Migration and Citizenship Research Group

The Migration & Citizenship Research Group was founded by Professor Christina Boswell in 2006. It brought together staff and postgraduate research students from across the social sciences: Human Geography, Law, Politics, Social Anthropology, Sociology and Social Policy.

Members conducted research on global issues such as displacement, cultural diversity, integration, citizenship, transnationalism, rights and development in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The local complexities of immigration to Scotland were also a focus, such as the dispersal of asylum seekers to Glasgow, and migration from Eastern Europe to Scotland following the expansion of the EU in 2004. The dynamism of the group’s postgraduate research students was a particular feature, and several student-led PhD conferences and workshops were organised in Edinburgh.

In 2014 members of the research group foresaw the need for a wider research network drawing on expertise form across different parts of the University of Edinburgh in order to inform responses to the global challenges and opportunities which international migration presents. In 2015 the research group became the Citizens, Nations and Migration (CNaM) Network.