We are so proud to be part of the Migration Scholars Mobilise Global Day of Action today! Sheffield folks, come down to the Jessop Building. Our schedule here: sheffield.ac.uk/migration-re... And to the global network website: migrationscholarsmobilize.org

@mayblin.bsky.social @hannahjlewis.bsky.social @patnabuco.bsky.social @livinginsheffield.bsky.social

Evidence of mass killings by RSF in El-Fasher, Sudan, are chilling. They must be a wake up call for the rest of the planet too. Countries must be pressured to stop sending weapons into their proxy war in Sudan. It starts with acknowledging the horror.

"Legal sources said more migrants were attempting to cross the Channel in small boats because they were being left homeless by the French authorities" www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Translation: Putting people in military barracks is good, because it has connotations of prison, punishment, and control. But only if the barracks are remote and out of sight, with people properly concentrated and fully excluded from society.

Around 900 men are expected to be moved to military bases in Inverness and Sussex by the end of the year. The use of large sites has been described as a "sleeper issue", likely to inflame tensions with local communities. And all to close four or five hotels. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Most of the time we ask the wrong questions in relation to asylum policy. What this new report on asylum accommodation shows, for me, is that we need to be asking all the time "who materially benefits from the current policy approach?"

Today! National Day of Solidarity to End Immigration Detention in the UK. When someone you know is detained it's like they have been abducted or taken hostage. Today we're asking for #DignityNotDetention #TheseWallsMustFall @Right_to_Remain Find out more here righttoremain.org.uk/category/the...

Political rhetoric isn't just talk, it has real material implications. "UK charities say toxic immigration rhetoric leading to threats against staff." www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Yet another case of the Home Office noticing an increase in asylum claims by people arriving via legal routes and responding by immediately slamming that route closed. It’s like they WANT people to travel irregularly.

Looking forward to this

How's the one in one out policy going? “The agreement between the UK and France will go down as a dark chapter in history because it has abandoned us completely. The UK government is making an example of us and this is very painful and shameful.”

Just digging out this blog I wrote for ECRE 6 years ago about the myth of the economic pull factor for asylum seekers -the myth that very much never dies! ecre.org/op-ed-pull-f...

How to change the dominant narrative on migration? This is a really interesting contribution from the US: "Narrative Guide for Immigrant Futures (2025) How To Create Narrative Interventions That Counter Fear and Change Attitudes" narrativeinitiative.org/resource/nar...

The "one in one out" deal between the UK and France is based on the idea of deterrence. But (and it's getting boring saying this year after year after year) the fabled deterrent effect does not exist. Here's one of the more recent explainers on this topic odi.org/en/insights/...

Last weekend, as the weather improved, more people tried to cross the Channel to reach safety in the UK. Four lost their lives in three separate incidents — one was a child. The government’s deterrent policies don’t work; they push people to take greater risks. We need #SafeRoutes now.

Deeply, deeply, concerning. "The prime minister told the BBC he did not want to "tear down" human rights laws, but is ready to look again at article three of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects against torture and degrading treatment." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is a brilliant opportunity for sociologists to join the board of The Sociological Review, practicing the kind of sociology many of us aspire to thesociologicalreview.org/announcement...

Brilliant new project!

100% this

V senior Labour MPs and Hope Not Hate have called on the prime minister and Labour to speak up louder against far right hate and division. Our story here www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

It’s being reported that Government are about to announce the furthering the use of Barracks to warehouse Refugees. Ignoring the findings of the National Audit Office report that these are significantly more expensive than hotels. But that’s just the financial cost www.nao.org.uk/reports/inve...

Scotland’s leading academic on refugees warns that British political rhetoric is taking the UK ‘into the foothills of genocide’ Professor Alison Phipps, Unesco chair in refugee integration at Glasgow University, says demonisation will end in deaths www.heraldscotland.com/news/2544663...

Thank you to Dr. Nick Maynard — and all of the other witnesses and experts — for sharing your testimony at Day 1 of the Gaza Tribunal. Join us again today to learn more about this government’s complicity in crimes against humanity. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Statement of changes to the immigration rules just published, suspending applications for refugee family reunion from 3pm today. Barely 30 minutes notice. No end for the suspension given www.gov.uk/government/p...

