Social Policy Research Centre

We aim to investigate and raise awareness on a range of social and public policy issues, with a particular emphasis on social justice. 

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About us

About us

Established in 1990, the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) is an interdisciplinary, cross-departmental centre, initiating and supporting high-quality research of national and international standing. We aim to investigate and raise awareness on a range of social and public policy issues, with a particular emphasis on social justice.

Using innovative methodologies, we produce evidence and provide cutting-edge analysis in order to contribute to academic debates, inform policy-development and make a real impact on local, national and international practice.

Our key areas of work are:

  • Inequality and discrimination
  • Migration and citizenship
  • Gender, Sexuality and Feminism
  • Labour, work, labour markets
  • Community engagement and activism
  • Research methods and data analysis
Our research

Our research projects

Over the past few years, the SPRC has been involved in a wide range of research projects funded by research councils, the EU, government departments and the major charities. We are building on this track record, continuing to attract research and KE funding and producing research outputs of outstanding international value.

Examples of recent and ongoing projects include:

Government engagement with diaspora communities in the UK, Commissioned by the UK Government, 2024 (Keles, Christou, McDonald,  Syrett)

Afghan resettlement in England: outcomes and experiences (Keles with London Met and UCL), Nuffield Foundation, 2024-2025.

This project aims to improve the effectiveness of Afghan resettlement schemes in England, by generating knowledge of newly arriving Afghan refugees’ experiences and outcomes and using this to inform implementation by regional migration partnerships and Local Authorities (LAs).

DYNAMIG How migration decisions are made: diverse aspirations, trajectories and policy effects Horizon Europe,/UKRI (Kofman, Acik) 2023-2025 (£260.037)

DYNAMIG is a three-year project that aims to create a more thorough understanding of how people make decisions on whether and how to migrate. Focusing on Africa and Europe, we take into account the diversity of migrants’ personal experiences  of those planning to leave, in transit and  who have returned in order to shed light on the complexities and challenges of migration and managing migration movements. We seek to contribute to a more nuanced and evidence-based understanding of the diverse trajectories of migration and of policies that impact migration and analyse to what extent the diverse experiences of migrants are taken into consideration when migration policies – or policies that impact migration – are made.

Co-creating asset and place-based approaches to tackling refugee and migrant health exclusion, UKRI/AHRC  (Kofman, Colucci, Lazzarino) 2024-2027  (£483,175).

The project explores how community assets can be used to improve health, wellbeing and social support that addresses these factors. Examples of community assets include housing, food and support services such as advice and information services, community hubs and groups, religious organisations and open spaces. It researches new ways for these factors to be addressed within integrated health systems that bring together services such as the NHS and local authorities as well as the voluntary sector. We focus on two field sites - Barnet and Islington- working with a number of local community organisations, NGOs and local authorities. In particular we are studying community assets of a number of groups - Afghans, Hong Kongers, Syrians and Ukrainians as well as Iranians and Romanians in Barnet and Italians and Somalis in Islington.

GCRF Hub Gender, Justice and Security, 2019-2024 (Kofman, Keles, Raina) (£1.2m)

The Hub’s research comprises 32 projects under six themes: Transformation and Empowerment; Livelihood, Land and Rights; Migration and Displacement; Masculinities and Sexualities; Law and Policy Frameworks and Methodological Innovation, across seven focus countries: Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Uganda.  The Hub worked with local and global civil society, practitioners, and researchers to advance gender justice and inclusive peace. 

At Middlesex university we focussed on the Migration and Displacement stream with two projects as well as another in the Empowerment and Transformation stream. 

Gender Dynamics of International Labour Migration sought to advance a gender-sensitive understanding of the interaction between economic and socio-cultural drivers of labour migrations and the experiences of work and living in different cities: Erbil in Kurdistan-Iraq; Beirut in Lebanon; Islamabad in Pakistan; and Istanbul in Turkey. While migration remains a key issue globally, relatively little work has been done on gendered migrations in the Global South, and what has been done has largely focussed on domestic and care work.

Return, Reintegration and Political Restructuring explored and analysed the gendered experiences of returnees (forced and voluntary) in Afghanistan, Kurdistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It reviewed return policies of the countries under study to understand the possibilities, challenges and obstacles for returnees in the process of participating in re-construction through their human, social and cultural capital.

