Borders

Understanding the nature of the movement of people across borders requires analysis of the nature of borders themselves, as physical, legal and metaphysical constructions. But it also requires consideration of the broad array of impacts – from the personal to the geopolitical – that arise from different kinds of movements across borders.

COMPAS conducts research that addresses current transformations of borders while considering public understandings and meanings of borders such as in the UK. COMPAS has also conducted research across Europe that provides a comparative inventory of data on migratory movements such as irregular migration (stocks and flows). Working with data on ‘clandestine’ migration required in depth consideration of ethical and methodological issues, as well as the factors affecting shifts between legal and ‘illegal’ status among migrant populations.

Other complementary studies have focussed on mixed and transit migration to Europe. The expansion of the European border control regime has moved responsibility from core countries to the peripheral EU countries and their immediate neighbours, such as Ukraine and Turkey. Research therefore investigated clandestine entry to the EU: the institutions, practices, relationships and networks that shape experiences of life on the move, the governance, policies and practices of border controls, and the interplay and dynamics influencing outcomes of migration in sending, transit and destination countries

Blog Posts

Does Immigration Enforcement Matter (DIEM) project news

Franck Düvell

Viewing Life Through the Migration Lens: experiences and thoughts post-MSc

MSc graduates

Permanent Residence and the power of bureaucracy

Dora-Olivia Vicol

Common responses to the notion of Migration Studies [MSc guest blog]

Bobbie Mills

A night-time border encounter: Some reflections [MSc guest blog]

Tommaso Trillò

Paradoxically European: how a spike in xenophobia revalues EU citizenship

Dora-Olivia Vicol

What is our moral obligation to the stranger?

Bridget Anderson

Unravelling the Mediterranean Migration Crisis – field work notes 2016

Franck Düvell

Mobility, class and country of origin in the Western Balkans

Diana Ihring

Mediterranean Migration Crisis – Mixed Policies, Mixed Results

Franck Düvell

Unravelling the Mediterranean Migration Crisis – field work notes 2015

Franck Düvell

Leaving Palestine

Nicholas Van Hear

Refugee crisis, compassion and Eastern Europe

Dace Dzenovska

Immigration Acts and health bills

Myriam Cherti

People Move

Ben Doherty

Illegality vs Irregularity

Bridget Anderson

Gender and Migration: Reflecting on the Debate

Bridget Anderson

Sex discrimination and UK immigration law

Catherine Briddick

Securing a Good (Female) Coyote: Women and the Facilitation of Extralegal Border Crossings

Gabriella Sanchez

Gendering the Irregular

Melanie Griffiths

Gender, Migration, ‘Trafficking’ and the Troublesome Relationship between Agency and Force

Julia O'Connell Davidson

Mothers’ Migration Motivations

Brandy Cochrane

Gender, class and migration governance: A labour sending country perspective

Hiranthi Jayaweera

Centering orality: Exploring gendered wartime violence with South Sudanese women elders

Sara Maher

Book Review: The Securitization of Migration and Refugee Women

Angelo Tramountanis

Urbanites: indifferent to difference?

Pier-Luc Dupont

What role does the EU play in influencing the development of integration policy?

Helen McCarthy

Border Crossings and Gender in the Greek Detention System

Mary Bosworth, Sharon Pickering and Andriani Fili

Valorised and Vilified: What Do ‘Citizens’ Do?

William Allen

Spousal Migration, Gender and UK Immigration Law

Helena Wray

Gender, Race, and Immigration Detention

Sarah Turnbull

Tibetan Women and Nuns: What’s Missing in Our Discussion on Borders and Gender?

Bodean Hedwards

‘Victims of Trafficking’ and ‘Foreign Criminals’ – Constructing the state as our (masculine) saviour

Luke de Noronha

Migrant Women’s Health in Spain: A Snapshot of the Consequences of the Royal Decree-Law of Sanitary Regulation 16/2012

Ana Ballesteros Pena and Anna Morero Beltrán

Studying Mobility in a Context of Immobility

Kareem Rabie

The messiness of research: My experience as a young female researcher at an Italian migrant detention centre

Francesca Esposito

Gender & migration: An introduction and a conversation

Bridget Anderson

Race and Racism

Rachel Humphris

Foreign fighters: time to recognise and study a new type of migration

Franck Düvell

Migration and the political

Dace Dzenovska

The floating label of ‘the migrant’

Bastian Vollmer

Schooling, mobility and belonging

Mette Louise Berg

A tale of two cities: Melilla and Calais

Myriam Cherti

What’s in a name? An overview of the latest COMPAS Breakfast Briefing

Ben Gidley

Italy’s story to tell on services for irregular migrants

Sarah Spencer and Nicola Delvino

The Upward Concentration of Chinese Emigration and the Rise of China

Biao Xiang

The Light of Evidence 3: Continuing the policy debate

Ben Gidley

The course of true love never did run smooth

Melanie Griffiths

Saving the Lifeline: Studying the Somali diaspora involvement in the 2013-14 campaign

Giulia Liberatore

Teaching practitioners about migration: Challenges and opportunities for ASEAN

Bridget Anderson

The Scottish diaspora and Scottish independence

Rob McNeil

Integration: a European research agenda

Ben Gidley

The Would-Be Migrant

Biao Xiang

The Crisis in Ukraine and its Implications for Migration in Europe

Franck Düvell

Notes on power in scenes of denunciation

Dace Dzenovska

Health and border control

Hiranthi Jayaweera

Re-Thinking ‘Risk’ in Migration

Esra Kaytaz, DPhil Social Anthropology

Final Destination Maghreb: The transformation of transit countries

Myriam Cherti

Barriers to migration: Are policing and fencing the answer?

