Who do we think we are?
Professor Michaela Benson
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Top 10 Who do we think we are? Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Who do we think we are? episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Who do we think we are? for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Who do we think we are? episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
S3 E2 Free Movement, limited
Who do we think we are?
06/02/23 • 46 min
We’re talking Freedom of Movement, its role in the formation of an EU–wide imagined community, and the experiences of people who have lost their FOM rights due to Brexit. Catherine Craven explains what we mean when we talk about Freedom of Movement within the EU, its institutional underpinnings and social implications. Elspeth Guild, legal scholar and counsel, joins us to talk about the history and evolution of Free Movement rights within the EU, what Freedom of Movement does for Europeans and the meaning of EU citizenship, as well as the significance of the external EU border and the politicisation of asylum in the story of EU Free Movement. Nando and Michaela reflect on changes to who moves within Europe, how mobility within the EU relates to feelings of identity and belonging, as well as the inequalities that exist amongst EU citizens when they exercise Free Movement rights, and the impact of Brexit on those people who have lost their rights to FOM since 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 ...
1 Freedom of Movement
2 EU citizenship, identity and belonging
3 What Brexit and the loss of FOM has meant for British citizens in the EU and EU citizens in the UK
Active listening questions
- How would you describe Freedom of Movement?
- What factors might shape people’s experience of moving within the EU? And relatedly, what challenges or opportunities might people face when they move within the EU?
- What role does migration play in creating and maintaining a ‘community of Europeans’?
- In what ways has Brexit changed how you - your family & friends - can move to or within the EU?
Find more about ...
How migration and asylum relate to the “European way of life” from Elspeth’s article in the European Law Journal
How British People of Colour experience Brexit in Michaela Benson and Chantelle Lewis’ article in Ethnic and Racial Studies.
What Brexit means for British citizens in the EU-27 in this short animation
What place has got to do with identifying as European in this piece on Brexit, emotions and belonging by Nando Sigona and Marie Godin
And why is London the (best) place to be for Roma? Watch this short video
MIGZEN research on European belongings and political participation beyond Brexit.
Our podcast picks ...
Brexit Brits Abroad: Social mobility, free movement and the impermanance of citizenship rights
Borders & Belonging – How has Brexit changed the UK for Migrants?
Free Movement on EU Settled Status
Call to action
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Get all the latest updates from the MIGZEN research project on Twitter and Instagram
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S3 E8 Fortress Britain?
Who do we think we are?
01/18/24 • 55 min
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?
BtH2 E1 Beyond the headlines … at Manchester Museum with Senna Yousef and Caitlin Nunn
Who do we think we are?
11/10/23 • 32 min
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
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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.
S3 E6 Migrant Rights 2.0
Who do we think we are?
10/12/23 • 44 min
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?
S3 E9 (Not so) safe routes
Who do we think we are?
02/15/24 • 54 min
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?
S1 E2 What can the development of immigration legislation tell us about citizenship in Britain?
Who do we think we are?
10/29/21 • 26 min
Why do changes in Britain's immigration laws matter for making sense of citizenship today? What is the relationship of these changes to Britain's shift from empire to nation-state? In this episode, host Michaela Benson explains how decolonisation and the independence struggles of Britain's former colonies set the stage for citizenship to emerge in Britain. She explores the shift from subjecthood to citizenship and what this meant for people around the British Empire. Podcast researcher George Kalivis goes back into the archive to explore the introduction of the British Nationality Act 1948. They are joined by Devyani Prabhat, Professor of Law at the University of Bristol, to talk about what citizenship means in law; how the development of citizenship in Britain was a process of inclusion and exclusion managed through immigration and nationality legislation at their intersections; and how this understanding helps us to see the entrenched racism at the heart of nationality and immigration law today, including the British Nationality Act 1981.
Access the full episode transcript
In this episode we cover ...
- The shifts in Britain's nationality legislation from the British Nationality Acts of 1948 and 1981
- How the development of British citizenship was caught up in Britain's decolonisation
- What immigration controls introduced in the 1960s and 1970s can tell us about the changing definition of what it meant to be British over time
Quote
Citizenship was not really defined in British Immigration and Nationality Laws for a very long time, in terms of the country. So it wasn’t about the UK as such and the reason is very much historical, it’s based on the British empire and its relationship with colonies and former colonies and each stage of the Immigration and Nationality Laws we see certain elements being added in without actually describing who is a citizen or defining who is a citizen.
