Who do we think we are?

Here's a little season end bonus, where our presenter, Michaela Benson and podcast researcher, George Kalivis go behind the scenes at Who do we think we are? They reflect on the origins of the series, the role of the podcast in challenging taken for granted understandings of migration and citizenship in the UK today. They unpack what goes into the making of each episode and what they've learned along the way. And consider the stories that didn't make it into the series and those that stuck with them, and the importance of making audible the dialogues at the heart of academic scholarship.

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

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For the final episode of Season 2, we bring you a set of conversations about what Who do we think we are? achieves through dialogues with archival and social science research around migration and citizenship in the UK and beyond. We're joined by former guest, Bolaji Balogun (University of Sheffield) who reflects on what excited him about taking part the podcast and offers tips for future guests. Niamh Welby, our former student intern, describes on how working on the podcast opened her eyes to the power and presence of resistance to present-day immigration controls and why words matter when we talk about migration. Michael J Richardson (University of Newcastle) explains why and how he has been using the podcast in the classroom with his first year undergraduate students. We're also joined by his student Olivia Allerton who tells us what listening to the podcast has done for her knowledge and understanding and calls for the broader inclusion of podcasts on undergraduate reading lists. Listen for recommendations, reflections on podcasts as a form of public engagement with social science and value in the classroom.

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 Dialogue and academic knowledge production

2 Podcasting and the public engagement with social science

3 Podcasts in the classroom

To find out more about …

Louisa Lim's podcast 'The King of Kowloon'

Social Geographies, an introduction, by Michael J Richardson and his colleagues at the University of Newcastle

Scholarly Podcasting, we recommend Ian Cook's new book

Podcasts in the classroom, read Michaela's reflections for The Sociological Review blog

And don't forget to listen to our back catalogue!

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

What does the characterisation of those from Europe's east as migrants by politicians and in some corners of the media make visible about the politics of migration? What is distinctive about the ways in which they are migratised and racialised? And what does this offer to understandings of racism and racialisation? We're joined by Aleks Lewicki (University of Sussex) to discuss how critical race theory and postcolonial scholarship can deepen our understandings of repertoires of racism as these play out between 'Europeans'. Presenter Michaela Benson explores how borders within Europe shifted over the course of the twentieth century. Podcast researcher George Kalivis goes back in the archive to consider the 2003 EU Accession Treaty. And Aleks introduces us to her work about how those from Europe's east are migratised and why we need to carefully consider what their racialisation makes visible about the distribution of power, past and present, within Europe.

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 Unequal Europes and unequal Europeans

2 The 2003 EU accession treaty

3 Capitalism and the formation of European nation-states

Quote

'Postcolonial approaches draw our attention to the longer durée of precarious labour mobility … there were parallel processes of extractivism occurring. Where Europe ventured out as part of colonialism, and positioned the colonies subsequently as peripheries, at the same time, there was also an extraction of resources and cheap labour from Europe's east, which thereby became positioned as a semi periphery. If we consider these longer histories, it becomes apparent what this meant for the region … generation after generation of people had to at some point, move west to make a living and engaged in various forms of precarious labour mobility'. —Aleks Lewicki

Find out more about … Aleks' research and her paper on the ambiguous racialisation of 'Eastern Europeans'

If you liked this episode, check out our previous episodes on this topic with Bolaji Balogun and Marius Turda on European identities, Nando Sigona on EU citizenship, and Manuela Boatcă on citizenship and Global Social Inequalities

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There is nothing politically neutral about classifying and categorising people as migrants. This is a process through which certain individuals and populations are defined as migrants, whether they have crossed borders or not. It has political consequences and impacts for those who find themselves labelled as such. In this episode we turn to this always-political question to consider what this means for how we study and research migration. Researcher George Kalivis goes back to the 1970s to consider the Grunwick industrial dispute. Presenter Michaela Benson considers what the UK's post-Brexit immigration system, makes visible about class and migration. And Bridget Anderson Professor of Migration, Mobilities and Citizenship at the University of Bristol joins us to talk about why we need to turn our attention to how the distinctions between citizens and migrants are made and to what ends, and what conceptual tools might be useful in excavating the connections between migrants and citizens as we consider the always-political question 'Who is a migrant?'

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 Migrantisation and racialisation

2 Grunwick Dispute

3 Post-Brexit immigration regime

Quote

Given that 'migrant' is a social as well as a legal construction, then we as researchers are part of making the subordinated character of the migrants … migrants and migration, migrant and citizenship are not just neutral descriptors, they make power relations between each other and between a person and state.