Culture and Conflict (Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka), investigated the value of culture to women in conflict settings, seeking to understand gendered economic exclusion and its relationship to peacebuilding, economic agency and empowerment. It used a cultural mapping methodology to explore how communities of women across different conflict contexts rely on coded and tacit knowledge to rebuild their lives and to understand how cultural practices continue to exist and resist in these challenging contexts. 

We also obtained additional funding for impact activities in Kurdistan, Iraq (Keles).

Health, social, economic & cultural impacts of Covid-19 on migrant essential workers in the UK, ESRC (Narkowicz, Glasgow and Sheffield Universities, 2020-2023 

The BlueGreen Impact Project (Juntti)

The project, realised in collaboration with the London Development Trust, aimed to improve awareness and understanding of the unequal social impact of urban water features and green space in the context of housing regeneration, and to provide usable indicators and guidance that support the integration of this knowledge into community stewardship strategies. It builds on prior funding from SNN+ and Newton Funding (UKRI) best summed up in the REF 2021 case study Working with nature to enhance urban liveability: the multi-functional role of urban blue green infrastructure. The project received £3000 from the Middlesex University’s HEI funds for knowledge exchange. In 2024, findings informed the Greater London Authority’s work on the new London Green Infrastructure Framework and the London Nature Recovery Strategy through staff involvement in consultation.

PHS-Quality: Job Quality and Industrial Relations in the Personal and Household sector - 2018-2020 (Erica Howard, Eleonore Kofman).

Funded by European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. The project studied from a comparative and multidisciplinary perspective the existing public policies and social partners’ strategies towards personal and household services in ten EU countries.

  • CPD Training for Migrant, Refugee and Community Organisations: a scoping exercise”, Higher Education Innovation Fund (Kofman, Keles, Pizzolato, Saini), 2022
  • Learning from Labour: Critical Pedagogy for Working Students, Keles, Morrison, Enhancing Education Award (EEA), Middlesex University, 2021-2022.
  • Unpaid Britain student worker pilot the QR Strategic Priorities Fund. (Clark,  Keles), 2020
Postgraduate research

Postgraduate research

We warmly welcome proposals from potential Postgraduate Research students to study with the SPRC across any areas of our research activity. 

Completed PhDs

  • Claudia Carr: The ‘therapeutic privilege exception’. Residual paternalism in an age of informed consent post Montgomery or a valuable tool for healthcare professionals? (2024)
  • Needyanand Raya: Creole identity: a post-colonial study in contemporary Mauritius (2024)
  • Bell, Sarah: A transdisciplinary exploration of interpretability and trust of advanced software with the Australian Proptech community of practice (2023)
  • Neda Mohamadi: A curatorial study of migration in arts (2022)
  • Abdulrahman Rashed: New media and global terrorism; the cyber battle space (2021)
  • Nefeli Stournara: ‘Paradigmatic workers’: Sociologies of gender, class and ethnicity in the labour experiences of Albanian and ethnic Greek Albanian women cleaners at two Greek public hospitals (2020)
  • Icram Serroukh: Faith narratives on (un)belonging: a sociological exploration of women leaving or joining Islam (2020)

Current PhDs

  • Khasro Ajgahi: The successful para-diplomacy of Sub-State Actors: The case of Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq
  • Haider Alkhateeb: Deconstructing the political construction of Sectarianism in Iraq: the role of violence in its imposition and perpetuation
  • Aein Khezri: Terrorism from the perspective of Shia Muslim

Visiting PhD students

  • Federica Festa, 2024-2025 undertaking research in Gender Studies at the University of Palermo: Vulnerability and credibility in Italian Tribunals decision making in relation to women asylum seekers in Sicily.

