Michaela and Nando get together to discuss the UK’s Labour Government 2025 promise to restore control over immigration by reducing net migration. The resonance with Brexit rhetoric couldn’t be clearer in the language and narrative surrounding this. Yet, Brexit remains the elephant in the room. They reflect on several key elements of the paper: health and social care visas, shifts in qualification levels and income requirements, student visas and e-visas. As their conversation highlights, the new immigration plan embeds further the criminalisation of certain migrants—and seeks new ways to do so—while offering no reflection on the absence of safe routes. From the announcements that surrounded the paper to the plans for reforming who can come to the UK and on what terms, what they reveal is the continuing significance of the far right anti-immigration politics in shaping the migration regime in Britain today.  

You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on our website Who do we think we are? 

In this episode we cover …  

1 2025 White Paper ‘Restoring Control over the Immigration System’  

2 Brexit and migration 

3 Net migration  

Seminar questions 

1. What does the term ‘island of strangers’ signal to you?  

2. What are some of the main changes that the Labour Government are planning to make to the immigration system?  

3. Why might it be important that we think about Brexit when considering migration to the UK in 2025?  

Find out more about …  

The immigration white paper 

Listen to .. 

Us talking on The Conversation’s podcast about how EU leaders want to copy the Rwanda Plan 

Our episode with Migrant Rights’ Network’s Fizza Qureshi on ‘safe routes’ and the Rwanda Plan 

Nando’s podcast Mobility, Work and Rights  

Call to action 

Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed.  

To find out more about Who do we think we are? On our website, Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.  

What’s the significance of migration for the making of ‘Global Britain’? And what are the theoretical and conceptual tools that can help to unpack this question? In this episode, we turn our attention to the value of racial capitalism for understanding migration to and from the UK after Brexit. Elena Zambelli explains what we mean when we talk about ‘Global Britain,’ its political trajectory, and the role of coloniality within it. Ida Danewid, Lecturer in Gender and Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex joins us to offer insights into the relationship between racial capitalism, migration and borders. As she highlights, mobility controls produce the exploitable labour force necessary for capitalist accumulation and how those migrantized resist state violence. And co-hosts Nando Sigona and Michaela Benson consider what a racial capitalism lens adds to understandings of the UK's new suite of humanitarian visas, and more broadly to the role of migration in the making of Global Britain. 

You can access the full transcripts for the episode, further resources and active listening questions over on our website: Who do we think we are? 

What are the UK Government’s ‘safe and legal routes’? How do these relate to ‘stop the boats’, the Rwanda Plan, and the curtailment of asylum as laid out in the 1951 Refugee Convention? What can we learn from listening to the Hong Kongers and Ukrainians beneficiaries of these humanitarian visas? And what if these routes are not so safe after all?   

In this episode we explore the UK’s safe and legal (humanitarian routes). Elena Zambelli explains what ‘asylum’ is, looking its history, scope and challenges to these international protections since 2015 ‘refugee crisis.’ Fizza Qureshi, CEO of the Migrants’ Rights Network, board member of Migrants at Work and of the honorary advisory committee for the Black Europeans, joins us to offer a critical overview of the UK’s immigration and asylum reforms over the past decade. Asking what this tells us about migrants’ rights, she highlights how these reforms impact disproportionately on brown and black migrants who try to make the UK their homes. And co-hosts Nando Sigona and Michaela Benson consider the ongoing contestations surrounding the figure of the ‘refugee’ as well as the asylum system as a whole. They reflect on how beneficiaries of the Hong Kong BN(O) and Ukraine visa schemes experience these humanitarian visas, and what we can learn from them about the limits of these.  

You can access the full transcripts for the episode, further resources and active listening questions over on our website: Who do we think we are? 

What’s Brexit got to do with the ‘small boats’ crisis? What does racialised border violence in the Channel tell us about 'Global Britain’? And what can we learn about the UK’s approach to its borders from the Hong Kong BN(O) and Ukrainian visas? We discuss all of this and more as we turn a lens onto Fortress Britain.  

