Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS)

Lead Research Organisation: University of Oxford
Department Name: Social & Cultural Anthropology

Abstract

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
 
Description 01. Rethinking diversity
COMPAS research has helped to move academic and policy debates away from established, sometimes limiting ideas about "multi-culturalism" and towards a more nuanced understanding of the interactions between groups in complex modern societies. Among other important developments it led to the coining of a new term - "super-diversity" which now helps inform many new approaches to the study of immigration and diversity, and to policy making in this field.

02. Trade-offs
COMPAS' work has revealed the trade-offs that characterise migration decision-making at every level, from the personal to international policy making. Trade-offs shape policy and yet their hidden nature means they are often not debated. Moreover, decisions made in areas of policy unrelated to immigration, such as funding of the social care system, can have a huge impact on migration patterns without those connections ever being made clear. Key areas of work have included analysis of the tension between access and rights for migrants to high-income countries, the rights of migrant care workers and those of elderly employers, as well as questions about the impacts of immigration on welfare provision and the challenges migration generates for welfare states.

03. Border Crossing
By developing our understanding the history of citizenship, mobility and immigration controls COMPAS has analysed how immigration and asylum policies contribute to 'making' migrants. Detailed analysis of mobile communities and diaspora around the world has helped to inform a clearer 'bottom up' understanding of transnational connections and contemporary migration.

04. The importance of the urban context
COMPAS' work has recognised that metropolitan spaces are characterised by the most brutal forms of exclusion and hostility and the most intense forms of conviviality and cultural creativity. COMPAS has developed vital evidence based interventions in the governance of diversity in European cities; has been at the forefront of efforts to map and understand the changing contours of diversity in the UK's neighbourhoods, towns and regions; has studied Chinese and Indian urbanism, orienting migration studies away from South-North migration flows towards South-South flows, such as movements from the country to the city in modern China.

05. Migration within the European Union
COMPAS was at the vanguard of the study of implications of EU enlargement for mobility in both the sending and receiving countries. COMPAS' work during the 2004 accession of 10 countries to the EU provided unique insights that have subsequently formed the basis of academic and policy responses to the mobility of EU citizens. More recent work has detailed how migration structures the new Europe, challenging our understanding of borders, identity, security and place.

06. Providing dispassionate analysis
Migration Observatory: The Migration Observatory was established by COMPAS to inject dispassionate and evidence-based analysis of migration, into media, public and policy debates in the UK, and has rapidly become the UK's most trusted independent voice on the subject. Both the Observatory's original research and comprehensive suite of materials are used by policy makers from all major political parties in the UK and by all major media outlets as a source of reliable, accessible and neutral information in this complicated and polarised debate.
Exploitation Route Our aim was to understand the dynamics and impacts of migration and the factors that influence the movement of people and their sense of identity and place.

Over these ten years of study COMPAS has brought together in one place a community of leading scholars from a wide range of disciplines with an approach that allows this paradoxically intangible and yet lived experience of 'migration' to be understood in depth and in detail. By doing so COMPAS' body of high quality academic work has informed public and policy debate across the world.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
URL http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk
 