Masters Courses

Outputs

Outputs

  • Acik, N., Kutlay-Sarikaya, B., Ghaderi, F. and Kilicaslan, G. 2023. Contextualizing Kurdish gender studies: decolonial feminist knowledge production and the genesis of the Kurdish Gender Studies Network. Kurdish Studies Journal. 1 (1-2), pp. 255-284. https://doi.org/10.1163/29502292-00101012 
  • Acik, N., Brand-Jacobsen, K., Dolgin, D., Griner, J., McDonald, K. and Pirlogea, I. 2022. Drivers of far-right extremism. in: Antonelli, F. and Marione, L. (ed.) How to explain radicalization? A comparison on the driving factors of the far-right, the far-left, separatist and religious extremism Milan Mimesis International.
  • Fox, C., Jo, D., Spencer, J. and Acik, N. 2022. Encountering authority and avoiding trouble: young migrant men’s narratives of negotiation in Europe. European Journal of Criminology. 19 (4), pp. 791-810. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370820924627 
  • Pilkington, H. and Acik, N. 2020. Not entitled to talk: (mis)recognition, inequality and social activism of young Muslims. Sociology. 54 (1), pp. 181-198. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038519867630 
  • Erel, U. and Acik, N. 2020. Enacting intersectional multilayered citizenship: Kurdish women’s politics. Gender, Place and Culture. 27 (4), pp. 479-501. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2019.1596883 

  • Christou, A (2024). "Ecofeminism and the Cultural Affinity to Genocidal Capitalism: Theorising Necropolitical Femicide in Contemporary Greece". Social Sciences 13, no. 5: 263. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13050263
  • Christou, A. (2024). “Insurgent feminisms—women writing wars: mapping gendered trauma, un/learning generative utopias and the intersectional imperative”. Feminist Review, 137(1), 132-139. https://doi.org/10.1177/01417789241252740
  • Christou, A. (2024). "Curatorial Dissonance and Conflictual Aesthetics: Holocaust Memory and Public Humanities in Greek Historiography". Histories 4, no. 2: 204-219. https://doi.org/10.3390/histories4020010
  • Christou, A. (2024). "Theorising Pandemic Necropolitics as Evil: Thinking Inequalities, Suffering, and Vulnerabilities with Arendt". Societies 14, no. 9: 171. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc14090171
  • Christou, A. (2024). Feminist Conversations with Buber: Dialogic Encounters with ‘The Girls’ (Stories of Jewish Women in Brownsville, Brooklyn, 1940-1995). European Judaism, 57(1), 28-38. https://doi.org/10.3167/ej.2024.570103
  • Christou, A. and Karayianni, C. (2024). “Translanguaging decoloniality in a divided island as post-colonial pedagogic praxis: Cyprus and cultural subversions”. The Geographical Journal, 00, e12608. https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12608
  • Karayianni, C. and A. Christou (2024). "Affordances and Borderscapes: Language Ideologies, Nationalisms, Generations and Geographies of Resistance in Cyprus". Languages 9, no. 6: 224. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9060224
  • Bönisch-Brednich, B. A. Christou, S. Meyer; M. Karner; A. Escher (eds.) (2024) Narratives of Migration: Modalities of Agency, Collectivity and Performativity, Routledge, , London, Routledge.
  • Christou, A. (2024). “Freeing Palestine: Reflecting on Acts of a Feminist Ethics of (Self) Care”, blog, Bad Apple Magazine, Issue 6, Spring, 2024.
  • Christou, A. (2023) Divergent democracy: Notes on a mediatised affective activism renewal of feminist and anti-fascist struggle in contemporary Greece. Cultural Dynamics, 35(1–2), 47–59. https://doi.org/10.1177/09213740231171260
  • Christou, A. 2022. Theorising Affective Habitus in Historical Geographies of Mobilities: Unfolding Spatio-Temporal Modalities, Emotions: History, Culture, Society, 2 (6) pp. 215-236.
  • Christou, A. and Kofman, E. 2022. Gender and migration: IMISCOE short reader. Cham, Switzerland Springer.
  • Barrios-Aquino, M., N. Chanamuto and A. Christou, A. (2022) Emotions and Mobilities: Gendered, Temporal and Spatial Representations, Emotions: History, Culture, Society, 2 (6) pp. 201-214.
  • Christou, A., and K. Bloor (2021) The Liminality of Loneliness: Negotiating Feminist Ethics and Intersectional Affectivity. Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change, 6(1), 03. https://doi.org/10.20897/jcasc/11120
  • Christou, A. and D. Michail, 2021. ‘A window to knowledge is a window to the world’: Socio-aesthetics, Ethics and Pedagogic Migrant Youth Journeys in Crisis Shaped Educational Settings in Greece, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 42(2): 308-322.
  • Karayianni, C. and A. Christou (2020) Feminisms, Gender and Social Media: Public and Political Performativities Regarding Sexual Harassment in Cyprus, Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, 4(2): doi.org/10.20897/femenc/8522

