Community, refugees, and urban life: what’s cycling got to do with it? We explore refugee women’s experiences in London through the ESRC Open City initiative and a participatory film with The Bike Project.

In this episode of The Migration Oxford Podcast, we explore how mobility, belonging, and everyday urban life intersect in London, and how newcomers reshape the city through movement. Our focus is a participatory, arts-based collaboration with The Bike Project, an NGO that provides refugees with free bicycles. At its core, the initiative asks how movement - both physical and social - can create pathways to belonging, access, and agency for those newly arrived.
The Bike Project’s work is simple yet transformative: bicycles enable refugees to travel independently, connect with services, and build confidence navigating London. But beyond practical utility, cycling becomes an embodied way of claiming space, of becoming visible in the city, and of weaving new rhythms into urban life. Our discussion explores this duality - bikes as both tools of mobility and symbols of presence in urban spaces that are at once open and exclusionary.
We welcome Dr Eda Yazici, Senior Researcher at the University of Bristol, and Professor Michael Keith, Director of the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) and the PEAK Urban project. Together, they reflect on how collaborative, arts-based approaches can reveal the lived realities of migration and the permeability of the city itself.
The project invited refugee women connected with The Bike Project to co-produce short and long-form films documenting their experiences of arrival and adaptation. These films move beyond representation to highlight how everyday mobilities shape inclusion, resilience, and visibility in the city. Our conversation situates these narratives within wider debates about mobility at multiple scales. From the global journeys of displacement to the intimate routes traced through neighbourhoods and cycle lanes, mobility both enables and constrains urban life. Arts-based collaborations, as this project demonstrates, can shed new light on how these scales intersect and how cities might be reimagined as more open and welcoming.
Listeners can view the films co-created through this initiative online at Cycling Visibilities. Together with the discussion, they offer a powerful insight into the experiences of refugee women cycling through London - making themselves visible, claiming urban space, and reshaping the city in the process.

Series: The Migration Oxford Podcast

People: Michael Keith Eda Yacizi Delphine Boagey Jacqui Broadhead

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Keywords: refugees esrc mobility cycling initiative urban spaces

Department: Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS)

In a world obsessed with AI, what are robo-dogs and how are they deployed at border control? With the rise of “crimmigration” across the world, the lines between migration management and criminal law are becoming blurred.

The rise of "crimmigration" on a global scale is seeing the lines between migration management and criminal law being blurred, often in an effort to exercise surveillance of people on the move. What does this mean for people at the border? Can border technologies be used for good?

In a world obsessed with artificial intelligence, why have private sector interests and the growing border industrial complex set the stage for new innovations?

Looking at the UK and North America, we examine new legislation and how they can fail to address the high-risk impacts of using technologies for border security and national security purposes to assist in detecting, identifying, apprehending, and removing individuals who are entering illegally. We examine how AI used at the border intersects with racism, xenophobia, and nationalism, and question if the COVID-19 pandemic has normalised widespread surveillance through data collection and movement tracking.

In this episode of The Migration Oxford Podcast, we welcome Petra Molnar, Harvard Faculty Associate, lawyer, anthropologist, and author of the forthcoming book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence; and Dr Peter Walsh, Senior Researcher at The Migration Observatory and the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford. We explore how border technologies impact every aspect of migration – from robo-dogs and DNA collection, to algorithms and iris recognition – to reveal the human issues beyond the digital frontier.

Series: The Migration Oxford Podcast

People: Petra Molnar Peter Walsh Jacqui Broadhead Rob McNeil Delphine Boagey

Keywords: crimmigration criminal law immigration ai artificial intelligence borders border control

Department: Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS)

Geopolitics, irregular movement, the rise of the far-right: these are just some of the buzzwords populating your morning news headlines. But where is the relationship between Europe and the U.S. heading? What are the implications for immigration policy?

In this episode of The Migration Oxford Podcast we host a timely discussion on the shifting political landscapes in Germany and the United States, as both nations grapple with pre- and post-election changes that are reshaping approaches to immigration policy.

Germany’s Hesse and Bavaria provincial elections in 2023 have seen significant gains for the political party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), expanding far-right influences beyond their traditional stronghold in eastern Germany. We explore how this surge has prompted mainstream parties to reconsider their stance on immigration, with the Green Party, currently a coalition partner in the national government, also signalling a potential shift towards stricter policies. As Germany continues to grapple with its immigration policies, what does this mean for the federal elections of February 2025 and beyond? If tighter border controls and expedited deportation processes are implemented across Germany, what might this mean in real time?

Looking to the United States, the recent presidential election of Donald Trump has thrown the future of U.S. global leadership into doubt, with questions of immigration policy at the helm of his administration. We discuss the implications of Trump's return for U.S. immigration policy, labour shortages and migratory routes. How is this affecting international agreements? What are the broader effects on EU-wide policies and transatlantic relations, especially between Germany and the U.S.?

We welcome Tarik Abou-Chadi, Professor of European Politics at the Department of Politics and International Relations and Nuffield College; and Naika Foroutan, Professor at the Institute for Social Sciences (ISW) at Humboldt Universität, Berlin, and Director of Germany’s Federal Center of Migration research (DeZIM) to this episode. Guided by our experts, the conversation explores potential future scenarios for immigration policy in both countries, considering the gravitational pull towards right-wing politics in 2025. This episode was pitched by Dr Gokce Yurdakul and is supported by the Berlin University Alliance's Oxford-Berlin Research exchange between The Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), University of Oxford and the Berlin Institute for Migration and Integration Research (BIM).

Note: This episode was recorded on January 21 2025, and reflects the policies and political landscape as they stood at that time.