Description In the lead up to the 2014 Scottish referendum on independence, the Migration Observatory is providing analysis and data on migration and migrants in Scotland in order to inform public and policy debate. 'The Migration Observatory Scotland project', funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of the ESRC's Future of the UK and Scotland programme will offer important evidence in the run to the forthcoming referendum. This body of work is analysing key questions around the meaning of citizenship in the light of Scottish independence. These include: Could Scotland have its own immigration policy if it remains part of the UK or part of a Common Travel Area with the rest of the UK and Ireland? What are the implications for identity where a new border is created? Migrant children Research (Sigona and Hughes) focused on the 120,000 undocumented migrant children who have either been born in the UK or migrated at an early age. Despite experiencing some legal entitlements to education and healthcare, the research exposed that they were often limited in accessing public services, due to cuts in public services, frequently changing rules and broader reforms in public services. Although these children are non-deportable, they are excluded from citizenship rights. Findings suggest that this situation ultimately risks producing a generation of disenfranchised youth. Integration, super-diversity and the politics of residence Research by Vertovec, Spencer, Keith, Gidley and Jayaweera based at COMPAS directly influenced the formulation of UK and European policy frameworks on migration and integration. Central and local government have based new policy practice on COMPAS research insights. A dominant framework of 'race relations' and municipal 'multiculturalism' has been displaced by a recognition of sustained patterns of emergent 'super-diversity' and transnationalism in British society. In the 1980s and 1990s the social consequences of post war migration to the United Kingdom were managed through a framework of 'race relations' institutions nationally and locally. The Commission for Racial Equality and local community relations councils funded by the Home Office were supported by the race equality powers devolved to local government. This dominant policy framework was challenged by COMPAS' work. Vertovec's formulation of super-diversity was central to thinking of the Commission on Integration and Cohesion, which was constituted in response to the bombings in London in July 2005. The Commission (on which Keith was the senior academic member) highlighted the interplay of global flows (of culture and people) and localised diversities and the need to reform policy on the integration of migrant minorities, focusing on structures of local governance and an understanding of new diasporic identities, particularly those shaped by religious faith. The Commission's recommendations were adopted by the Brown government in 2008 in reform of UK migrant integration policy. Vertovec's research on superdiversity is cited by the Commission on Integration and Cohesion and was central to the government response to the report. Successive Secretaries of State at the Department of Communities and Local Government stressed the importance of the report in establishing the Migration Impact Forum and the Migration Advisory Committee. The super-diversity framing was central to drafting new guidelines for the management of diversity at local governance level, in establishing new funding streams of central government support directed at the integration of new migrants and in the recognition of new diversities that incorporated both older models of 'race relations' and new associational forms such as diasporic religious faith and transnational connection. The new principles of integration linked to this research were adopted by the Housing Corporation (the principal funder of social housing subsidy in the UK 1964-2008) when drafting principles of integration and cohesion for new build housing estates. Similar changes occurred at local authority level across the UK. In the London Borough of Hackney, for instance, integration policy was re-drafted through a COMPAS ESRC CASE doctoral studentship. And at an EU level, Sarah Spencer's work with the CLIP consortium was adopted by the European alliance EUROCITIES in drafting guidelines for cities' migrant integration strategies. Changing the terms of debate on UK labour migration policy Anderson and Ruhs' expertise on migration and low-waged labour markets led to close engagement with government at all stages of the policy cycle. Their research on demand for labour in six high-usage sectors was commissioned by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) - a group of economists established to advise the government on labour and immigration policy. Its first report, analysing the UK's skilled labour market, addressed the question 'Is it "sensible" to fill a shortage with migrants?' and in this chapter acknowledged: "We draw heavily on Anderson and Ruhs (2008)". The report was later published by OUP as the edited volume Who Needs Migrant Workers? and described by Professor David Metcalf, the Chair of the Migration Advisory Committee, as "the definitive research on the demand for migrant workers [it] will inform the debate for years to come". In the same year the controversy surrounding government policy resulted in the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs Inquiry into the Economic Impact of Immigration. Ruhs served as its specialist adviser and was responsible for the first draft of its report. Anderson provided oral and written evidence during the Inquiry. Her evidence and her research on demand for migrant domestic labour was cited in the final report of the Inquiry.
First Year Of Impact 2003
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural,Societal,Economic,Policy & public services
 
Description Justice for Domestic Workers 
Organisation Justice for Domestic Workers
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Justice for Domestic Workers was established on March 15, 2009. It is an organization of Migrant Domestic Workers who work in private houses in the UK. We are mainly women, though we do have men who are members. We come from the countries of Asia and Africa including India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Nigeria and others. Some of us had to escape from abusive employers, it was our only means of surviving. Finding one another and sharing our experiences is a great refuge. Together, we unite to campaign for our freedom, rights and justice.
 