  • Donald, A. and Grogan, J. 2024. Explainer: Leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.UK in a Changing Europe. 
  • Donald, A. and Grogan, J. 2024. Explainer: The UK’s ECHR record: how common are Rule 39 orders and how often is the UK found to have violated rights? UK in a Changing Europe. 
  • Donald, A. and Grogan, J. 2023. Explainer: What are the Rwanda Treaty and the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill? UK in a Changing Europe. 
  • Donald, A. and Grogan, J. 2023. Explainer: The Illegal Migration Act 2023. UK in a Changing Europe. 
  • Donald, A. and Grogan, J. 2023. Explainer: Compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights: the UK and Europe. UK in a Changing Europe. 
  • Donald, A. and Leach, P. 2023. The UK vs the ECtHR: Anatomy of a politically engineered collision course. Verfassungsblog. https://doi.org/10.17176/20230505-204527-0
  • Donald, A. and Grogan, J. 2023. Explainer: The Illegal Migration Bill. UK in a Changing Europe. 
  • Donald, A. and Leach, P. 2023. Responding to seismic change in Europe—The road to Reykjavik and beyond. European Human Rights Law Review. 2023 (2), pp. 95-111. 
  • Donald, A. and Leach, P. 2022. Rule of law in peril? Checking states’ misuse of power–implications and consequences of article 18 violations. in: Liber Amicorum Robert Spano Strasbourg Council of Europe. pp. 401-413.
  • Donald, A. and Leach, P. 2022. Why the Bill of Rights poses problems for human rights in Europe – and the UK’s international standing. ukandeu.ac.uk.
  • Donald, A. and Leach, P. 2022. Human Rights - the essential frame of reference in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. in: Grogan, J. and Donald, A. (ed.) Routledge Handbook on Law and the COVID-19 pandemic Abingdon, Oxon Routledge. pp. 101-116.
  • Grogan, J. and Beqiraj, J. 2022. The rule of law as the perimeter of legitimacy for COVID-19 responses. in: Grogan, J. and Donald, A. (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Law and the COVID-19 Pandemic Abingdon, Oxon Routledge. pp. 201-213.
  • Grogan, J. and Donald, A. 2022. Lessons for a 'post-pandemic' future. in: Grogan, J. and Donald, A. (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Law and the COVID-19 Pandemic Abingdon, Oxon Routledge. pp. 473-484.
  • Donald, A. 2021. Compliance in the UK in the age of subsidiarity. in: Grote, R., Morales Antoniazzi, M. and Paris, D. (ed.) Research Handbook on Compliance in International Human Rights Law Edward Elgar. pp. 202-223.
  • Donald, A. and Speck, A. 2021. Time for the gloves to come off?: The response by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to rule of law backsliding. European Convention on Human Rights Law Review. 2 (2), pp. 241-273. https://doi.org/10.1163/26663236-bja10025
  • Donald, A. and Leach, P. 2020. Engaging with Europe after Brexit: Time to reset the UK’s relationship with the Council of Europe. London, UK Foreign Policy Centre. 
  • Donald, A. 2020. Principled resistance to ECtHR Judgments – A New Paradigm?, edited by Marten Breuer [Book review]. European Convention on Human Rights Law Review. 1 (2), pp. 297-302. https://doi.org/10.1163/26663236-00102003
  • Donald, A. and Speck, A. 2020. The dynamics of domestic human rights implementation: lessons from qualitative research in Europe. Journal of Human Rights Practice. 12 (1), pp. 48-70. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhuman/huaa007
  • Donald, A., Long, D. and Speck, A. 2020. Identifying and assessing the implementation of human rights decisions. Journal of Human Rights Practice. 12 (1), pp. 125-148. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhuman/huaa003

