It’s not necessary to keep highlighting the qualities of exceptional immigrants as a reason for them to be treated well by their governments. We don’t have to be on our best behaviour to receive a basic level of human decency: that‘s why they’re called “human rights”, and not “human privileges”.

Brexit was a bad idea but I'm tired of hearing this being given as the reason for small boat Channel crossings. As though (a) nobody was crossing irregularly before -they WERE!, and (b)Imagining they weren't crossing because they were scared of the Dublin Regulation? That's just stilly (see: Rwanda)

It's almost like every single reputable expert who has been saying this exact thing for years was right. Home Office recognised this fact 15 years ago. Successive governments, globally, continue to ignore it, and continue to push harmful "tougher" policies. 1/ www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

Great work by @migrantvoice.bsky.social and researchers from Warwick University and Leicester University. Congratulations to former colleague @mariegodin.bsky.social who co-authored the report www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Management at Sheffield have aggressively ramped up their attacks on striking staff, but we @sheffielducu.bsky.social are unbowed: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We will resist the bullies with our usual courage and resolve - for the good of our students, our university, and our city. We won't allow the dismantling of higher education without resistance. @ucu.org.uk @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ucuhallam.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Great to see media coverage of the hostile and punitive approach taken by management at @sheffielduni.bsky.social towards @sheffielducu.bsky.social staff striking to protect jobs. Threats and intimidation won't work. We're out until we win! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Sensible universities see their staff as assets to be nurtured and protected. Foolish universities see them as a cost to be minimised. Really stupid universities see them as an enemy to be defeated. @sheffielducu.bsky.social

Calling all researchers in forced migration, apply now for the RSC Michaelmas Term (Oct – Dec) 2026 Visiting Fellowship programme & the new Sally Hogg Prize to support applicants from low-income countries or with lived experience of forced displacement. More info: www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/news/the-sal...

Check out this post about our current situation from a colleague at another university. @sheffielducu.bsky.social

How to use critical discourse analysis in your research: 2-day, in-person workshop for PhD students & early career researchers. 15 & 16 January 2026 Sheffield, UK Details: www.discourseacademy.org/event-detail...

#PalestineSolidarity roving picket visiting the excellent picket at Firth Court. #UCUstrike @ucu.org.uk @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ucuhallam.bsky.social #sheffield

The Amnesty International International Secretariat have just published a report. It explicitly highlights how racial discrimination in the context of visa policies and processes impacts activists from outside of Europe. Good to see Amnesty doing this kind of work. www.amnesty.org/en/documents...

This is an excellent summary of this week's UK asylum announcements from Free Movement. freemovement.org.uk/home-secreta...

Dismayed to hear more divisive and hostile rhetoric from the latest Home Secretary? Depressed by more cruel and punitive policies which will harm people who are seeking asylum and will do nothing to stop the rise of Reform or reduce small boat Channel crossings? ...

The Home Secretary says "we have become the destination of choice in Europe, clearly visible to every people smuggler and would-be illegal migrant across the world" That is a factually untrue claim: the Home Office shows that the UK is fifth, getting 1/10 claims, while Germany gets 1/5 claims

Tomorrow @sheffielducu.bsky.social begins four weeks of strike action over the continuous restructuring of programs and departments and threats of compulsory redundancies imposed by university management. We are holding a joint rally with our sister branch at SHU which is facing similar threats.

Looking forward to this workshop! Join me, @kranertmichael.bsky.social , Tom Bartlett and Jane Mulderrig to work on using CDA in your research!

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...