Migration, Displacement and Belonging
Our work on Migration, Displacement and belonging advances world-leading, people-centred, knowledge on the politics and experiences of mobility across and within international borders.
About the Theme
The Migration, Displacement and Belonging theme addresses complex questions about migration, a highly politicised topic with global significance. The sociologists, geographers, political scientists and philosophers associated with this theme examine challenges concerned with im/mobility, settlement and multi-scalar governance processes. We approach migration as a lens into questions of gendered and racialised inequalities, the politics of international development, legal categorisations, knowledge production and transnational labour markets. A people-centred, rights-based approach is central to our ethos as researchers.
Our projects span the UK, Europe and the globe, supported with grants and consultancies from multiple national and global funders. The research impacts, policies and practices which improve the lives of migrants, their families and the communities in which they live, including through challenging injustices. We partner with leading international organisations, including the UN (IOM, ILO, UNRSID, UNU-CPR and UNESCO) and OECD and work closely with multiple community organisations and local authorities.
Theme Leads
Katharine Jones
Theme Lead
Katharine Jones is an economic geographer who specialises in researching migration, international recruitment intermediaries and transnational labour markets. Her work especially addresses precarity, modern slavery and the global governance of migration. She has 20+ years of experience of conducting migration research in academia, for the UN, think tanks, foundations and, occasionally, governments. Outside work Katharine is a Director and Board Member of the Scottish Refugee Council, JustRight Scotland and the Chair of Bazooka Arts for Health & Wellbeing.
Esra Kaytaz
Theme Co-Lead
Esra S. Kaytaz is a social anthropologist with a focus on migration. Esra’s research to date covers immigration detention, migrant journeys, and risk perception in migration decision‐making among Afghan refugees in Turkey, and the experiences of recently arrived Afghan refugees in the UK. She is currently researching the durability of residence and protection for refugees in the UK as part of 'Temporary protection as a durable solution? The 'return turn' in asylum policies in Europe (TemPro)'.
Publications
The members of the Migration, Displacement and Belonging Theme regularly publish articles, monographs, book chapters, and other media on this multidisciplinary subject. For the most recent publications, please see outputs on the Coventry University Pure page.
PublicationsProjects
The members of the Migration, Displacement and Belonging theme lead and collaborate on a number of research projects and additional projects are available on the Coventry University Research Portal.
ProjectsFeatured Projects
UKRI GCRF South-South Migration, Inequality & Development Research Hub (MIDEQ)
Funded by UKRI, MIDEQ comprises more than 100 scholars, practitioners and artists, primarily in the Global South, who are using their multi-disciplinary research to challenge prevailing understandings of the relationship between inequalities, migration and global development.
ReRoot
This ESRC-funded multi-country study investigates how places, organisations and individuals function as arrival infrastructure, through enabling or disabling actions that shape newcomers’ pathways and social mobility after arrival.
Arrival Infrastructures and Migrant Newcomers in European Cities (AIMEC)
Funded by Horizon Europe, AIMEC investigates how newcomers in European cities find information about arrival in so-called ‘arrival areas’, and how long-established residents, including those with a migration background, support newcomers.
Temporary protection as a durable solution? The 'return turn' in asylum policies in Europe (TemPro)
Funded by the Norwegian Council of Research, TemPro explores how changes to asylum and immigration policies in Europe reduce the security traditionally associated with refugee status across four case study countries: UK, Norway, Denmark and Germany.
MyCoventry
The MyCoventry project is an initiative that supports Coventry as a ‘City of Peace and Reconciliation’, by welcoming non-EU and EEA National newcomers and giving them the opportunity to make a meaningful and positive contribution to the community.
For a fee: the recruitment of migrant domestic workers
The current project explores how male and female migrant workers are able to most effectively challenge exploitative labour recruiters, with research conducted globally, but especially in Qatar and Nepal.
