People on the move

changing minds, changing places

People on the Move brings you research-based articles and migrant testimony seeking to shift the focus of public debate on migration away from borders, security and control, to developing migration policies that are fairer and more equitable.

Labour's immigration muddle, and a conference of confusion

Sunder Katwala 4 October 2011
The Labour Party doesn't know what to do or say about immigration. Last week's conference was a case in point, as two leading thinkers offered radical proposals for tightening immigration that even they admitted are unworkable.

Family Migration – don't fall into the Danish trap

Anne Stoltenberg 26 September 2011
An ongoing UK Government consultation on immigration policy makes an exemplar of the Danish system. But is Denmark's immigration policy really something to aspire to?

How to protect 'invisible' people

Amal de Chickera 26 September 2011
Around 12 million people in the world are stateless, and many find themselves locked up for long periods of time under immigration regulations that don’t apply to them. States need to be reminded of their obligations under international human rights law and stop the arbitrary detention of stateless persons, says Amal de Chickera

Beating the Black Country blues

Jenny Morgan 15 September 2011
On the council estates of post-industrial Dudley, in the British West Midlands, where far-right anti-migration candidates have had some electoral support, local people and migrants are feeling their way to common ground

Border control: the unanswered calls

Nina Perkowski 9 September 2011
We are systematically discouraging the development of a humanitarian regime at sea, accepting death rather than uncontrolled immigration. Saving 'boat people' comes at a cost few are willing to take, says Nina Perkowski

Cohesion: prevention, action and vision

Phoebe Griffith 24 August 2011
Political discourse around cohesion in the UK has come down to a simplistic juxtaposition between those “who obey our laws” and those who don’t. The government needs to re-think its laissez-faire policy on cohesion, says Phoebe Griffith

Breaking the cycle: step by step in Smethwick

Jenny Morgan 23 August 2011
The Somali refugee community in Smethwick is less than ten years old. Muni Abdikarim and Ahmed Sirad spoke to Jenny Morgan about their work with middle-aged Somali women who are being turned away from a doctor's surgery and told 'Come back when you've got an interpreter'

Trafficking: a human rights abuse, not an immigration offence

Jenny Moss 17 August 2011
The British government's new anti-trafficking strategy is high on rhetoric about immigration crime and border control, and lacks any real commitment to protecting victims of trafficking, says Jenny Moss

From civil war to the cult of cool

Jenny Morgan 11 August 2011
The policy of dispersing migrants in Britain has led to large numbers of Somali refugees in Smethwick, a town notorious for anti-migrant mobilising in the 1960s. In the first of her Letters from Smethwick, Jenny Morgan describes a meeting with charismatic Somali community organiser Hodan Rashid.

Migration: controlling the unsettled poor

Bridget Anderson 1 August 2011
Examining the way in which first rulers, and then the state, have coerced the poor in England into mobility and immobility, offers opportunities for developing a new politics of migration, says Bridget Anderson

'Bogus' asylum seekers? The ethics of truth-telling in the asylum system

James Souter 29 July 2011
The British tabloids and the Home Office are united by their assumption that asylum seekers who lie during their claims are undeserving of protection. Yet this view runs contrary both to widely held moral principle and refugee law. The real issue at stake is not the honesty of asylum seekers, but their risk on return, argues James Souter

Theatre of Inhumanity: a damning portrayal of the UK asylum system

Liz Allcock 27 July 2011
A new play shines a light on the dark side of the British asylum system, portraying with brutal clarity the inhuman treatment dealt out to those drawn to this country by the hope for sanctuary

The dark side of democracy: autochthony and the radical right

Nira Yuval-Davis 26 July 2011
Racialised and forced migrants are the spectre of the 'other' in the autochthonic dream of the 'pure' otherless universe which we must confront. This border-zone is our political as well as our analytical challenge, says Nira Yuval Davis

Roma youth in the UK: 'burning down the library'

Elizabeth Kennedy 22 July 2011
"We are really going back a few steps. . . . just lost expertise, data, everything . . . for me, it’s almost like burning down a library". Elizabeth Kennedy reports on the severe impact funding cuts are having on Roma youth in the UK

We must oppose the cruelty of Northern Ireland's new detention centre

Anna Morvern 19 July 2011
The opening of the first purpose-built immigration detention centre in Northern Ireland this month, is a sad day as it will expand the detention estate once again. But we can resist the simultaneous expansion of our own mental barriers against human equality and freedom, by denying the necessity and normality of yet another detention facility.

With thanks to

Barrow Cadbury Trust

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