Listen Now

This a special crossover episode between the Migration Podcast and the Culture and Inequality Podcast. The first in a series of three, this episode investigates how Music and Social Media matter in Migration (and vice-versa). Our guests are Daniela Jaramillo-Dent and Marco Martiniello. The episode is hosted by Julian Schaap. For centuries, music has been a powerful source of individual and social well-being, something which studies from psychology to sociology to medicine continue to demonstrate. As people migrated, music migrated with them – causing the rapid and continuing spread of hundreds of music genres in countries across the globe. Since digitalization, music has become more mobile than ever before, as people can connect with their favorite music as long as they have an internet connection. This leads us to ask: How do migrants in the 21st century use music during processes of migration? To talk about this, Julian Schaap (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands) has invited Daniela Jaramillo Dent (Universidad de Huelva, Spain and Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands) and Marco Martiniello (Université de Liège, Belgium). Are you interested in hearing more episodes by The Culture & Inequality Podcast? You can find them here: https://eucci.eu/podcast/ And on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6BGJkiCyIFxeJFX9uN7tSw

In this episode, our guest Sverre Molland takes a critical look at two themes that have prominently structured humanitarian aid and funding: human trafficking and safe migration. With Jamie, he speaks about how one discourse increasingly gives way to the other, and what that might have to do with the politics of migration. Want to know more about Sverre? Check out his website: https://www.sverremolland.com/about Sverre Molland's book "Safe migration and the politics of brokered safety in Southeast Asia" (2021, Routledge) is available Open Access at Taylor & Francis. This is the link: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781003185734/safe-migration-politics-brokered-safety-southeast-asia-sverre-molland This is the last episode of our second season and after a short break we will be back with new guests speaking about their research. We hope you will tune into Season 3.

When we think of migration we immediately think of space. But time plays a crucial role, too. Just think of the temporal limitations of a visa, or of cross-border mobilities as part and parcel of someone’s professional and personal careers. Jolynna Sinanan spoke to Shanthi Robertson about her new book “Temporality in Mobile Lives. Contemporary Asia–Australia Migration and Everyday Time”, about the intersection of temporality and movement, and about the development of Shanthi’s intellectual project. Shanthi Robertson is an associate director at The Insight Centre, and a research fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Find Shanthi's book at Bristol University Press: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/temporality-in-mobile-lives or on project MUSE: https://muse.jhu.edu/book/81128

Co-productive and co-creative research is all the rage, but what does it entail? Can a research project in collaboration with members of the population studied indeed be realised? And is all research that labels itself co-productive, truly so? Or do we perhaps mistake consultations for the co-production of knowledge? Kasia Grabska speaks with Milena Belloni about her experiences doing collaborative research, and reflects on which parts of the process have been the most challenging for her. Kasia Grabska is senior researcher at PRIO, the Peace Research Institute in Oslo. Currenlty she is also visiting professor at the institute of Ethnology, at Neuchatel University. Learn more about Kasia here: https://www.prio.org/people/8217 Here is a link to Kasia's ongoing project INSPIRE: https://www.prio.org/projects/1861

A central concern in debates around refugee integration is that of labour market integration. But how do displaced people create livelihoods for themselves and become self-reliant? For this episode we invited Evan Easton-Calabria to discuss the meaning of refugee self-reliance, how assistance practices have changed over time, and the important yet often overlooked role of refugee-led organisations in providing training and labour market orientation. Evan Easton-Calabria is senior research officer at the University of Oxford, Refugee Studies Center. Learn more about Evan here: https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/people/evan-easton-calabria-1 This interview was conduced by Amanda Paz Alencar.

Milena Belloni speaks to Valentina Mazzucato about how she explores the minute details of everyday migrant transnationalism: the ties and relationships that connect migrants with other people across nation-state borders. Our guest highlights the importance of exploring transnationalism from different locations simultaneously, the value of defocusing research from the migrants’ side of the story, and speaks about the implications of transnational ties for people who remain deeply interconnected despite leading their lives apart. Valentina Mazzucato is is Professor of Globalisation & Development at Maastricht University. Learn more about Valentina here: https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/v.mazzucato

In April 2019, a year before we launched The Migration Podcast, I sat down for an interview with Nina Glick Schiller in New York. New York is the city where Nina had based her PhD project on Haitian immigrants, a project that laid the foundation for the book “Nations Unbound”. The book, co-authored by Linda Basch, Nina Glick Schiller, and Cristina Szanton Blanc, would deeply impact how we think about migrant’s social, political and economic ties across national borders. In this episode, Nina recounts how the idea for Nations Unbound germinated, we spoke about her intellectual project throughout the years, and about how she carved out a career in academia from the margins. Nina Glick Schiller is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and was the Director of the Cosmopolitan Cultures Institute at the University of Manchester. She continues to be active with the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle (Saale), Germany. Nina published her latest book together with Ayse Çaglar in 2018: "Migrants and City Making: Dispossession, Displacement and Urban Regeneration" Duke University Press. The book can be downloaded for free here: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/25763 Learn more about Nina here: https://www.eth.mpg.de/schiller or visit her profile on academia.edu: https://manchester.academia.edu/NinaGlickSchiller

