Monday Morning Meetings on Migration artwork

Monday Morning Meetings on Migration

32 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 3 years ago -

Over the course of the last 12 months, the demand for informed commentary on the politics of migration has expanded rapidly. In a period where migration scholars ought to be turning people away at the door, they are struggling to have their voices heard in a rapidly shifting debate. This podcast on migration and politics aims to generate theoretically and politically engaged discussion on the relationships between human mobility, space and power.

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Episodes

Solidarity and the City

November 06, 2020 00:00 - 55 minutes - 102 MB

Dipali Mukhopadhyay (Columbia University) describes her journey between New York City, Kabul and back to NYC again in the early weeks of the pandemic, what similarities she found between the two cities, and how the pandemic solidarity spilled over into the anti-racism protests in the summer.

Presidents, Peace talks, and a Pandemic

October 07, 2020 00:00 - 43 minutes - 39.8 MB

Omar Sharifi, the director of the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies in Kabul, describes how Kabul faced a constitutional crisis, a public health emergency, and delicate peace talks all at once in spring 2020. The pandemic also led to widespread economic hardship in the city, which was confronted by residents who organised food aid for the neediest neighbors through localised campaigns.

Made You Look

June 29, 2020 00:00 - 47 minutes - 76.3 MB

While the world has its attention fixated on the prospects of a vaccine other health crises lie waiting in the wings. So, on this week’s show we dump the Political Scientists and go in search of Pharmacist Jason Bower. We find him holed up, Skywalker style, on his ranch in Shropshire. Jason tells us to start focussing on the massive lag in pharmaceutical production and the whole range of other treatment problems looming as a result of the shortfall of supply, including pirate medicin...

Crisis to Crisis

June 17, 2020 00:00 - 54 minutes - 99.4 MB

As the United States lurches its way through the pandemic, protests against racial injustice emerged to reshape the political landscape even further. Last week we spoke to Shana Gadarian and Tom Pepinsky, two scholars who live and breathe crisis. They tell us how party affiliation now determines whether people wear masks or wash their hands in the US and warn of the dangers of constitutional disorder in the coming US elections.

Dear Permanently Temporary Workers, Go Home!

May 28, 2020 00:00 - 43 minutes - 80.2 MB

25 May 2020 - What do Kangaroos and Sex buddies have in common? Almost nothing, but find the answer to that question that and a whole lot more about Australia's troubled COVID-19 response towards migrant workers on this week's episode. As Sanushka Mudaliar reveals, Australia may have flattened the curve on covid but it faces a steep climb if it is to reconcile itself with this core and neglected part of its workforce.

Shining Light on the Hill

May 20, 2020 00:00 - 37 minutes - 70.7 MB

South Korea has been held up as the leading example of how to respond to COVID-19. Yet, recent flare-ups in night clubs have reminded us all that the virus is not going away any time soon. We check in with our former colleague, Sijeong Lim to hear about how the LGBTQ community is responding to the crisis, the use of electric bracelets to enforce quarantine, and why her students voted not to come back to class.

Its not the 30 pesos, its the 30 years

May 03, 2020 00:00 - 49 minutes - 84.8 MB

May 1 2020 - How do you enforce a lockdown when nobody trusts the government? That's the dilemma confronting the COVID-19 response in Chile, where the government entered the crisis with historically low approval ratings after introducing a 30 peso rate hike on public transport in the Spring. Abbey and Darshan chat with Carla Alberti of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Chile about Santiago's diverse array of lockdown laws (one for every borough), the strangely enduring beef betwee...

Quaran 'Strongly Requests' Yout to Stay Home

April 26, 2020 00:00 - 34 minutes - 64.1 MB

April 24 2020 - In countries like the Netherlands, stereotypes of 'authoritarian' and 'obedient' Asian societies have been used to explain why Europeans need more 'liberal' responses to COVID-19. In this podcast Kyohei Yamada helps us untangle some of these ideas, detailing Japan's peculiarly non-intrusive measures, and pointing to the unique historical and constitutional factors that explain their approach. In addition, Kyohei chats yakuza, pachinko- and of course: mascots!