Description BBC Radio 5 Live Drive interview 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact 9 November 2010, BBC Radio 5 Live Drive, Interview with Nando Sigona about the Roma activist Olmazu case.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2010
URL http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vr8bh
 
Description Cross-cultural care 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact 22 November 2010, BBC Radio 4, You and Yours series, Cross-cultural Care, interview with Sarah Spencer and use of COMPAS research findings on migrant care workers in the UK.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2010
URL http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00c9vgn
 
Description Ethnography, Diversity and Urban Space 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The intensification of global flows in the current period has led scholars to describe cities like London as 'super-diverse': a 'diversification of diversity', with a population characterised by multiple ethnicities, countries of origin, immigration statuses, and age profiles.

The aims of this conference are: to address the missing dimension of migration and mobility in the literature on urban space, and the missing dimension of spatiality in the literature on diversity; and to develop new modes of inquiry appropriate to the contemporary challenge of super-diversity.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2011
URL http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/event/ethnography-diversity-and-urban-space/
 
Description Exclusion, integration and racism : urban and regional dynamics 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact School of Sociology, Politics & International Studies (SPAIS) at the University of Bristol Seminar Series
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2011
URL http://www.pacte-grenoble.fr/wp-content/uploads/pdf_KEITH_Michael.pdf
 
Description Expulsion of the Roma from France 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Nando Sigona of the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford talking (in Italian) on the conflict between the EU Commission and some member states over the treatment of Romani migrants and about the French policy of expulsion of the Roma on Radio Uno (Switzerland).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2010
URL https://romanimobilities.wordpress.com/2010/09/19/sarkozy-the-roma-and-the-eu/
 
Description Interrogating Integration? Global Migration and the Future of le droit à la ville 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact University of Bristol, Bristol Institute of Public Affairs
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2011
URL http://www.migrantsrights.org.uk/files/event/launchevent.pdf
 
Description Romabeleid van Italië is nog erger dan dat van Frankrijk 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact English title : 'Italy's Roma policy is worse than that of France'

De volkskrant
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2011
URL http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2668/Buitenland/article/detail/1026554/2010/09/22/lsquo-Romabeleid-va...
 
Description Sarkozy, the Roma and the EU 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Listen to Nando Sigona talking (in Italian) on the conflict between the EU Commission and some member states over the treatment of Romani migrants on WDR (Germany).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2010
URL https://romanimobilities.wordpress.com/2010/09/19/sarkozy-the-roma-and-the-eu/
 
Description Seminar Series 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The seminar series was convened to consider what it means to be an 'urbanite' in an era plagued by doubt over what it means to 'belong' to a territorial boundary, amidst mass migration, populist nationalism, and politics that divide so vividly along geographical lines. The series is open to the general public, academics and students and other practitioners. Each week we had audiences of between 20-40 people and it led to fruitful discussion and requests for further collaboration.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://www.urbantransformations.ox.ac.uk/event/migration-and-urban-transformation-boundaries-in-an-a...
 
Description Social externalities workshop II : economy and culture 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact ESRC Research network and workshops on the 'Rising Powers'

This workshop followed on from a very successful colloquium held in Beijing in October 2010, and foreshadows a London workshop in June 2011. The workshop was the first stage in developing a research network supported by the British Economic and Social research Council that interrogates the dynamics of the 'Rising Powers' in the BRICS.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2010
URL http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/event/social-externalities-workshop-2-economy-and-culture/
 
Description Turbulent times : the British Jewish community today (book launch, pub. Continuum Books) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Keith Kahn-Harris, Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Religion and Contemporary Society, Birkbeck College, and Ben Gidley, Senior Researcher at the COMPAS Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, Oxford University

The panel discussion will include Professor Les Back (Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths College); Sara Abramson (Board of Deputies/LSE); Professor David Feldman (Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, Birkbeck College); Clive Lawton (Limmud/Tzedeck).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2010
URL https://www.soas.ac.uk/jewishstudies/events/20oct2010-turbulent-times--the-british-jewish-community-...
 
