Holiday Newsletter

As we write this newsletter, at the end of possibly the most challenging university term ever, there are a number of things to be thankful for. First, and most obviously, even if it was not quite the electoral rout that we had all hoped, Trump is on his way out. Secondly, in the UK at least, the vaccines have begun, and they are being delivered to the most vulnerable first. Both of these matters are sources of huge relief, and, we hope, harbingers of a better year in 2021, and, perhaps, some rolling back of the kinds of populist politics that has amplified anti-migrant sentiment around the world.

Of course, numerous issues remain, not least of which, in the UK, is Brexit. And indeed, the delivery of the vaccine beyond the global North.

Yet, it is important to be hopeful and to look for signs of change and grounds for optimism; and so we are thankful not only for some of the developments on the world stage, but also for matters far closer to home. The Border Criminologies team has, as ever, been active and collegial. While much of our individual research has stalled due to the pandemic, we have, nonetheless, been active in our outreach work. As we will demonstrate below, we have started new initiatives and kept old ones going.

Those of us who teach, have been impressed with the willingness and flexibility of our students to adapt to the new circumstances. In our engagement with NGOs and those subject to border control, we continue to see the immense efforts of many to help, to survive and to flourish.

As groups and individuals around the world have drawn attention to the many ways in which systemic racism manifests, we have seen a more explicit and meaningful connection among scholars and activists with migration law and policy.

So, too, there has been a heightened recognition among scholars of migration control of the salience of common racial themes in areas such as prison and detention abolition, border control and crime control, and the role of police. These engagements are long over-due and offer a firm basis for novel, intellectual, legal and political work.

The new structure of Border Criminologies has unleashed the creative impulses of our team.

To highlight just a few of our projects, the team has undertaken a new initiative connecting our blog with scholarly journals and law reviews, a series of blog contributions from the global south, Know Your Rights outreach in Greece and a report and related events about COVID-19 in Italian detention centers, and a set of video interviews of migration scholars for use in research-led teaching. We offer more details on many of these initiatives below. As we do each year, we will be closing the blog for a well-earned holiday. We hope that our members and readers stay safe. We look forward to welcoming you back in the New Year with an active series of online events and publications.

Take care and best wishes for the holiday season!

Mary Bosworth and Juliet Stumpf, Co-directors of Border Criminologies 

Read our holiday newsletter.