"Stay in Your Box": Migrant Workers and Social Discipline in Singapore

April 12, 2020 00:00 - 41 minutes - 76 MB

10 April 2020 - Jia Ye - Singapore has been hailed as a 'model' response to COVID-19, but in recent days its cramped and crowded migrant worker dormitories, were been the site of a surge of cases. In this podcast we ask Jia Ye - Geographer at Nanyang Technical University - tells us about the impossibility of social distancing for workers - who remain in the dorms, in the trucks and on their work sites. She also gives us an insider's look into Singapore's state led response, and the u...

Sunshine in the Abyss: COVID-19 Shakes International Politics

April 05, 2020 00:00 - 1 hour - 117 MB

3 April 2020 - Francesca Grandi & Antonio Barroso - This week Abbey introduces us to two of her pals from London. Francesca has her fingers on the pulse of the UN response to COVID-19 and Antonio is a risk analyst guiding governments and businesses on how to address uncertainty in a time of 'assumptions undone'. Unsurprisingly, the conversation plumbs the depths of terror and shock that accompany the crisis, but at the same time reveals some surprises about different groups and actor...

Stock Up on Hand Cream Before Lockdown

March 25, 2020 00:00 - 58 minutes - 103 MB

As country after country adopts stricter measures to combat the spread of COVID-19, we want to know more about what to expect in a lockdown. Abbey and Darshan speak to Oxford scholar, Andrea Ruggeri about his experiences, the impact on Italian democracy and daily life. And yes, Andrea advises buying some hand creme and getting a haircut before lockdown.

Winter is coming

March 21, 2020 00:00 - 47 minutes - 87.2 MB

As Europe shuts down in response to the spread of COVID-19, other African countries are just beginning to grapple with the early signs of the pandemic. In this show, we discuss the COVID-19 response in South Africa, where an impending winter, a long history of the HIV-AIDS pandemic, and xenophobic attitudes are combining to generate some surprising and unexpected responses to the crisis. Leading Anthropologist of health and migration, Professor Jo Vearey chats to Abbey and Darshan. ...

Much Ado About Le Pen?

April 25, 2017 00:00 - 26 minutes - 47.9 MB

April 24 2017 - Francois Bonnet. Emmanuel Macron has emerged as the frontrunner in the first round of elections for the French Presidency. Though, the leading story of the night was the success of Marine Le Pen of the National Front Party in securing second place and an opportunity to participate in the run off election with Macron in two weeks time. The French results are being read as part of a wave of populist electoral successes – in what appears to be a radically redrawn politi...

Surviving at the Expense of…? A Rejoinder to Loren Landau

April 06, 2017 00:00 - 8 minutes - 19.1 MB

April 3 2017 – Michael Onyebuchi Eze. Three weeks ago, Loren Landau conversed with us on how poor, black South Africans use violence to demand the attention of political elites. In this week’s rejoinder Michael Onyebuchi Eze argues that it is more a symptom of a nation much too stuck in its frozen transition to democracy for it to be able to tackle socioeconomic issues of the poor black population. Race still determines one’s access to capital and resources, and because white nation...

Are We Heading Towards More Populist or Pluralist Societies within Europe?

March 27, 2017 00:00 - 14 minutes - 30.7 MB

March 27 2017 – Sarah de Lange Whereas the international media has been mostly concentrating on the perceived electoral rivalry between Rutte and Wilders during the last Dutch elections, a more interesting note might be the rise of parties – along with new radical right-wing initiatives – that represent the ‘migrant vote’. Though this signifies the increasing tendency of governmental fragmentation in Europe at large, it could also be seen as a sign of emancipation, for migrants, par...

Killing in the Name of....

March 13, 2017 00:00 - 17 minutes - 32 MB

13 March 2017 - Loren Landau South Africans have been rioting against, attacking and murdering foreign nationals since the end of Apartheid. The past month has seen another upsurge of this type of violence. While most have attributed this violence to a deep-seated South African nativism, in this week’s podcast we speak to Loren Landau in Johannesburg about the attacks' political motives. He tells us that poor, black South Africans use this violence to demand the attention of politic...

The Dismantlement of the ‘Jungle Camp’: Are We “Removing” the Problem?