Elena Zambelli explains what we mean when we talk about migrants’ irregularisation. We’re joined by Arshad Isakjee and Thom Davies talk about their research on the racialised border violence enacted by Fortress Europe and why we need to turn our attention to how this relates to the EU’s liberal values. And Nando and Michaela turn the lens back onto UK and its post-Brexit borders as they discuss the new suite of ‘safe and legal (humanitarian) routes’, and what these signal about the future of asylum within and beyond the UK. 

You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on our website Who do we think we are? 

Migrant laborers worldwide are engaged in care work, but who provides care for them? And where can they seek care? In this discussion with Ethel Tungohan, the author of 'Care Activism', we go beyond the headlines that portray migrant domestic workers as victims or heroes. By focusing on their daily lives and the experiences of migrant care workers, we explore various sites of everyday resistance, ‘dissident friendships’, and the politics of critical hope and care.

You can access the full transcripts for each episode on the Who do we think we are? website.

In this episode we cover …

• Migrant care workers in Canada and the UK
• Migrant agency and everyday lives
• Resistance and care activism

Active Listening Questions

• What can we learn from looking at the everyday lives of the migrants?
• How does Ethel explain why migrant care workers’ organisations emerged? And what do they offer to migrant care workers that states do not?
• Why might migrant care workers resist the idea of being ‘sisters’? And what alternative ways of understanding the relationships of care between them are discussed in the episode?
• What does care activism make visible about migrant agency?

Read …

Ethel’s book Care Activism and article with Jon Careless on how Canadian news media frames temporary migrant workers

Anja K. Franck’s article Laughable Borders

Listen to …

Academic Aunties

Call to action

Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms. 

To find out more about Who do we think we are?, including news, events and resources, check out our website, follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

What happens when borders cross families? How do families navigate these interruptions to their ability to live together? This episode considers what shifting perspective to families opens up to view in terms of thinking about the work of borders and their impact on people’s everyday lives. Helena Wray, Professor of Migration Law at the University of Exeter, explains the historical development of family migration laws and what these make visible about the racialization of the nation and its political community. Elena Zambelli explains what a ‘mixed-status family’ is, and the many ways in which states may affect its members’ everyday lives and future imaginings. And co-hosts Nando Sigona and Michaela Benson consider how the state’s regulation of family migrations is linked to the reproduction of the nation state, and draw on data collected within the MIGZEN project to show the effects of Brexit on British-European families. 

You can access the full transcripts for the episode, further resources and active listening questions over on our website: Who do we think we are? 

We’re out and about in this episode! Ala and Michaela have been on the road. And in this episode they visit Manchester Museum and a new project aimed at decolonising the museum collection. They are joined by members of the Ancient History, Contemporary Belonging research project—youth researcher Senna Yousef and Dr Caitlin Nunn from Manchester Metropolitan University—which retells the history of objects held by the Museum through archival research and young people’s experiences of migration.

You can access the full transcripts for each episode on the Who do we think we are? website.

In this episode we cover …

-       Decolonising Museums

-       Participatory and arts-based methods

-       The Koh-i-noor Diamond and the British Monarch

Find out more about …

The Ancient History, Contemporary Belonging Project

Senna’s contribution to the exhibition ‘The Tale of Migrants’

Our headline ‘Camilla to wear recycled crown without Koh-i-Noor diamond at Coronation’

The Koh-i-Noor Diamond from these podcasts that we rate from Scrolls and Leaves and Empire

Call to action

Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms. 

To find out more about Who do we think we are?, including news, events and resources, check out our website, follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

Borders around the world are becoming increasingly digitised. But who does the digitisation of borders serve? How are these technologies related to state-led projects of securitisation and surveillance? And what do digital bordering practices mean for migrants, migrant rights and advocacy?   

In this episode we lift the lid on digital bordering. We debunk political rhetoric about how these make border control more efficient to consider what the increasing use of such technologies of border control makes visible about bordering as a practice and process around the world today. Elena Zambelli considers what we mean when we talk about digital borders and shows it is linked to the increasing precarity of legal status among migrants. Kuba Jablonowski, Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Bristol joins us with a case study that brings all of this to life: the digital and online only roll out of the EU Settled Status Scheme (EUSS) in the UK, how this was framed by the priorities of the Home Office, the consequences for EU nationals, including the racial discrimination produced through its implementation. And Nando and Michaela turn their attention to how those taking part on our research experienced such statuses, how this links to Hostile Environment, and the challenges that this presents for migrant rights and advocacy.  

