Author: Marisol Reyes, IRiS Research Associate The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our daily lives in many ways, with global and local inequalities evident in terms of infection and mortality rates and socio-economic impacts. Refugees are recognised to be a vulnerable population with a recent study by the World Health Organisation finding significant impact of COVID-19... Continue Reading →
By Michaela Benson (@michaelacbenson) and Nando Sigona (@nandosigona) (Originally published in The Sociological Review) Three weeks into 2021 and the end of the Brexit transition period, and not a day has passed where the borders haven’t made their presence felt in the news cycle. The coincidence of COVID and Brexit has produced a perfect storm,... Continue Reading →
Tendayi Bloom (@TendayiB) In December 2018, the Global Compact for Migration was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. The headline of the fourth of its 23 objectives is as follows: ‘Ensure that all migrants have proof of legal identity and adequate documentation’. Considering this objective in detail indicates that it is often documents (or... Continue Reading →
By Nicholas Bailey (@imnickbailey) and Nando Sigona (@nandosigona), University of Birmingham https://www.facebook.com/unibirmingham/videos/310858256686260/ BLM became something very different from its previous incarnation on the day George Floyd died. It transitioned from social organisation to symbolising a societal ideal. By any definition, 2020 has been a dramatic year. It was already the year of Australian bushfires, the... Continue Reading →
By Bircan Ciytak (PhD student, University of Birmingham) On April 15, 2020, the Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu stated that, as part of the Covid-19 return program, around 25 thousand Turkish citizens from 70 countries, the majority of whom are students, were flown back to Turkey and kept in quarantine upon arrival for 14 days... Continue Reading →
Black lives matter and we stand united against racism. We understand that racism is systemic and structural in our society and works because so many are complicit with it. And we all have a part to play in ending it. We understand that undoing that complicity means listening, respecting, learning, mobilising and making space. And... Continue Reading →
Lucid and powerful analysis by Trevor Noah on George Floyd, Amy Cooper, Ahmaud Arbery and the banality of structural racism in US today against the backdrop of Covid-19 and widespread protests across the country. https://youtu.be/Jb4Bg8mu2aM The New York Times has reconstructed how George Floyd was killed in 8 minutes and 46 seconds of police custody.... Continue Reading →
In this episode of Conversations with Iris, Lyndsey Stonebridge, professor of Humanities and Human Rights at the University of Birmingham, talks to Daniel Trilling, former editor of the New Humanist, journalist and author of Lights in the Distance. Exile and Refuge at the Borders of Europe (2018) and Bloody Nasty People. The Rise of Britain's... Continue Reading →
According to the government, we are now supposed to be getting back to work. But what does “work” mean in the time of Covid-19? Lyndsey Stonebridge asks in her latest contribution in The New Statesman.
Valeria, Shahadat and Leonardo – an EU family living in London. Francesca MooreNando Sigona, University of Birmingham London is one of the capitals of the EU, home to over 1.1m non-British EU citizens, including a large number of families and children. This, according to my team’s ongoing analysis of data from across the EU, is... Continue Reading →
Conversations with Iris