—Bridget Anderson

Find out more about …

Bridget's research and Migration Mobilities Bristol

Read Bridget's work on methodological denationalism and migrantisation

We also recommend Alyosxa Tudor's work on racialisation and migratisation

Michaela's research on Brexit and the stratification of British people in France

The Grunwick industrial dispute from the Working Class Movement Library and the Striking Women Module

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All eyes have been on Qatar because of the World Cup. And with it, attention to the poor working conditions and treatment of migrant construction workers. We go beyond the headlines with İdil Akıncı-Pérez (University of Edinburgh) to explore the back story to these issues. We look in depth at how the Gulf States approach migration and citizenship, from the Kafala sponsorship system to restrictions on citizenship which mean that only 10% of the resident population have citizenship. We move beyond the suggestion of the Gulf States as exceptional to consider instead how their approach converges and diverges from migration-citizenship regimes closer to home, and what this makes visible about global migration and citizenship regimes.

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

In this episode we cover …

1. Kafala and labour conditions
2. History of citizenship and migration in the Gulf
3. Legal precarity across the life course

Quote

"If you hold nationality of a country with ongoing political conflict and violence where do you go if you lose your temporary visa that is linked to employment which means you have to find a different place to live? It is really important to look at legal status together with nationality to understand inequality." — İdil Akıncı-Pérez

Find out more about …

Our guest İdil Akıncı-Pérez and her work and follow her on twitter

Our headline for this episode from Al Jazeera

We also loved this episode about Qatar and the World Cup from one of our favourite podcasts, NPR's Throughline

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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.

Who is unquestionably European? From Brexit to the war in Ukraine, this question has come to the fore as people of colour have found themselves disproportionately questioned as they try to exercise their rights as European citizens. We're joined by Bolaji Balogun (University of Sheffield) and Marius Turda (Oxford Brookes) to discuss the longer history of migration between Europe the UK, how this history interplays with the development of immigration controls in the UK (and elsewhere), and the development of European identities from the early twentieth century to the present-day.

George and Michaela consider the disproportionate challenges that European people of colour have faced in securing their post-Brexit status through the EU settled status scheme. In our explainer, Michaela explores the social and political context that led to the development of the 1905 Aliens Act. And in conversation, Bolaji and Marius introduce us to the role of eugenics and race science in the development of early immigration controls in the UK and how this set the stage for the racialised exclusions at the heart of contemporary immigration controls and governance practices across Europe.

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. The Aliens Act 1905
2. Eugenics, race science and immigration controls
3. European identities and Whiteness

Quote

The ways in which migration and citizenship are processes of inclusion and exclusion at the same time. As a citizen you think you're actually free to move around. But the same process of citizenship has been used to actually exclude and to reduce also, what you can have access to and what you canot. And actually eugenics provided tools for that to actually happen. —Bolaji Balogun

We attach so much importance to historical myths of origins. And those continue to fuel, often negatively, fantasies of belonging. And white supremacy and whiteness is based on the fantasy of belonging, these ideas have never gone away. — Marius Turda

Find out more about …

Bolaji and his work, follow him on Twitter, and read his paper Race, blood,and nation

Marius's work on The Eugenics Podcast, follow him on Twitter, and read his paper Legacies of Eugenics

Dahaba Ali Hussen's struggle for EU settled status

Black Europeans, the organisation documenting systemic racism in the EUSS scheme

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

In July 2022 the news broke that Sir Mo Farah, four times Olympian for Team GB, had been trafficked to the UK as a child. The headlines enhanced public understandings of trafficking. They brought into the frame the children forced into domestic servitude and the circumstances which mean that their situations may not come to light. Hosts Ala Sirriyeh and Michaela Benson are joined by Dr Hannah Lewis, University of Sheffield to discuss what trafficking is and its relationship to modern slavery and forced labour; public responses to victims of trafficking; and how the Hostile Environment further limits the possibilities of exiting the relationships of exploitation at the heart of trafficking.

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

In this episode we cover …

1 Human Trafficking

2 Sir Mo Farah

3 Forced Labour and Domestic Servitude

Quote

... we cannot resolve the problem of severe exploitation in the UK ... without disentangling it from scapegoating of migrants and xenophobic immigration controls. It's not possible to intervene effectively in this area, without tackling the problems that we have in the UK, with immigration controls, and the way in which these are now being woven into everyday life through the hostile environment.