November 16, 2016 00:00 - 19 minutes - 36.4 MB

November 7 2016 – Claudio Minca As the authorities have recently fulfilled their mission in clearing the infamous Calais Jungle Camp, once home to some seven thousand migrants and asylum seekers, we in this week’s talk speak with Claudio Minca – Professor and Head of the Cultural Geography chair group at Wageningen University (WUR). Instead of focusing on the internal politics and political symbolism surrounding the jungle camp, this conversation deals with the spatiality and the con...

The Trump Presidency: The Real First 100 Days

November 16, 2016 00:00 - 17 minutes - 33.2 MB

November 14 2016 – Austin Kocher In this episode we come back to the conversation we had last March with Austin Kocher – PhD student at the Department of Geography of the Ohio State University – on how a possible Trump Presidency would affect US immigration policy. As we all know, against all odds Trump was indeed elected as the new President of the United States. And as becomes apparent now that he will most likely (be able to) come through on his anti-immigration ‘promises’, Koche...

The Bratislava Declaration: "Never Again"

September 26, 2016 00:00 - 18 minutes - 34.6 MB

September 26 2016 - Sandrino Smeets European leaders recently met in Bratislava to sift through the ashes of Brexit and chart the organization's way forward. Migration and asylum dominated the agenda with their Declaration vowing "[n]ever to allow return to uncontrolled flows of last year". This week we asked Sandrino Smeets - an expert on EU Council deliberations, to tell us how European countries came to this position and what this Declaration will mean. He explores the inter-gove...

No More Mr. Nice Guy? Germany's New Anti-terror Laws

September 19, 2016 00:00 - 19 minutes - 36.1 MB

Responding to recent attacks in Ansbach and Wuerzburg, German CDU Minister for the Interior, Thomas de Maiziere recently tabled a proposal for wide ranging changes to Germany’s security and anti-terror policy. The 16 page proposal calls for increases in police numbers, changes to data protection laws and protocols, new methods of popular surveillance and further changes to the country’s already strict laws on dual citizenship. This week we ask Matthias Leese, a Senior Researcher at ...

Better off in Turkey?

June 06, 2016 00:00 - 19 minutes - 36.2 MB

Will Syrian refugees be better off in Turkey? European leaders are banking on it, but have little idea about the quality of protection Turkey offer Syrian nationals. Can Mutlu, currently based at Bilkent University, is one of the few researchers who has been studying Turkish refugee reception processes up close and on the ground. In this week’s podcast he tells us why some of the temporary protection measures – like offering work permits – have had limited effects, and explores wheth...

Independent not Unaccompanied, Ambitious not Afraid: A Rejoinder to Elaine Chase

June 01, 2016 00:00 - 21 minutes - 40.8 MB

May 30, 2016 – Stanford Mahati. Early this month, Elaine Chase told us how child migrants in Europe struggle to plan for their own future. In this week’s rejoinder, Stanford Mahati argues that we have underestimated the considerable capacity of child migrants to make their own migration plans and establish their own livelihoods in South Africa. He asks us to abandon the term ‘unaccompanied minors’ and instead begin to think about the ways we can assist ‘independent migrant children’...

The New Hope for Diversity?

May 23, 2016 00:00 - 11 minutes - 20.6 MB

London has a new Mayor: Sadiq Khan. His Muslim and immigrant background have been front and centre in the social media celebrations of his election. At the same time, Khan has sought to play down his background, asserting that he is a mayor of a major capital city, not a religious leader. In this week's podcast - our first full recording in our new studio - we chat with John Bowen, author of ‘On British Islam: Religion, Law, and Everyday Practice in Shari'a Councils'. John tells us t...

The Banality of Solidarity: A Rejoinder to Anja Karlsson Franck

May 16, 2016 00:00 - 6 minutes - 11.9 MB

Antonis Vradis & Anna Papoutsi. After delivering her verdict on Pope Francis' move to rescue asylum seekers on Lesbos, Anja Karlsson Franck asked us to seek out a rejoinder from Antonis Vradis and Anna Papoutsi at the Transcapes project in Durham. This week, they seek to answer Anja's question about whether we can help refugees without exploiting them. They suggest that while high-level diplomatic moves by the Pope and others should be regarded with caution, the grassroots efforts t...