Approximately a third of Singapore´s active labour force is non-resident (Ministry of Manpower, 2021), meaning they are neither Singapore citizens nor permanent residents. Of those, the majority are foreigners employed to do menial work in the construction industry, in shipyards, or in the service sector, such as domestic work in people´s homes. Much of Singapore's shiny skyscrapers, award-winning architecture, public housing, and world-class infrastructure was built by foreign workers on low wages. Many women in Singapore have found the freedom to venture into better paying jobs outside the home because the burden of domestic work has shifted to women from low-income countries. In this episode, Mamta Sachan Kumar speaks to John Gee about the continuing struggles to maintain foreign workers´ rights and wellbeing in a country that so dearly relies on their labour. With Mamta, John speaks about his experiences as a practitioner. John Gee was involved in the planning stages of Transient Workers Count 2 (TWC2) and acted as the organisation´s president from 2007 to 2011. TWC2 on the web: https://twc2.org.sg/ Mamta Sachan Kumar is PhD candidate at the School of Culture, History & Language at The Australian National University. Referenced report: Ministry of Manpower (2021) "Singapore Manpower Statistics in Brief 2021", Manpower Research and Statistics Department: Singapore. Available at https://stats.mom.gov.sg/iMAS_PdfLibrary/mrsd-msib2021.pdf#search=migrant%20workers , access 25.08.2021.

In this episode we speak about how bureaucracy and law shape everyday lives, but we also learn more about how listening closely to research participants can yield insights that go beyond what is already known. Milena Belloni speaks to Cecilia Menjivar about liminality and the different, less obvious forms of violence faced by women in Guatemala and by Central American immigrants in the United States. These include narratives about different forms of everyday suffering described by women in two Guatemalan villages, as well the constant uncertainty some groups of immigrants live with, in the United States. Cecilia Menjivar published extensively about these two empirical areas of work, her books ”Enduring Violence: Ladina Women’s Lives in Guatemala” (University of California Press, 2011) and “Fragmented Ties: Salvadoran Immigrant Networks in America” (University of California Press, 2000) having won her several prices and awards. Learn more about Cecilia´s work here: https://soc.ucla.edu/people/cecilia-menj%C3%ADvar

What is a family, and under what conditions can its members live a life together, abroad? In this episode, we look at family reunification policy in Brazil. Amanda Paz Alencar speaks to Patricia Nabuco Martuscelli about her research on family reunification policy in Brazil, and about the efforts of different groups of refugees to claim their right to live with family members. Patricia Nabuco Martuscelli holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of São Paulo (USP). She is currently a Social Science Research Fellow in Conflict and Migration at the Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction (UCL). Prior to this, Patricia was a Visiting Scholar at the Carolina Population Center (2017-2018), at the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development (2018-2019) and a ZUKOnnect Fellow at the University of Konstanz (2019). Patrícia is interested in investigating the changes in family-reunification policies in Brazil since 1997. Her project, titled "The Family Reunification Policy for refugees in Brazil", aims to improve the understanding of best practices and challenges in family reunification procedures for refugees in Brazil. Her research interests involve asylum and migration politics in Latin America, family reunification of refugees, refugee children, and refugees and COVID-19 in Brazil. Learn more about Patricia here: https://sites.google.com/view/patricia-martuscelli Amanda Paz Alencar recently joined The Migration Podcast Team. She is Assistant Professor at the Department of Media and Communication at the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Season 2 begins with a conversation between Douglas S. Massey and Asya Pisarevskaya about migration across the U.S.-Mexican border since the early 20th century. Their conversation is based on D. Massey's recent article "Immigration policy mismatches and counterproductive outcomes: unauthorized migration to the U.S. in two eras" (2020) published in the journal Comparative Migration Studies. The paper is openly available here: https://comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s40878-020-00181-6.pdf Douglas Massey is Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, with a joint appointment in The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, at Princeton University. Learn more about Douglas here: https://pop.princeton.edu/people/douglas-s-massey Asya Pisarevskaya is part of The Migration Podcast Team and Assistant Professor at the Erasmus University Department of Public Administration and Sociology, in Rotterdam.

Listen to Jolynna and I as we recap Season 1 with our favourite sound bites. A big thank you! To #TheMigrationPodcast Team for a wonderful first season and to our guests for speaking to us about their research. Don't forget to visit us as https://www.imiscoe.org/news-and-blog/podcast and check out research on migration on the Migration Research Hub at https://migrationresearch.com/

In this final interview of the season, I speak to Ien Ang about her research on media audiences , cultural consumption, migration and identity politics in an age of globalisation. Her two books, “Watching Dallas” and “On not speaking Chinese”, are classics in the field of cultural studies and have been translated into many languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Turkish, German, Korean, and Spanish. In our interview, Ien tells me how her biography inspired her research career. Ien Ang is Distinguished Professor at Western Sydney University. This interview was conducted in January 2020.