Description What are the alternatives to child detention? 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact One the first commitments made by the Coalition government on coming into power was an end to child detention. How much progress has been made towards achieving this goal? What alternatives are there to child detention? What is the evidence on the efficacy of these alternatives? This briefing will be presented by Professor Crawley, Professor of International Migration, Swansea University and Director of the Centre for Migration Policy Research.

Speaker: Dr. Heaven Crawley, Centre for Migration Policy Research (CMPR), Swansea University
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2011
URL http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/event/what-are-the-alternatives-to-child-detention/
 
Description What are the latest trends in migration into and out of the UK? 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact COMPAS breakfast briefings are designed to bring the latest and most reliable evidence to bear on migration policy. The most up to date statistics on migration to and from the UK are released on 25 November, including data on how many people are arriving in and leaving the UK, their citizenship and reasons for migrating. What is the picture revealed by these statistics? What are the key changes occurring?

Speaker: Sarah Crofts, Migration Statistics Unit, Office for National Statistics
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2010
URL http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/event/what-are-the-latest-trends-in-migration-into-and-out-of-the-uk/
 
Description What could be the impact of a cap on overseas higher education students? 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The UK is the major European provider of higher education to international students, whose numbers here have doubled in the last decade, generating over £4 billion in export earnings. Overseas students are the UK's single largest category of long-term migrants from outside the EU. However, in recent years, international students in the UK have been subject to more and more restrictions. It is not yet clear if the government's proposed cap on non-EU immigration will target overseas students, who come here under Tier 4 of the points-based system. What effect might recent and future restrictions on international students have on the higher education sector, and on the UK economy?

Speaker: Ursula Kelly, University of Strathclyde
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2010
URL http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/event/what-could-be-the-impacts-of-a-cap-on-overseas-higher-education-stu...
 
Description What does the big society mean for migrant communities? 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The Coalition government's policy agenda on "the Big Society" marks a major shift in the landscape. It has been described as radically passing power from the state to citizens and civil society. What does it mean for migrants, for migrant community organisations, and for communities where migrants live? What opportunities and threats does it bring for the sector? And is there any evidence yet on the impact of the new agenda? This briefing will be presented by Vaughan Jones, Chief Executive of Praxis, a community-based organisation working with migrants in London.

Speaker: Vaughan Jones, Chief Executive, Praxis
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2011
URL http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/event/what-does-the-big-society-mean-for-migrant-communities/
 
Description Who needs migrant workers? 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Are migrant workers needed to 'do the jobs that locals will not do' or are they simply a more exploitable labour force? Do they have a better 'work ethic' or are they less able to complain? Is migrant labour the solution to 'skills shortages' or actually part of the problem? This breakfast briefing will discuss the demand for migrant workers in the UK and explore the implications for the Government's new policy of capping labour immigration from outside the EU.

This debate will draw on the findings of a new book edited by COMPAS Researchers Martin Ruhs and Bridget Anderson: Who Needs Migrant Workers? Labour Shortages, Immigration and Public Policy, published by Oxford University Press.

Speakers: Martin Ruhs and Bridget Anderson, COMPAS, University of Oxford
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2010
URL http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/event/who-needs-migrant-workers/
 
Description Written evidence submitted by Dr Franck Düvell, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Written in preparation for the House of Commons/Home Affairs Committee, 8/3/2011, session on 'the implications of Turkish accession to the EU for the Justice and Home Affairs area', to which Franck Düvell was invited to give evidence.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2011
URL http://www.researchcatalogue.esrc.ac.uk/grants/RES-573-28-5004/outputs/read/41a174d1-bc49-4a67-b1cf-...
 
Description ________ __ ______, __ ________ ____ _ __________ 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact English title : 'Ukrainians do not know how to deal with migrants'

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Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2011
URL http://www.csr.co.ua/pdf/Nova_era_2010.pdf