You can access the full transcripts for the episode, further resources and active listening questions over on our website: Who do we think we are? 

What role do diplomacy and the power play between states play in the development of migration policy? And how can turning our attention to the significance of foreign policy within migration governance help us in understanding the post-Brexit migration regime in the UK?  

In this jam-packed episode, we consider how foreign policy and geopolitics shapes migration and mobility regimes. Catherine Craven explains what we mean when we talk about migration diplomacy. Fiona Adamson, Professor of International Relations at SOAS, invites us to think about how migration and diaspora feature in inter-state relations, with a particular focus on the EU. Through the discussion of the UK’s new humanitarian visas and the citizens’ negotiations, Nando and Michaela reflect on the relationship between migration diplomacy and the UK’s shifting position on the world stage after Brexit.  

You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on our website Who do we think we are?  

In this episode we cover …   

• Migration diplomacy and the geopolitics of migration 

• Hong Kong BN(O) and Ukraine Visa schemes 

• Brexit and the citizens’ rights negotiations 

Active listening questions  

• What does ‘migration diplomacy’ mean? 

• What actors do and can engage in migration diplomacy? 

• What diplomatic instruments can states use to govern international migration? 

• Which new visa routes and trade and mobility agreements has Britain negotiated and/or implemented since Brexit?  

Find more about …   

The uses of Migration Diplomacy in World Politics  

Why migration deals such as the Rwanda plan are here to stay 

How the UK’s exit from the EU turned the Mediterranean ‘refugee crisis’ into a British ‘border crisis’ 

Our podcast picks ...  

• Explore background debates and concepts in International Relations theory more generally at Whiskey and International Relations Theory  

• Hong Kong BN(O) visa scheme 

• NPR’s Throughline on Hong Kong  

Call to action  

• Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed.  

• Get all the latest updates from the MIGZEN research project  on Twitter and Instagram 

• Follow Who do we think we are? on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. 

What’s changed in the UK’s approach to migration since Brexit? How has this impacted on migration flows? Who is and isn’t migrating to the UK ?

In A New Plan for Migration? we consider the shape and structure of the UK’s regulation and governance of migration since leaving the European Union. Catherine Craven explains what we mean when we talk about Migration Regimes, and shows how this works in practice. Barrister, author and Founder of Free Movement Law Colin Yeo, shares his thoughts on what has and hasn’t changed in terms of laws and policies on UK immigration since Brexit. And our presenters Michaela Benson and Nando Sigona consider the politicisation of migration, and how this is reflected in rhetoric and the framing of new legislation, policy and guidelines, and what EU citizens in the UK and British citizens in the EU have to say about it. And they ask the question is the post Brexit regime just?

You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on our website Who do we think we are? 

In this episode we cover … 

• Migration regimes 

• New plan for migration 

• Post-Brexit borders and immigration controls

Active listening questions: 

• How would you define a migration regime? 

• What do migration regimes do for states? 

• In what ways has the UK’s migration regime changed since Brexit, if at all?  

Find out more about … 

• Why some migrants are deemed more deserving than others in Global Britain in Michaela and Nando’s piece for Open Democracy  

• The injustices inherent in the UK’s current immigration system from Colin’s book Welcome to Britain: Fixing Our Broken Immigration System 

• An early call for the institution of a fair global migration regime in this article by Stephen Castles  

Podcast recommendations: 

• Colin on the Politico podcast: Westminster Insider: Can Rishi Sunak ‘Stop the boats’?  

• Listen to the Free Movement podcast for regular updates and commentaries on UK immigration law 

• Check this episode of WDWTWA Beyond the Headlines where Colin joined Michaela and Ala Sirriyeh to discuss Suella Braverman 

Call to action  

• Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed.  

• Get all the latest updates from the MIGZEN research project  on Twitter and Instagram 

• Follow Who do we think we are? on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.