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Borders & Belonging

Borders & Belonging

Written by: CERC Migration
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Migration is a complex phenomenon – for individuals, it is a personal journey that can result in struggle or triumph depending on life circumstances; and for countries, it can be an economic driver, or a source of social tension or even conflict.

Host Maggie Perzyna, a researcher with the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration program at Toronto Metropolitan University, explores the complexity of migration with the help of leading academics and professionals working with migrants on the ground.


Season 4 of Borders & Belonging explores reflexivity: the practice of turning research back on itself to examine how we know what we know.


This season draws on the lived experiences of pioneering scholars whose work has transformed how we understand human movement across borders. We then ask each scholar to nominate an up-and-coming scholar they admire, whose research builds on, challenges, or complements their own. Join us as we trace the threads connecting scholarship across time, experience, and perspective.


For show notes and transcripts, visit: https://www.torontomu.ca/cerc-migration/borders-and-belonging/

Signal Award wins in 2023, 2024, and 2025.

© 2025 Borders & Belonging Science Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Nicholas De Genova on the production of illegality and the revolving doors of asylum, feat. Soledad Álvarez Velasco

    Nicholas De Genova on the production of illegality and the revolving doors of asylum, feat. Soledad Álvarez Velasco
    Jan 13 2026

    Drawing on a lifetime shaped by activism, art, and encounters with migration, leading migration scholar Nicholas De Genova reflects on the ideas and political commitments behind his influential work on the production of migrant “illegality” and the cyclical nature of asylum.

    He is joined by Soledad Álvarez Velasco, whose research follows migrants across Latin America and draws on her own experiences migrating from Ecuador. Together, they explore how asylum systems reproduce illegality, how race and colonial legacies shape migration control, and where hope and solidarity emerge amid exclusion and enforcement.

    Guests: Nicholas De Genova, Professor, Department of Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Houston; Soledad Álvarez Velasco, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, University of Illinois Chicago.

    🎧 Follow Borders & Belonging on LinkedIn.

    🌎 Have a question or episode idea? Email bordersandbelonging@gmail.com.
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    38 mins
  • Ayşe Çağlar on migration, displacement, and urban transformation, feat. Ana Ćuković

    Ayşe Çağlar on migration, displacement, and urban transformation, feat. Ana Ćuković
    Dec 9 2025

    Migration scholar Ayşe Çağlar and researcher Ana Ćuković discussing how displacement and migration serve as lenses to understand broader urban transformation, power structures, and global capitalism rather than treating migrants as isolated problems to solve. Our guests emphasize the importance of situating displacement within political economy and historical contexts, showing how migrants' value to cities shifts over time based on economic restructuring and geopolitical changes.

    Guests: Ayşe Çağlar, Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna; Ana Ćuković, Philanthropy Fellow, Council of Michigan Foundations, Hudson Webber Foundation.

    🎧 Follow Borders & Belonging on LinkedIn.

    🌎 Have a question or episode idea? Email bordersandbelonging@gmail.com.
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    37 mins
  • Jørgen Carling on Aspiration, feat. Kerilyn Schewel

    Jørgen Carling on Aspiration, feat. Kerilyn Schewel
    Nov 25 2025

    From his notable research on migration aspirations and the factors that shape whether people move or stay, Jørgen Carling reflects on how his early experiences in Oslo and fieldwork in West Africa shaped his approach to understanding mobility. He is joined by Kerilyn Schewel, whose work examines why people remain in place and how life goals, family ties and social constraints influence those decisions.

    Guests: Jørgen Carling, Professor in Migration and Transnationalism studies, Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO); Kerilyn Schewel, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina.

    🎧 Follow Borders & Belonging on LinkedIn.

    🌎 Have a question or episode idea? Email bordersandbelonging@gmail.com.
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    34 mins
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