How do people become 'migrants'?

In this episode we ask, how do people become migrantized, and what does this tell us about both migration and citizenship? Bridget invites guests Janine Dahinden and Manoj Dias-Abey to discuss these questions from their different disciplinary perspectives. As a social anthropologist and professor of transnational studies, Janine understands ‘migranticization’ as sets of performative practices that ascribe migratory status to certain people and bodies. Manoj, as a socio-legal scholar, considers how such processes shape the laws and regulations created by state institutions.

In bringing together these different approaches our guests raise questions about how race, class and concepts of skill play into migrantization. They also ask whether the academic gaze should, in fact, focus more on 'demigrantizing' people by recognising how certain laws, such as those regulating labour migration, impact on citizens more widely.

Bios:

Bridget Anderson is Director of Migration Mobilities Bristol (MMB) and Professor of Migration, Mobilities and Citizenship at the University of Bristol. She is the author of Us and Them: The Dangerous Politics of Immigration Controls (Oxford University Press, 2013).

Janine Dahinden is Professor of Transnational Studies at the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland. Her research focuses on (de)migranticization, mobility, transnationalisation and boundary making.

Manoj Dias-Abey is Senior Lecturer in the University of Bristol Law School. His current research investigates how Britain thinks about and regulates labour migration, and how this has changed over time.

Further links for the episode:

Janine’s article on ‘Migranticization’.

Manoj’s chapter on ‘The Aliens Order 1920, the “Work Permit” and the Making of the National Labour Market’ in the MMB edited volume Rethinking Migration: Challenging Borders, Citizenship and Race (available 17th February 2025).

Credits:

Produced by Migration Mobilities Bristol (MMB)

Edited by Melissa FitzGerald – X @melissafitzg

Music by Olly Shaw – ollyshawmusic.com

Follow us on:

Bluesky - @mmbuob.bsky.social

LinkedIn – Migration Mobilities Bristol (MMB)

Instagram – mmbuob

Facebook – Migration Mobilities Bristol

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.