Who is unquestionably European? From Brexit to the war in Ukraine, this question has come to the fore as people of colour have found themselves disproportionately questioned as they try to exercise their rights as European citizens. We’re joined by Bolaji Balogun (University of Sheffield) and Marius Turda (Oxford Brookes) to discuss the longer history of migration between Europe the UK, how this history interplays with the development of immigration controls in the UK (and elsewhere), and the development of European identities from the early twentieth century to the present-day.
George and Michaela consider the disproportionate challenges that European people of colour have faced in securing their post-Brexit status through the EU settled status scheme. In our explainer, Michaela explores the social and political context that led to the development of the 1905 Aliens Act. And in conversation, Bolaji and Marius introduce us to the role of eugenics and race science in the development of early immigration controls in the UK and how this set the stage for the racialised exclusions at the heart of contemporary immigration controls and governance practices across Europe.
You can access the full transcripts for each episode over on our website Who do we think we are?
In this episode we cover …
Quote
The ways in which migration and citizenship are processes of inclusion and exclusion at the same time. As a citizen you think you're actually free to move around. But the same process of citizenship has been used to actually exclude and to reduce also, what you can have access to and what you canot. And actually eugenics provided tools for that to actually happen. —Bolaji Balogun
We attach so much importance to historical myths of origins. And those continue to fuel, often negatively, fantasies of belonging. And white supremacy and whiteness is based on the fantasy of belonging, these ideas have never gone away. — Marius Turda
Find out more about …
Bolaji and his work, follow him on Twitter, and read his paper Race, blood,and nation
Marius’s work on The Eugenics Podcast, follow him on Twitter, and read his paper Legacies of Eugenics
Dahaba Ali Hussen’s struggle for EU settled status
Black Europeans, the organisation documenting systemic racism in the EUSS scheme
Call to action
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To find out more about Who do we think we are? On our website, Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
S3 E10 Migration and the making of Global Britain
S3 E9 (Not so) safe routes
S3 E8 Fortress Britain?
BtH2 E2 Beyond the headlines … Care Activism with Ethel Tungohan
S3 E7 Families at the borders
BtH2 E1 Beyond the headlines … at Manchester Museum with Senna Yousef and Caitlin Nunn
S3 E6 Migrant Rights 2.0
S3 E5 Migration, diaspora, diplomacy
S3 E4 A New Plan for Migration?
S3 E3 Bye, Bye Britain
BONUS Interview with Elspeth Guild
S3 E2 Free Movement, limited
S3 E1 Of Kings, Songs and Migrants
[SWAP] Uncommon Sense: Security, with Daria Krivonos
S2 BONUS Behind the Scenes
S2 E10 In dialogue
S2 E9 East-West inequalities and the remaking of unequal Europeans
S2 E8 Who is a migrant?
BtH1 S8 Beyond the headlines … with İdil Akıncı-Pérez
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