  • Thi, Q. and Juntti, M. 2024. Urban resilience from agriculture: a case study of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. in: Cripps, K. and Thondre, P. (ed.) Higher Education and SDG2: Zero Hunger Emerald.
  • Juntti, M., Castellino, J. and Forero, O. 2024. The global biodiversity challenge. Planning Theory & Practice. 25 (1), pp. 103-140. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2024.2322879
  • Thi, Q. and Juntti, M. 2024. Urban resilience from agriculture: a case study of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. in: Cripps, K. and Thondre, P. (ed.) Higher Education and SDG2: Zero Hunger Emerald.
  • Luisetti, T., McHarg, E., Smith, G., Parker, R., Juntti, M. and Benson, L. 2023. Blue carbon: challenges for definition, valuation and governance. in: Treatise on Estuarine and Coastal Science Elsevier.
  • Juntti, M. and Ozsezer-Kurnuc, S. 2023. Factors influencing the realisation of the social impact of urban nature in inner-city environments: A systematic review of complex evidence. Ecological Economics. 211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.107872
  • Juntti, M. and Ozsezer, S. 2022. The social impact of urban nature in regeneration indicators & guidance 2020-2021. London Development Trust.

  • Syrett, S and Keles, J.Y, 2025. Homeland and development. In Stratford, E. and Walsh, K. (ed.) Handbook of Home. Routledge, London.
  • Morrison, C., Dashtipour, P. and Keles, J. 2023. Learning from labour: Critical pedagogy for working students: Project preliminary report. Middlesex University.
  • Soliman, S., Keles, J. and Fottouh, N. 2023. Refugee entrepreneurship and institutional voids: the case of Syrian refugee entrepreneurs in Egypt. Academy of Management Discoveries. 9 (3), pp. 363-382. https://doi.org/10.5465/amd.2020.0200
  • Syrett, S. and Keles, J. 2022. A contextual understanding of diaspora entrepreneurship: identity, opportunity and resources in the Sri Lankan Tamil and Kurdish diaspora. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research. 28 (9), pp. 376-404. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-08-2021-0658
  • Bezwan, N. and Keles, J. 2022. Displacement, diaspora, and statelessness: framing the Kurdish case. in: Mayer, T. and Tran, T. (ed.) Displacement, Belonging, and Migrant Agency in the Face of Power London, UK Taylor & Francis (Routledge). pp. 212-224.
  • Vassilopoulou, J., Ozbilgin, M., Groutsis, D. and Keles, J. 2022. Populism as new wine in old bottles in the context of Germany: 'symbolic violence' as collective habitus that devalues the human capital of Turks. Societies. 12 (2). https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12020045
  • Keles, J., Markova, E. and Fatah, R. 2022. Migrants with insecure legal status and access to work: the role of ethnic solidarity networks. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal. 41 (7), pp. 1047-1062. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-10-2018-0203
  • Keles, J. 2022. Return mobilities of highly skilled young people to a post-conflict region: the case of Kurdish-British to Kurdistan – Iraq. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 0, pp. 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2019.1600401
  • Cotton, E., Beauregard, T. and Keles, J. 2021. Gender equalities: what lies ahead. Work, Employment and Society, 35 (4) . pp. 615-620.
  • Bezwan, N. and Keles, J. 2021. Playing politics with the plight of refugees. How the EU went into Erdogan’s political receivership. The Commentaries. 1 (1), pp. 9-15. https://doi.org/10.33182/tc.v1i1.1991