Mette Louise Berg

What we talk about when we talk about immigration

Mikal Mast

From the 2013 Syrian Refugee Conference to the 1938 Conference of Evian: How far have we come?

Franck Düvell

Defending the rights of migrants – a price worth paying

Vanessa Hughes

On borders and a wicked bird

Bastian Vollmer

The Good Worker

Dace Dzenovska

Migration in Scotland

Carlos Vargas-Silva

The Labour Market Impacts of Forced Migration (LAMFOR)

Carlos Vargas-Silva

Saudi Arabia and its immigrants

Iain Walker

Documenting how immigrants are described in the British press: Why does comprehensiveness matter?

William Allen

Is it family migration if only one family member moves? Reflections on categories of migrants and classifications of migration

Leslie Fesenmyer

Windows: The 21st century migration experience

Biao Xiang

Light of Evidence 2: the wider debate on migration

Ben Gidley

Holding a mirror to ourselves: British Lifestyle migration

Caroline Oliver

Dream on

Nicholas Van Hear

Migration data and attitudes in the context of the Scottish independence referendum

Scott Blinder

Stuck in traffic: How helpful is the trafficking framework?

Bridget Anderson

“We want to hear from you” (or how informing works in a liberal democracy)

Dace Dzenovska

Immigration and Welfare: Beyond Us and Them

Bridget Anderson

What Kinds of Immigrants Come or Stay? Illegality and UK Tabloid Portrayal of Immigrants

William Allen

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – a film about migrants?

Mikal Mast

The infrastructural turn: the Chinese example

Biao Xiang

Before international research cooperation lies the UK border

Franck Düvell

It’s about time

Marthe Achtnich and Roger Norum, COMPAS DPhil students

The economics of forced migration

Carlos Vargas-Silva

Five principles of integration: policies and inclusion

Ben Gidley

Labour immigration policy: What do we want, and why?

Martin Ruhs

New Lives and Dreams: The Results

Ida Persson

Tourism and migration: two kinds of mobility

Vanessa Hughes

The Love of Learning: Migrants and Education

Caroline Oliver

From the Great Wall to maze pipelines

Biao Xiang

Dr Who and The Migrants

Bridget Anderson

Recipe for a diaspora: take one millionaire…

Iain Walker

Damned if you’re a migrant, damned if you’re not: Sri Lankan female domestic workers

Hiranthi Jayaweera

The Light of Evidence

Ben Gidley

Are there such people as “migrants”?

Biao Xiang

No Way Out, No Way In

Vanessa Hughes

Clandestine migration in the Greek-Turkish border region: shifting routes and complex control infrastructures

Franck Düvell

Dispatches from Chicago: The home of political science for four days every April

Scott Blinder

Gypsies, tramps and thieves?

Rob McNeil

Border Crossing: Material Culture & Experience

Marisa Macari, COMPAS DPhil Student

Is there such a thing as migration?

Biao Xiang

Irregular Migration and Fundamental Rights in the EU: a continuing controversy

Franck Düvell

Renationalization?

Biao Xiang

Shifting powers: two decades of migration and global turbulence

Nicholas Van Hear

A sending country perspective: Imagining Europe from the outside

Bastian Vollmer

Legal but Unfair: The High Stakes of the UK Immigration Detention System

Stephanie Silverman, DPhil Politics and International Relations

Books

Unravelling Europe’s ‘migration crisis’

Heaven Crawley, Franck Düvell, Katharine Jones, Simon McMahon and Nando Sigona

Policy Discourses on Irregular Migration in Germany and the United Kingdom

Bastian Vollmer

Us and Them? The Dangerous Politics of Immigration Controls

Bridget Anderson

Reports

European Cities and Migrants with Irregular Status: Municipal initiatives on the inclusion of irregular migrants in the provision of services

Nicola Delvino

Destination Europe? Understanding the dynamics and drivers of Mediterranean migration in 2015

Heaven Crawley, Franck Düvell, Katharine Jones, Simon McMahon and Nando Sigona

The COMPAS Approach

Ben Gidley, Rob McNeil and Emma Newcombe

DIEM: The Policy Framework for Immigration Enforcement in the UK

Myriam Cherti

An Evidence Base on Migration and Integration in London

Ben Gidley and Hiranthi Jayaweera

Journal Articles

Clean skins: Making the e-Border security assemblage

William Allen and Bastian Vollmer

Visions of Refugia: Territorial and transnational solutions to mass displacement

Robin Cohen & Nicholas Van Hear

EU Migration to and from the UK After Brexit

Carlos Vargas-Silva

A Hermeneutical Approach to European Bordering

Bastian Vollmer

New Narratives from the EU External Border – Humane Refoulement?