Series: The Migration Oxford Podcast

People: Naika Foroutan, Tarik Abou-Chadi, Rob McNeil, Jacqui Broadhead, Delphine Boagey

Keywords: policy immigration transatlantic Germany elections united states america

Department: Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS)

Over 2.6 million people are locked out of the welfare state in the UK and now subject to ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF), an immigration policy restricting access to social security. How can local government respond?

How can local government improve the safety net for vulnerable people locked out of the welfare system due to their immigration status?

The number of people locked out of the welfare state in the UK has risen to 2.6 million people now subject to the ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) policy, an immigration policy restricting access to social security. Local government have been described as providing a "parallel welfare system" (Price & Spencer, 2015) and a "basic safety net of support" (UK Minister for Legal Migration & the Border, 2024) for vulnerable people facing destitution, regardless of their immigration status. However recent research highlights the limitations of this parallel safety net which fails to meet the rising demand and the needs of vulnerable people as local authorities find themselves operating on overstretched social care budgets and without any dedicated funding from central government to cover this provision. Despite repeated calls from the third sector, local government and cross-party parliamentarians to review the NRPF policy for vulnerable people and families, none of the major political parties appear to call for a reform of the policy.

If local government are expected to play a vital role in supporting destitute vulnerable people, what needs to change to ensure local authorities provide better support? How can authorities address wider strategic priorities such as ending rough sleeping, improving public health and tackling local inequalities?

In this episode of The Migration Oxford Podcast, we welcome Rupinder Parhar, Head of Equalities at the Greater London Authority, Ann, a community researcher and a member of COMPAS' Experts by Experience Advisory Board and Lucy Leon, a researcher at the Global Exchange on Migration and Diversity at COMPAS. Together, we explore the needs and characteristics of this vulnerable population locked out of the welfare system, the variations in support provided by local government across the UK and what needs to change to ensure vulnerable people facing destitution are provided with support, regardless of their immigration status.

Series: The Migration Oxford Podcast

People: Rupinder Parhar, Ann Lucy Leon, Rob McNeil, Jacqui Broadhead, Delphine Boagey

What do advancements in AI mean for immigration? We discuss the current and emerging practices of new technologies in the field, and explore developments in the use of predictive analytics, automated risk assessment and profiling.

In this episode of The Migration Oxford Podcast, we discuss the current and emerging practices of using new technologies in the field of immigration, focusing on how border control, immigration and asylum policies are being impacted by the use of new technologies especially in and around Europe. With the help of our panel, we explore recent developments in the use of predictive analytics, automated risk assessments and profiling in immigration, and their main ethical implications. We are joined by Derya Ozkul, Senior Research Fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford and member of the Migration Oxford network; and Caterina Rodelli, EU Policy Analyst at Access Now, a civil society organisation defending the digital rights of people and communities at risk. Derya is one of the project leads at the Algorithmic Fairness for Asylum Seekers (AFAR) project and her work explores the uses of new technologies in migration and asylum fields and their real-life impact on people on the move. Caterina’s work explores issues related to biometric surveillance, artificial intelligence, and, together with several other civil society organisations, she leads the #ProtectNotSurveil campaign.

Guests: Derya Ozkul and Caterina Rodelli
Hosts: Rob McNeil and Jacqui Broadhead
Producer: Delphine Boagey

We often think of migration in binary terms of regular or irregular migration; legal or illegal, but often people move in between these states and are left in an insecure status. How does this precarity effect a migrant’s access to services in cities?

In this episode we discuss precarious migrants and are joined by Dr Marie Mallet-Garcia, Researcher at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), University of Oxford, Shams Asadi, Human Rights Commissioner and head of the Human Rights Office of the City of Vienna and Wanjiku Ngotho-Mbugua, Acting Chief Executive at Bawso. With the help of our panel, we will look at three different cities Cardiff, Frankfurt and Vienna.

Hosted by: Jacqui Broadhead and Rob McNeil

Speakers: Dr Marie Mallet-Garcia (COMPAS, University of Oxford); Shams Asadi (Head of the Human Rights Office of the City of Vienna); and Wanjiku Ngotho-Mbugua (Acting Chief Executive at Bawso)

Keywords: Gender, Migration

We have a new bonus episode of the Migration Oxford podcast, which accompanies the full episode on migrant and refugee entrepreneurship (Immigration to Innovation). Listen: https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/bonus-immigration-innovation (also on Apple and Spotify)

In this bonus episode, Aditi Anand (Artistic Director, Migration Museum) takes us on an extended tour of the immersive Taking Care of Business exhibition and introduces us to the stories behind migrant businesses we often don't get to hear.

Speaker: Aditi Anand (Artistic Director, Migration Museum) 

Hosts: Rob McNeil, Jacqui Broadhead

Series: The Migration Oxford Podcast

Oxford Unit: Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS)

Keywords: Business, Entrepreneurialism, Innovation, Immigration

As we enter a period of global instability, we ask what role remittances will play and how we can improve data collection on remittances to better understand their vital importance on a local and global scale. In this episode of the Migration Oxford Podcast, we talk about remittances—the movement of money between migrants and their friends and families—with Dilip Ratha (Head of the Global Knowledge Partnership for Migration and Development and Lead Economist for Migration, Remittances and Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice, World Bank) and Professor Carlos Vargas-Silva (Director of the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford). We ask what remittances reveal about the nature of migration and how informal remittances give us a sense of migration routes that are not so common or visible. 

Speakers: Carlos Vargas-Silva, Dilip Ratha

Series: The Migration Oxford Podcast

Hosts: Jacqui Broadhead, Rob McNeil

Oxford Unit: Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS)

Keywords: Migration, Money, Migrants, Bank, Jobs