  • Kofman, E. 2024. Gendered citizenship and the right to the city, in L. Peake, Anindita Datta and Grace Adeniyi-Ogunyankin (eds) Elgar International Handbook on Gender and Cities,  ch. 15, pp. 162-71.
  • Kofman, E. and E. Vacchelli  ‘2024. Temporalities, dependency and the politics of marriage migration’ In K. Le Louvier and Hough (ed) UK Borderscapes, Sites of Enforcement and Resistance ch.4, Routledge.
  • Bechtold, H., Chaya, C., Maydaa, C., Kofman, E., Tuncer, E. and Lazzarino, R. 2022. Gendered dynamics of international labour migration: migrant women in Greater Beirut, Lebanon. London, UK The Gender, Justice and Security Hub. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.25110.01600
  • Kofman, E. 2023. Integration discourses, the purification of gender and interventions in family migrations. Ethnic and Racial Studies. 46 (14), pp. 3037-3057 https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2023.2166791
  • Kofman, E. 2022. Scale and spaces of global labor markets. in: Mense-Petermann, U., Welskopp, T. and Zaharieva, A. (ed.) In Search of the Global Labor Market Leiden Brill.
  • Kofman, E., Lee, M. and Tse, T. 2021. China and the internationalisation of the sociology of contemporary work and employment. Work, Employment and Society https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170211059420
  • Kofman, E. 2021. Gender, migration and policymaking in light of the 60th anniversary of international migration. International Migration. 59 (5), pp. 273 276. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12918 
  • Montagna, N., della Puppa, F. and Kofman, E. 2021. Onward migration: an introduction. International Migration. 59 (6), pp. 8-15. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12882 
  • Della Puppa, F., Montagna, N. and Kofman, E. 2021. Onward migration and intra‐European mobilities: a critical and theoretical overview. International Migration. 59 (6), pp. 16 28. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12815 
  • Kofman, E. 2020. Unequal internationalisation and the emergence of a new epistemic community: gender and migration. Comparative Migration Studies. 8 (1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-020-00194-1 
  • D’Angelo, A., Kofman, E. and Keles, J. 2020. Migrants at work: perspectives, perceptions and new connections [Editorial]. Work, Employment and Society. 34 (5), pp. 745-748. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017020946571 
  • Bilecen, B., Barglowski, K., Faist, T. and Kofman, E. 2019. Gendered dynamics of transnational social protection. Comparative Migration Studies. 7 (1), pp. 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-019-0161-3 
  • Wray, H., Kofman, E. and Simic, A. 2021. Subversive citizens: using free movement law to bypass the UK’s rules on marriage migration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 47 (2), pp. 447-463. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2019.1625140 
  • Montagna, N., F.della Puppa, F. and Kofman,  2021. Onward migration: an introduction. International Migration. 59 (6), pp. 8-15. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12882
  • Della Puppa, F., N. Montagna and E. Kofman, 2021. Onward migration and intra‐European mobilities: a critical and theoretical overview. International Migration. 59 (6), pp. 16-28. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12815

  • Lazzarino, R., Kofman, E. and Kapadia, S. 2024. Gendered dynamics of international labour migration: migrant women working in Pakistan. London: The Gender, Justice and Security Hub. https://doi.org/10.60528/112z87
  • Lazzarino, R. and Papadopoulos, R. 2023. Earbuds, smartphones, and music. Spiritual care and existential changes in COVID-19 times. Social Theory & Health. 21 (3), pp. 247-266.
  • Rousou, E., Apostolara, P., Papadopoulos, R., Kalokairinou, A., Sakellaraki, O., Velonaki, V., Dudau, V., Kuckert, A., Lazzarino, R., Licciardello, O., Mauceri, M., Pezzella, A. and Kouta, C. 2023. Lived experiences of migrant and refugee parents: challenges encountered during their journey and settlement in Europe. https://doi.org/https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4480888
  • Papadopoulos, R., Lazzarino, R., Sakellaraki, O., Dadãu, V., Apostolara, P., Kuckert-Wöstheinrich, A., Mauceri, M. and Kouta, C. 2022. Empowering refugee families in transit: the development of a culturally competent and compassionate training and support package. Journal of Research in Nursing. 27 (3), pp. 200-214. https://doi.org/10.1177/17449871211018736

  • Montagna, N. P. Hatziprokopiou and F.  Della Puppa 2024. Migration industries around the nexus of mobility,immobility and settlement. An overview, Mondi Migranti
  • Montagna, N., M.  Papadouka and G.  Serrantino  2024.Unpacking policy effects on the smuggling industry: a postfunctionalist examination. Mondi Migranti
  • Montagna, N. 2023. The two emergencies of migrant-related policies in Italy during the first wave of COVID-19: The spread of the virus and the workforce shortages. Journal of International Migration and Integration. 24, p. 1817–1833. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-023-01042-8
  • Montagna, N. 2023. Quarantine ships as spaces of bordering: The securitization of migration policy in Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Migration Review. 58 (2), pp. 499-521. https://doi.org/10.1177/01979183231154560
  • Montagna, N. 2022. Non solo il Mediterraneo: sbarchi di migranti e politiche dei confini lungo la rotta della Manica. in: MigraReport 2022. Migrazioni e migranti vittime delle guerre Vita & Pensiero. 