According to the International Labor Organisation, approximately 40 million people worldwide are in modern slavery, including almost 25 million in forced labour in 2016. One in four victims are exploited outside of their country of residence, pointing at the vulnerability of migrant workers. (ILO 2007: 30) The Asia Pacific Region has the highest share of victims across all forms of modern slavery. (27) To combat the problem, civil society organisations and authorities in Thailand are now supported by an app, which allows first-line responders to better identify victims of human trafficking and labour exploitation. The development of this app, called Apprise, was headed by Hannah Thinyane, a computer scientist at UNU Macao with a background in ICT for development. In this episode I speak to Hannah about the project that led to the making of Apprise, and how the app has been received. Dr. Hannah Thinyane is a Principal Research Fellow at the United Nations University Institute in Macau. Learn more about Hannah and Apprise here: Hannah´s profile: https://unu.edu/experts/hannah-thinyane.html#profile Apprise: https://www.apprise.solutions/home Cited ILO Report : Global estimates of modern slavery: Forced labour and forced marriage International Labour Office (ILO), Geneva, 2017 ISBN: 978-92-2-130131-8 (print) ISBN: 978-92-2-130132-5 (web pdf) Available at: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_575479.pdf

For this episode, associate producer Milena Belloni spoke to Alcinda Honwana about her work on African youth in waithood. Through Alcinda's work, we learn more about young Africans' aspirations to become productive and accomplished members of society, and how these aspirations get youth to mobilise, politically and across space. You can find Alcinda's professional profile here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/africa/people/Staff/Alcinda

In this episode I speak to Sylvia Ang and Val Colic-Peisker about their work on new Chinese migrations to Singapore and Australia. In our conversation, we focus on one of the consequences of these newer migrations: rising hostility towards China and its people, or Sinophobia. Comparing Sinophobia in Singapore and Australia, Sylvia and Val find that local ethnic makeup, as well as distinct approaches to multiculturalism, have brought about two different versions of anti-Chinese sentiments. This interview was recorded in January 2020. Sylvia Ang is post-doctoral fellow at the Asia Research Institute in Singapore. Val-Colic Peisker is associate professor at RMIT in Melbourne.

In this episode I spoke to Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho about her book "Citizens in Motion. Emigration, Immigration and Re-Migration Across China's Borders". Based on a decade of research in China, Canada, Singapore, and the China–Myanmar border, Elaine explores the very different ways in which Chinese overseas relate to their countries of citizenship, to mainland China, and to other cohorts of Chinese emigrants. Elaine tackles issues of ethnic identity and belonging, challenges assumptions of co –ethnic allegiance, and shows that the Chinese overseas are a very heterogeneous population maintaining various attachments and identities. Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho is Associate Professor at the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore. She is the winner of the 2019 Global and Transnational Sociology Best Book by an International Scholar Award, sponsored by the American Sociology Association - Global and Transnational Sociology Section. Get "Citizens in Motion" at your library or buy it here: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=28697 PS: My apologies for the sound quality in the interview; my microphone had failed me that day and I had to use my backup recorder.

Until about the end of the past century, visits, phone calls, letters and remittances were common means to upholding relationships across distance and showing care. Today, mobile devices and fast internet connections open up new avenues to stay in touch and thus change the ways in which care is expressed and practiced across distance. In this episode, my co-producer Jolynna speaks to Loretta Baldassar about her work on transnational families, media practices, care and ageing in migration in Australia. Loretta Baldassar is Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at UWA and an Adjunct Principal Research Fellow at Monash University. Her research and teaching areas include migration, transnational families and Australian society. Loretta is currently working on two ARC Discovery projects: Ageing and New Media and Mobile Transitions. Learn more about Loretta here: https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/persons/loretta-baldassar

In this episode we speak about a particular form of migration: the so called “floating population” in China. My co-producer Jolynna Sinanan spoke to Xinyuan Wang about her work with temporary, low-wage workers in Chinese factory towns, looking at, what she calls “the human face of Made in china”. As temporary workers responding to labour needs, this floating population travels light. Their smartphones are their most prized possessions and function as a gateway to participating in modern China, at least digitally. Xinyuan Wang is Research Associate at UCL in London. She is the author of the book "Social media in Industrial China" Learn more about Xinyuan here: https://www.visualethnographyxy.co.uk/

In this episode I speak to Melissa Siegel about the aspirations that drive people's decisions to live elsewhere. Through her research, Melissa debunks the idea that people migrate only to escape poverty and conflict, and that development in sending countries reduces emigration. Read more about Melissa and her work here: https://www.merit.unu.edu/about-us/profile/?staff_id=1328 Watch Melissa's YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8KcWrj7AULBlhy_DM1lFpw