- Devyani Prabhat
Where can you find out more about the topics in today’s episode?
You can find out more about Devyani's research on her University of Bristol Website (which includes links to many of her publications) and you can follow her on Twitter @ProfDPrabhat.
For the themes covered in this episode, we particular recommend her recent paper Unequal Citizenship and Subjecthood: A rose by any other name..? published in @NILegalQ, and her recent edited volume Citizenship in Times of Turmoil?
She has also written extensively about the people’s experiences of becoming British citizens in her book Britishness, belonging and citizenship and about several other timely issues relating to citizenship, including this piece about Shamima Begum: what the legal ruling about her return to the UK actually means: for @ConversationUK and this for @freemovementlaw focused on Britain's unaccompanied migrant children.
For wider reading, this week's recommendation is Reiko Karatani's 2003 book 'Defining British Citizenship'.
Call to action
You can subscribe to the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed.
To find out more about Who do we think we are?, including news, events and resources, visit our blog and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
BtH2 E2 Beyond the headlines … Care Activism with Ethel Tungohan
Who do we think we are?
12/14/23 • 37 min
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 ...
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.
S1 E1 Why we need to look at history to understand British citizenship today?
Who do we think we are?
10/15/21 • 25 min
Did you know that the current definition of British citizenship is only 40 years old? Who do we think we are? starts its exploration of British citizenship by looking at the history of British citizenship, and how remembering that the question of who counts as British has changed alongside shifts in Britain’s position in the world might make us think again about these questions and their consequences in the present-day. In this episode, host Michaela Benson, a sociologist specialising in questions of citizenship and migration, draws on her family history to bring the story of British citizenship in the second half of the twentieth century to life and explores British subjecthood, a precursor to citizenship. Podcast researcher George Kalivis goes back into the archive to explore the 1961 Immigration Bill and the measures that this introduced. They are joined by guest, Gurminder Bhambra, Professor in Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies at the University of Sussex, to talk about how recognising the back story to the development of British citizenship might change the ways that we think about migration, social justice and inequality in Britain today.
In this episode we cover ...
- The short history of British citizenship as we know it
- The introduction of immigration controls for Citizens of the UK and Colonies
- Why history matters for making sense of the inequalities at the heart of Britain’s contemporary citizenship-migration regime
Quote
Citizenship is something that emerges in the mid to late 20th century as a category by way of which to stop people moving. We often think about this idea of passports as if that’s what enables us to move; actually, it was about stopping people moving.
— Gurminder Bhambra
Where can you find out more about the topics in today’s episode?
You can find out more about Gurminder’s research on her website (which includes links to freely-accessible copies of many of her published works) and follow her on Twitter @GKBhambra
You can read Michaela’s full interview with Gurminder in The Sociological Review Magazine
Gurminder also mentioned Radhika Mongia’s 2018 book Indian Migration and Empire. To get a bit more of a flavour of the book and its contents, you can visit The Disorder of Things Blog, who have hosted a symposium on this work.
Call to action
You can subscribe to the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed.
To find out more about Who do we think we are?, including news, events and resources, visit our blog and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
S2 E8 Who is a migrant?
Who do we think we are?
01/20/23 • 40 min
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
Call to action
Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed.
BtH1 S7 Beyond the headlines … with Hannah Lewis
Who do we think we are?
11/25/22 • 30 min
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’
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?, including news, events and resources, check out our website, follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
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FAQ
How many episodes does Who do we think we are? have?
Who do we think we are? currently has 46 episodes available.
What topics does Who do we think we are? cover?
The podcast is about Podcasts, Education, Social Sciences and Science.
What is the most popular episode on Who do we think we are??
The episode title 'S1 E3 How the Commonwealth Immigration Acts laid the foundations for the Windrush Deportation Scandal' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Who do we think we are??
The average episode length on Who do we think we are? is 40 minutes.
How often are episodes of Who do we think we are? released?
Episodes of Who do we think we are? are typically released every 14 days, 1 hour.
When was the first episode of Who do we think we are??
The first episode of Who do we think we are? was released on Sep 22, 2021.
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