  • Gawlewicz, A., Narkowicz, K. and Wright, S. 2023. Heroes or villains? Migrant essential workers and combined hostilities of Covid-19 and Brexit. Discover Society: New Series. 3 (2).
  • Narkowicz, K. 2023. White enough, not white enough: racism and racialisation among Poles in the UK. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 46 (6), pp. 1534-1551. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2022.2154913
  • Rekviashvili, L., Narkowicz, K., Karkov, N., Valiavicharska, Z. and Tichindeleanu, O. 2022. Introduction: conjunctural geographies of post-socialist and postcolonial conditions. Connections: A Journal for Historians and Area Specialists.
  • Kumar, M. and Narkowicz, K. 2023. The un-human beings: the denial of Muslim migrants' bodies in India and Poland. Interventions. 25 (4), pp. 413-430.  https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2022.2099942 
  • Narkowicz, K. and Kumar, M. 2021. Gendered nationalism in India and Poland: postcolonial and postsocialist conditions in times of populism. in: Koobak, R., Tlostanova, M. and Thapar-Bjorkert, S. (ed.) Postcolonial and postsocialist dialogues. Intersections, opacities, challenges in feminist theorizing and practice Routledge. pp. 243-258.
  • Cowen, H., Jones, D. and Narkowicz, K. 2020. Globalisation and social policy. in: Bochel, H. and Daly, G. (ed.) Social Policy London, UK Routledge. pp. 544-567.
  • Ali, N., Phillips, R., Chambers, C., Narkowicz, K., Hopkins, P. and Pande, R. 2020. Halal dating: changing relationship attitudes and experiences among young British Muslims. Sexualities. 23 (5-6), pp. 775-792. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460719850113 
  • Narkowicz, K. and Korolczuk, E. 2019. Searching for feminist geographies: mappings outside the discipline in Poland. Gender, Place and Culture. 26 (7-9), pp. 1215-1222. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369x.2018.1554559 
  • Kapoor, N. and Narkowicz, K. 2019. Characterising citizenship: race, criminalisation and the extension of internal borders. Sociology. 53 (4), pp. 652-670. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038518820250 

  • Benedi Lahuerta, S., Rejchrt, P. and Patrick, A. 2023. The UK pay transparency regulations: apparent transparency without accountability? Legal Studies. https://doi.org/10.1017/lst.2023.12
  • Patrick, A. 2023. The role of equal pay auditing in resolving unequal pay: More hindrance than help? in: Hamilton, F. and Griffiths, E. (ed.) The Evolution of the Gender Pay Gap: A Comparative Perspective Routledge. pp. 153-168 
  • Patrick, A. 2024. The right to know: equal pay, privacy and the impact on professional relationships. SLSA 2024: Annual Conference of the Socio-Legal Studies Association. University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK 26 - 28 Mar 2024 
  • Patrick, A. 2023. Pay inequality and the limiting effect of the business case. Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law 10th Annual Conference. Utrecht University 28 - 30 Jun 2023
  • Patrick, A. 2020. The role of equal pay auditing in resolving unequal pay: more hindrance than help? The Gender Pay Gap: From History to Computer Algorithms. Northumbria University, UK 20 - 20 Nov 2020

  • Pizzolato, N., Saini, R., Stumbitz, B. and Sotiropoulou, P. 2024. EDI and postgraduate research: report on the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion review of postgraduate research at Middlesex University. Middlesex University. https://doi.org/10.60528/1qw7q5
  • Bracke, M.A., Favretto, I. and Pizzolato, N. 2024. Introduction: Gender and work in twentieth-century Italy: new approaches. Modern Italy. https://doi.org/10.1017/mit.2024.7
  • Pizzolato, N. 2024. Constructing debt: discursive and material strategies of labour coercion in the U.S. South, 1903-1964. in: Coercion and Wage Labor: Exploring Work Relations through History and Art UCL Press. 
  • Pizzolato, N. 2022. Reconceptualising the factory as plantation: Black radicalism and the politics of history in a Detroit automobile plant. Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory.
  • Di Trapani, M., Favretto, I., Pizzolato, N. and Betti, E. 2022. Il lavoro attraverso lo sguardo femminile: la fotografia delle donne in Italia tra ricerca artistica e critica sociale. Sociologia del lavoro. https://doi.org/10.3280/SL2022-163014
  • Di Trapani, M., Favretto, I. and Pizzolato, N. 2021. Through the female gaze: women and work in Italy since the 1950s.