Good bit of myth busting, which does also include comments by @laurenhstarkey.bsky.social and myself, for some of the utter nonsense churned out about people seeking asylum, and repeated unquestioningly by some media commentators in today's @bigissue.com. www.bigissue.com/news/social-...

The Home Office's own (excellent) research summary says a) asylum seekers come to the UK primarily because of social networks/ties b) welfare and labour market policies are *not* a big "pull factor" c) safe routes would help freemovement.org.uk/wp-content/u...

The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) has passed a resolution stating that Israel’s “policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.” time.com/7313709/isra...

Every day I wake up to another far right policy announcement I didn’t vote for and wasn’t in the ruling party’s manifesto. Those who did ‘vote for change’ are raging at betrayal. I also wake up in a devolved part of the U.K where cross party leaders in local & national government have stepped up

Withdrawing from ECHR used to be an obsession of the lunatic far right of the Conservative Party not even to be entertained by mainstream of that party. @uklabourparty.bsky.social have, like the conservatives, been cannibalised by the far right

In a year of Labour putting major restrictions on legal immigration to appease immigration focussed voters they have gone from 35% to 19% in polls, immigration is now a higher profile issue, and both right opposition parties have moved to calling, either as leaders or as MPs, for mass deportations.

Extending the "move on period" came at the end of lengthy campaigning, and reams of evidence showing how 28 days led to homelessness, and more pressure on local authorities. This is a counterproductive, retrograde, move by Labour designed to chase Reform. Despicable! www.bbc.com/news/article...

It’s arrived. The best theoretical text I’ve ever read on the figure and experience of the refugee. Congratulations @hyabyohannes.bsky.social @uofgunescorila.bsky.social Order here for your library www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/1...

This is an interesting proposal from Future Governance Forum on how Asylum Management Centres could address small boat Channel crossings. I'd be interested to know what people think of this. www.futuregovernanceforum.co.uk/2025/05/15/w...

New from Free Movement: What do we know about the UK-France agreement on asylum returns? | Sonia Lenegan freemovement.org.uk/what-do-we-k...

Great writing from @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social "It’s absolutely unfathomable how far Labour’s moral compass has drifted"

We urgently need to #DecriminalizeFacilitation to ensure the fundamental rights of people on the move! What does this mean? @en.sea-watch.org @sos-humanity.bsky.social @ecchr.bsky.social @iuventa-crew.org @borderline-europe.bsky.social @louisemichelcrew.bsky.social

I'm going to this! It looks to be a really important conference. Looking forward to listening and learning

Brilliant writing from @mauricestierl.bsky.social The Guardian "An effigy of refugees, burned by a crowd: this is where Europe’s brutal fantasy of border control has led us" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Powerful and important writing by Travis Van Isacker on the inquiry into Britain's deadliest 'small boat' disaster. Worth taking the time to read to the end theconversation.com/what-caused-...

This is a brilliant (and rare!) opportunity for a scholar who works in postcolonial/anticolonial/decolonial historical sociology to work with @alimeghji.bsky.social on a project entitled 'Theorizing the global field: the de-Americanisation of Pan-Africanism'. www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52165/

500+ Master’s scholarships available for African refugee and displaced students at 25+ universities worldwide www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/news/rlrh-la...

This is great!

“The UK government’s continued complicity in Israel’s atrocities is unconscionable, and I do not want to spend another day operating on children who have been shot and starved by a military our government supports.” Devastating reporting.

"Many providers [universities] will need to take increasingly bold action [redundancies] to address the impact of challenges on their financial position ... We have reallocated 33 full-time equivalent roles towards financial sustainability and market exit [collapse of institutions] activity”

Really excited to see this textbook go to press! 'The modern world after colonialism: remaking the social sciences' comes out of the Connected Sociologies Curriculum Project (lnkd.in/eAeY-9_H). It shows what difference taking colonialism seriously means for a range of topics, aimed at first year UGs

Great article from @vickytaylor in @opendemocracy on Labour's new one in one our policy: "Labour has done what they said they wouldn’t – introduce performative gimmicks to convince voters they’re in ‘control’ of migration." www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-tr...

This is an important piece from a senior Holocaust scholar (who grew up in Israel and is an IDF veteran), and it’s important that it’s published in the NYT.

Interesting article from my colleague @hannahjlewis.bsky.social on the politics of victimhood in modern slavery and trafficking

UK resumes processing of Syrian asylum claims #Refugees