—Hannah Lewis

Where can you find out more about the topics in today's episode?

Find out more about Hannah and her research on the University of Sheffield website

Read her co-authored book Precarious Lives

Our headline for this episode was Sir Mo Farah 'relieved Home Office won't take action over citizenship'

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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.

Who do we think we are? In the early 2000s, with the beginning of the New Labour government, journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown asked this question, calling for a radical reimagining of who was considered as British and outlining her hopes for a new Britain. In this special episode, she joins Michaela Benson in conversation to consider why 20 years later we're still asking the same question. She draws out the differences between now and then; shifts within the Conservative Party from Thatcher to the present-day; what this means for questions of race, migration and belonging; New Labour, migration and the Iraq War; Meghan Markle; the challenges ahead for keeping hope alive and the small

You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on the Rebordering Britain and Britons after Brexit website.

In this episode we cover …

1 New Labour, immigration and citizenship

2 Conservative Party from Thatcher to the present-day

3 Meghan Markle

Quote

… if Labour is going to do anything meaningful, it needs to be addressing who we are, and who we can be and who we want to be. And use its period in power, not to social engineer, but to tell a proper history, for example, to educate our children differently, maybe to get sections of the media to reflect the country we are not the country they wish we were.

—Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Where can you find out more about the topics in today's episode?

You can find Yasmin on Twitter or via her column in iNews.

Her book Who do we think we are?

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For many people, migration is about escaping persecution and state violence. But in the context increasingly criminalisation of migration, state violence may characterise the lives of immigrants. Hosts Ala Sirriyeh and Michaela Benson are joined by Professor Cecilia Menjívar to discuss her work with Central American migrants in the US. She highlights how those taking part in her empirical research from Arizona to Kansas revealed to her the ways in which the infrastructures of immigration enforcement and control in the US shape migrant lives and the parallels they draw in state violence before and after migration. And she stresses the urgent need to consider legal status as an axis of social inequality in contemporary society.

In this episode we cover …

1. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
2. Legal violence and legal liminality
3. Legal status and social inequalities

Quote

… that brought to me the parallels between life under state terror in Central America, and life under legal terror brought about by immigration enforcement in the United States

• Cecilia Menjívar

Find out more

Find out more about Cecilia's work on the UCLA website and follow her on Twitter

We recommend her work on Legal Liminality and her co-authored research with Leisy Abrego on Legal Violence

Our headline was this article from the LA Times about US Immigration and Customs enforcement in the shift from Trump to Biden.

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

As people find themselves queueing up at border controls in EU member states, as their passports are stamped, there have been questions about why these things are happening. It's all because of Brexit, and more specifically, the end of free movement between the UK and EU which means that British citizens are no longer EU citizens. But what do you know about EU citizenship is and isn't?

In this episode we're joined by Nando Sigona, Professor in International Migration and Forced Displacement at the University of Birmingham, to talk Brexit, EU citizenship and what this makes visible about British citizenship. Michaela's explainer offers a whirlwind tour of EU citizenship from the Maastricht Treaty to Brexit, highlighting its emergence in the context of ambitions for European integration and considering what the loss of EU citizenship means for British citizens and their families. George experiences déjà vu as he uncovers how some politicians and parliamentarians in the UK responded to the idea of EU citizenship when it was mooted in 1992. And Nando helps us unpack what we can learn about citizenship from looking at Brexit as a political transition, its impacts on the lives of EU citizens living in the UK but also considering this in the context of racialised bordering practices, past and present, in the UK and EU.

You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on the Rebordering Britain and Britons after Brexit website.

In this episode we cover …

1. The Maastricht Treaty, EU citizenship
2. Freedom of Movement
3. Brexit and EU citizens

Quote

In a sense Brexit was a laboratory for seeing the redefinition and rewriting of citizenship in action but was not new in itself, actually there is almost an institutional memory of how to do these kind of things in the case of Britain.

— Nando Sigona

Find out more about …

Nando and his work here, follow him on Twitter, read his book Within and beyond citizenship

EU families and Eurochildren research

Institute for Research into Refugees, International Migration and Superdiversity

Rebordering Britain and Britons after Brexit research

This episode's primary source for Back to the Archive

Michaela's work Brexit and British citizens in the EU including her paper with Chantelle Lewis

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