women.

How do the experiences of internally displaced women in Ukraine differ from those who have been externally displaced? What are the common patterns and trends in return or to stay intentions among internally and externally displaced Ukrainians?

In this episode of The Migration Oxford Podcast, we welcome Dr Daryna Dvornichenko, research fellow at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford and a displaced Ukrainian and mother of a teenaged daughter; Tania Orlova, Founder and Business Director of 2BWell, a digital initiative designed to address the escalating mental health crisis affecting millions of Ukrainians due to war and displacement, and a displaced Ukrainian now based in the UK.

Why are some countries across the Global North more open and accepting towards refugees than others? How can asymmetrical sympathies and differential treatments be better understood? We search for answers with an expert panel. The welcoming response of European countries towards Ukrainian refugees from 2022 onwards has been marked by its strength and rapidity. This recent example recalls other moments of openness from past decades: the Western response to Kosovar refugees in 1999, or the response of some countries – including Germany and Canada – to Syrian refugees in 2015. Such responses are striking as they occurred simultaneously with restrictive policies enforced against other groups of protection seekers.

How can we understand moments of openness towards refugees in countries of the Global North? Why do these responses favor some groups and not others? How can we understand asymmetrical sympathies and differential treatment in the response to various groups of protection seekers?

In this episode of The Migration Oxford Podcast we explore these questions and more, in an effort to challenge the global responses to refugee crises and ask how we can make those responses more inclusive.

We welcome Isabelle Lemay, PhD candidate in International Development at the University of Oxford; and Professor Bridget Anderson, Director of Migration Mobilities Bristol, and Professor at the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol (and former colleague at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) here at the University of Oxford) to this conversation. We discuss Isabelle’s recent work on the response of Germany to the 2015-2016 refugee crisis, and highlight key representations and perceptions of refugees that have been (re)produced by the media and the public.

For further readings on the concept of deservingness, please see Holmes and Castaneda (2016), at https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.12259; for further reading on relatedness and implicatedness, please see Gibney (1999), at https://wayback.archive-it.org/2500/20231024042051/https:/www.fmreview.org/kosovo/gibney

Why does official data tell us so little about migration? Why do some migration statistics seem to clash? How can we shape this “age of migration data” for better? We welcome co-authors of Improving Migration Data for People and the Planet to this latest episode.

The global number of international migrants is estimated at 281 million, but surprisingly little is known about the people that make up this figure. Who they are, why and how they decided to migrate, what needs they have and what the impact of their migration is on communities of origin and destination remains to be determined. Quality data is needed to analyse and manage migration flows effectively, but availability of statistics around the world is very limited.

Today issues of migration data collection and analysis are more complex than ever before. While calls for better migration data among the international community have gained momentum in recent years, recommended standards are still not consistently applied. How migration is measured varies hugely between countries and governments. Estimates on a global scale are often contested or retracted (the World Bank recently put forward a 184 million estimate to contest the UN’s estimate of 281 million international migrants). Despite more data being collected than ever before, there are many challenges that this brings, including significant risks if there are insufficient safeguards to protect migrants. And it’s not always clear that having more information brings benefits…

In this episode of The Migration Oxford Podcast we ask the big questions on global migration data: why do official statistics tell us so little about migration? Why do some migration statistics seem to clash? How can migration data be sustainably and inclusively improved? How can we shape this “age of migration data” for better? Our discussion includes findings from the recent publication Improving Migration Data for People and the Planet (Routledge, London), which contributes to the global discussion about how best to improve the collection, analysis and use of data on international migration whilst protecting the rights and respecting those involved.

We welcome Elisa Mosler Vidal, PhD candidate at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) here at the University of Oxford; and Frank Laczko, former Head of GMDAC and UN migration specialist who now works independently, to this conversation.

How does housing relate to migration and asylum issues? Using the City of Oxford as a case study, we consider the affordability and accessibility of housing to newcomers and the impact this has on refugee and asylum seekers. In this episode of The Migration Oxford Podcast, we explore the ongoing housing affordability and accessibility crisis in the UK, using the City of Oxford as a case study. Oxford is the least affordable UK city for housing, with average house prices over 15 times the average annual salary (as of 2022). As with much of the UK, the increasing cost of housing combined with a significant shortfall in council housing, puts home ownership out of the reach for many people in Oxford and pushes them into a very competitive rental market. But what does this mean for newcomers to the City? How does this relate to migration and asylum issues?

Housing for asylum seekers in the UK is not controlled by or the responsibility of local councils. Instead it is controlled nationally by the Home Office and through a number of private providers who are tasked with finding accommodation, often in competition with the City Council or private landlords. With Oxford facing a crisis of affordable housing, how does this impact refugee and asylum seekers? How does the system for asylum and housing work in the UK? What has changed in recent times? We explore new government initiatives, such as the notorious Bibby Stockholm barge, and consider where policy might go next.

We welcome Tiger Hills, PhD candidate at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, and a co-founder of the Spatial Action Lab; Dr Hari Reed, Policy and Advocacy Coordinator at Asylum Welcome; and J, a volunteer at Asylum Welcome to this conversation.

Please note: We acknowledge that this is a fast-moving policy area. This episode was pre-recorded in August 2023 and some specific references to policy changes, such as the seven-day notice-to-quit period issued to asylum seekers in August 2023 by the Home Office that we discuss, has since been reversed back to the 28-day period (as of January 2024).

What makes diaspora communities unique? We learn about the roles of diasporas, contributions to development and humanitarian initiatives across the globe and unpack how people living in diaspora drive change in their communities. In this episode of The Migration Oxford Podcast, we unpack how diaspora communities are partners in development and humanitarian initiatives. In 2022 diaspora engagement was at the core of the discussions at global, regional and local levels. Through the Global Diaspora Summit and multiple-high level events, the role of diasporas across the humanitarian and development peace nexus is being further recognised and harnessed across the globe. But what is unique about diasporas? How do they contribute to development and humanitarianism?

How can governments and key partners create an ecosystem in which diasporas act as empowered actors? What is the best way to ensure a multi-stakeholder approach to diaspora engagement?

We welcome Dr Alan Gamlen, Professor of Migration Governance at Australian National University; Dr Larisa Lara, IOM, Transnational Communities and Digital Communications Officer at the International Organisation for Migration (IOM); and Dr Martin Russell, Founder of Global Diaspora Insights to this conversation.