We've got a great new podcast miniseries exploring all things 'Make America Great Again' and migration. Join us as we critically examine the interplay of ideology, politics and geopoltiics in current US policies and practices affecting who can come to the US, on what terms, who can stay, and more generally, on migrant lives and livelihoods. We'll also be considering how what we are seeing on the other side of the pond relates to broader trends in migration governance and management around the world.
Our first episode launched in September 2025, and here's a little flavour:
When anti-immigration raids intensified in the USA after Trump’s return to the presidency, it left many wondering: how could this happen in places like LA, ostensibly a “Sanctuary City”? What, in fact, are sanctuary cities?
Launching our new series on the role of borders and migration in the roll out of Donald Trump’s MAGA project, Rachel Humphris, author of “Making Sanctuary Cities” joins us to explain all. She outlines the rich history of such places, with roots in both traditions of sheltering refugees but also in activist histories of non-cooperation. Rachel also describes how the term ‘Sanctuary Cities’ was appropriated in the so-called ‘culture wars’, used by the right to paint a misleading picture of urban areas as full of “undesirable” outsiders and their apparently woke defenders. Plus, we ask: what does the label ‘Sanctuary City’ obscure in places such as San Francisco, where many are being forced out as big tech money floods in? And how, by focusing on the history of American cities’ complex and caveated relationship to the federal state, might we still hold to a future of hope and resistance?
You can listen, access the transcript, our list of resources and readings here.