Bastian Vollmer

Bordering Practices in the UK Welfare System

Bastian Vollmer, Simon Güntner, Sue Lukes & Jo Wilding

“We are Sitting on a Time Bomb”: A Multiperspectival Approach to Inter-National Development at an East African Border

William Allen

Cubans in the United States and Spain: The Diaspora Generational Divide

Mette Louise Berg, Susan Eckstein

Distant cities, travelling tales and segmented young lives: making and remaking youth exclusion across time and place

Jo-Anne Dillabough, Julie McLeod, & Caroline Oliver

Bordering Encounters, Sociality and Distribution of the Ability to Live A Normal Life

Dace Dzenovska

Book Review – Territoriality and Migration in the EU Neighbourhood-Spilling over the Wall

Bastian Vollmer

“I Am From Busia!”: Everyday Trading and Health Service Provision at the Kenya–Uganda Border as Place-Making Activities

William Allen

Making Light of Borders: The Case of the External EU Border

Bastian Vollmer

Migrant Labour in Kazakhstan: A Cause for Concern?

Bridget Anderson, Blanka Hancilová

Labor Shortages and U.S. Immigration Reform: Promises and Perils of an Independent Commission

Martin Ruhs, Philip Martin

Editorial: Why No Borders?

Bridget Anderson, Nandita Sharma, Cynthia Wright

Gendering Borders: An Exchange

Bridget Anderson, Eithne Luibhéid

Working Papers

Internal borders and migration in India

Zovanga L. Kone, Maggie Y. Liu, Aaditya Mattoo, Çağlar Özden & Siddharth Sharma

Chiefs, Migrants and the State: Mobility in the Ghana-Togo Borderlands

Nathalie Raunet

Call me illegal: The semantic struggle over seeking asylum in Australia

Ben Doherty

Foreign Detachment: The Making and Unmaking of Cross-Border Ties

Roger Waldinger

The Christianisation of Afghan and Iranian Transit Migrants in Istanbul: Encounters at the Biopolitical Border

Shoshana Fine

Exclusionary Rhetoric Expansionist Policies? Right-wing Parties and Immigration Policy-making in Italy

Elif Çetin

Labor Shortages and US Immigration Reform: Promises and Perils of an Independent Commission

Martin Ruhs, Philip Martin

“To Belong or Not to Belong”: Is that the Question?’ Negotiating Belonging in Multi-Ethnic London

Ellie Vasta, Sofia Hamaz

Migrant Labour in Kazakhstan: A Cause for Concern?

Bridget Anderson, Blanka Hancilova

Legality and Labour: Chinese Migration, Neoliberalism and the State in the UK and China

Biao Xiang and Frank Pieke

How to Balance Rights and Responsibilities on Asylum at the EU’s Southern Border of Italy and Libya

Rutvica Andrijasevic

The Exclusion of Asylum Seekers in Europe

Liza Schuster

Trends and Impacts of Migrant Transnationalism

Steve Vertovec

Other Publications

Research Brief

Understanding the dynamics of migration to Greece and the EU: Drivers, decisions and destinations

Heaven Crawley, Franck Duvell, Katharine Jones and Dimitris Skleparis

Research Brief

Unpacking a Rapidly Changing Scenario

Heaven Crawley, Franck Duvell, Nando Sigona, Simon McMahon, Katharine Jones

Near Futures online article

Eastern Europe, the Moral Subject of the Migration/Refugee Crisis, and Political Futures

Dace Dzenovska

Feature article

Tough but Humane? The Hypocrisy of Migration Control in the UK and Beyond

Bastian Vollmer

Research Resources Paper

Humanitarian Problems Relating to Migration in the Turkish-Greek Border Region: The crucial role of civil society organisations

Max Schaub

Breakfast Briefing

Migration policy and skills policy: substitutes or complements?

Jonathan Portes

Projects

An Evidence Base on Migration and Integration in London

Ben Gidley and Hiranthi Jayaweera | 2009

At the fringes of Europe: Transit migration in Ukraine and Turkey (FringeMig)

Franck Düvell | 2006

Border Fence: Mobility, Infrastucture, and Geopolitics in the Latvian-Russian Borderlands

Dace Dzenovska | 20 December 2017 – 19 December 2019

Border Security: Discourses and Practices in the UK

Bastian Vollmer | April 2013 – 2016

Counting the Uncountable: Data and Trends across Europe – Irregular Migration in the UK (Clandestino)

Franck Düvell and Bastian Vollmer | September 2007 - August 2009

Does Immigration Enforcement Matter (DIEM)?

Franck Düvell, Iryna Lapshyna and Myriam Cherti | November 2013 - July 2017

The employment and working conditions of migrant domestic workers in South East Asia

Bridget Anderson and Emma Newcombe | August 2015 - June 2016

The ethics and politics of the refugee crisis

Bridget Anderson and Emma Newcombe | May 2016- Mar 2017

Unravelling the Mediterranean Migration Crisis (MEDMIG)

Franck Düvell | Sep 2015 - Aug 2016