The Papacy: Paternalistic as Ever: A Response to Anja Karlsson Franck

May 06, 2016 00:00 - 10 minutes - 18.7 MB

Last week Anja Karlsson Franck spoke to us about Pope Francis’ decision to rescue 12 migrants who were stranded on the Greek Island of Lesbos. Anja argued that we might the Pope’s gesture as a problematic but still politically progressive act. In today’s recording Polly Pallister Wilkins joins forces with some of Anja’s remarks, but cautions us against making the Papacy a standard bearer of humanitarianism in the European migration crisis.

Childhood Without a Future? Unaccompanied Youth Migrants in Europe

May 02, 2016 00:00 - 20 minutes - 28.1 MB

Large numbers of unaccompanied young migrants are seeking sanctuary in Europe. The plight of these migrants has been brought into focus by the conditions in Calais. The Guardian recently reported that over 150 unaccompanied children from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries are still stranded in Calais, and called on UK Home Office to provide safe passage to Britain to reunite them with their relatives. Things came to a head in the UK House of Lords last Tuesday, when the gov...

A Papal ‘Gesture': Can We Help Asylum Seekers without Exploiting Them?

April 25, 2016 00:00 - 22 minutes - 41.1 MB

On April 16th, Pope Francis made a 'gesture' on the Greek Island of Lesbos. Francis, the unlikely darling of the liberal left, returned to the Vatican with 12 Muslim Syrian asylum seekers, planning to offer them sanctuary. Was the Pope setting an example for European governments to follow, or is he just exploiting asylum seekers for political purposes? Anja Karlsson Franck, Senior Lecturer at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, draws on her extensive fieldwork on the island of Le...

Room for a Feminist Anti-racism after Cologne? A rejoinder to Francois Bonnet.

March 21, 2016 00:00 - 11 minutes - 22.2 MB

Last month, Francois Bonnet gave us his thoughts on the Cologne attacks. He argued that Cologne was a major blow to the Feminist left in Europe and encouraged us to see the police response to the violence as an act of performing non-racism. In this week's podcast, Kendra Briken of the University of Strathclyde offers a feminist and anti-racist critique of Francois’ position.

A Trump Presidency - Austin Kocher

March 13, 2016 00:00 - 14 minutes - 27.5 MB

After a series of large victories in the primaries, Donald Trump is being hailed as the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee. His election campaign has promised two major changes to immigration policy: build a wall on the US/Mexico border and increase efforts to deport unauthorised foreign residents. In this week's podcast, we ask Austin Kocher to forecast what the first 100 days of a Trump Presidency would mean for US migrants and politics more generally. He reveals just how ...

EU-Turkey: Deal or no Deal

March 13, 2016 00:00 - 21 minutes - 29.1 MB

The EU and Turkey deal are seeking to close the 'Balkan route' to Europe. On March 7 2016, Turkey offered to take back any migrants entering the EU from Turkey who didn’t qualify for protection. For every migrant Turkey receives, the EU has offered to resettle one Syrian refugee currently residing in Turkey. Franck Düvell argues that this seemingly simple and straightforward swap will face a litany of legal and logistical uncertainties.

Guns at the Border? [beta]

March 01, 2016 08:37 - 14 minutes - 20.4 MB

On Saturday January 30th 2016, Frauke Petry, the leader of the Alternatives for Freedom party said that German police should use armed force if necessary to prevent illegal migrants from crossing the German border. In this podcast Polly Pallister-Wilkins chatted with our host Darshan Vigneswaran about what Petry's remarks tell us about the changing tone of Europe’s response to the migration crisis.

Cologne and the Art of Not Being a Racist

February 29, 2016 00:00 - 18 minutes - 34.6 MB

On New Years Eve 2016 German police received hundreds of complaints of crimes including sexual assaults and robberies occurring in the vicinity of the Cologne Central Railway station. Many blamed recently arrived asylum seekers for the attacks. In this week’s podcast Francois Bonnet of the CNRS, explains why we have struggled to balance our righteous indignation at the attacks with our fear of being labelled a ‘racist’.