Conversations with Iris: Podcast series on migration, diversity and displacement IRIS, University of Birmingham, UK

Is the UK immigration system really 'fairer' as the government claims? Fairer to whom? Nando Sigona asks Luke Piper, Head of Immigration at the Work Rights Centre. In this episode of Conversations with IRIS we examine the production of exploitable and precarious migrant workers at the intersection of the immigration and labour regime in post-Brexit Britain. We explore the structural factors that contribute to producing vulnerable migrants impacting not only on migrant workers but also on their families.

Dr Seb Rumsby, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at IRiS, speaks with Mariko Hayashi, Executive Director at Southeast and East Asian Centre (SEEAC) about the challenges facing Southeast and East migrants and diasporas based in the UK, before comparing post-Brexit UK with East Asian labour migration regimes to explore how policies lead to labour migrant exploitation and rights abuses and what can be done about it.

This episode of Conversations with IRiS offers insights into the experiences of Brazilians in London and questions assumptions on 'community' and its boundaries. Nando Sigona speaks to Angelo Martins Jr, the author of 'Moving difference' an ethnographic exploration of how race, class and gender constructions travel with migrants and shape their migratory plans and trajectories as well as their experiences in the countries of residence and origin. Angelo also reflects on his work with sub-Saharan African migrants in Europe and Brazil and how his positionality plays a role in how he interact and engage with research participants.

Dr Angelo Martins Junior is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Birmingham, UK.

In this new episode, Anna Papoutsi discusses with Inka Stock, author of the excellent book ‘Time, migration and forced immobility: Sub-Saharan African migrants in Morocco’, published by Bristol University Press. The episode examines the temporalities of forced immobility, and the long-term impact of specific migration policies, which forcibly immobilise migrants in intermediary or ‘transit’ countries, on the everyday lives of those migrants.

In this conversation, Birmingham Fellow Dr Jennifer Allsopp and Professor Michael Jackson from the Harvard Divinity School discuss the inter-relational aspects of migration research and how literature has informed their fieldwork both in terms of method and interpretation, from Sebold to Dante. In a wide-ranging and deeply personal discussion, they cover topics including the nexus between autobiography and ethnographic research; the possibilities and limits of empathy and the relationship between narrative as told and lived in life, books and art. Follow Jennifer on Twitter at @JennifeAllsopp and @DanteRefugees.

In this conversation, Paladia Ziss (@pyziss) talks with Meena Sadr, student from Afghanistan, and Hannah Pool (Max-Planck-Institute Cologne) about the ethics and politics of collaborating with research assistants in research in and on Afghanistan. Hannah is the author of the award-winning PhD dissertation '"Doing the Game": The Moral Economy of Coming to Europe" (@hnnhpool). Meena (@meenasadr) transcribed Hannah's interviews with Afghan migrants; later she was forced to flee Afghanistan herself following the takeover of the Taliban.