  • Saini, R. 2024. Politics, belonging and identity across the British South Asian middle classes: between privilege and prejudice. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Saini, R., Zwiener-Collins, N., Jafri, J. and Poulter, T. 2023. Decolonising quantitative methods teaching in UK sociology. in: Bhambra, G., Meghji, A., Tinsley, M. and Papadakis, S. (ed.) Rethinking British Sociology: Postcolonial and Decolonial Transformations Routledge.
  • Saini, R., Begum, N. and Bankole, M. 2023. Minority ethnic politicians are pushing harsh immigration policies – why representation doesn’t always mean racial justice. The Conversation Trust (UK).
  • Saini, R., Bankole, M. and Begum, N. 2023. The 2022 Conservative leadership campaign and post-racial gatekeeping. Race & Class. 65 (2), pp. 55-74. https://doi.org/10.1177/03063968231164599
  • Saini, R. 2023. The racialised ‘second existence’ of class: class identification and (de- / re-) construction across the British South Asian middle classes. Cultural Sociology. 17 (2), pp. 277-296. https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755221076388
  • Saini, R. 2022. The racialisation of class and the racialisation of the nation: ethnic minority identity formation across the British South Asian middle classes. South Asian Diaspora. 14 (2), pp. 109-125. https://doi.org/10.1080/19438192.2022.2055518
  • Zwiener-Collins, N., Jafri, J., Saini, R. and Poulter, T. 2023. Decolonising quantitative research methods pedagogy: teaching contemporary politics to challenge hierarchies from data. Politics.43 (1), pp. 122-138. https://doi.org/10.1177/02633957211041449
  • Saini, R. 2021. (Pseudo)intellectualism and democratic (il)liberalism: on Aurelien Mondon and Aaron Winter's "Reactionary democracy". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 44 (13), pp. 2381-2386. 
    https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1867759
  • Doidge, M. and Saini, R. 2020. The short guide to sociology. Bristol, UK Policy Press.
  • Saini, R. and Begum, N. 2020. Demarcation and definition: explicating the meaning and scope of ‘decolonisation’ in the social and political sciences. The Political Quarterly. 91 (1), pp. 217-221.
    https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-923X.12797
  • Begum, N. and Saini, R. 2019. Decolonising the curriculum. Political Studies Review. 17 (2), pp. 196-201. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929918808459
Our networks

Our networks

Inter-University Migration Network with Anglia Ruskin and Greenwich Universities. Set up in 2023, it   has held two conferences focussing on how academics and a range of organisations can  work collaboratively.

Institutional member of IMISCOE (International Migration Research Network), the largest network of migration researchers across 69 institutions globally.

Our staff

Our Staff

Co Directors

Centre members

  • Necla Acik, Research Fellow Migration Studies
  • Anastasia Christou, professor of Sociology and Social Justice
  • Alice Donald, Professor of Human Rights Law
  • Meri Juntti, Associate Professor of Environmental Governance
  • Janroj Keles, Associate Professor Politics and International Relations
  • Runa Lazzarino, Research Fellow Migration and Health
  • Claudio Morrison, Senior Research Fellow in HRM
  • Kasia Narkowicz, Senior Lecturer Criminology
  • Alex Patrick, Lecturer in Law
  • Nico Pizzolato, Associate Professor Global Labour Studies

Associate/Visiting Researchers

  • Nicola Montagna Associate Researcher
  • Raya Needyanand, Visiting Researcher 

Post Doctoral Fellows

  • Shilan Fuad Hussain, MSCA Post Doctoral Fellow (2022-2024) Arranged/Forced Marriages at the intersection of gender, violence and sexuality
Get in touch

Get in touch