While Trump's administration continues its mass deportation campaign and the European Commission launches a new strategy for streamlining returns, including by normalising the idea of offshore warehousing of migrants awaiting removal, we think it is important and useful to offer some (qualified) hope by focusing on two recent regularisation schemes in The Netherlands and Italy.

Our podcast picks

- BOOK: Boswell, C. and Chabal, E. (eds) (2023) States of Ignorance: governing irregular migration in Western Europe, Cambridge University Press.

- ARTICLE: Bonizzoni, P., & Hajer, M. (2022). Civil Society Actors and the 2020 Italian Amnesty: Bordering to Deborder? Journal of Intercultural Studies, 44(1), 44–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2022.2134317

- REPORT: The right to legal residence and the colonial past: are former Dutch citizens born in Suriname discriminated as compared to former Dutch citizens born in other (Western) countries? by Raffaela Abbate, Lara van Daalen, Paul Fosse, Anouk Hol & Salomé Rakotovao, 2022

- REPORT: Yeo, C, Sigona, N., Godin, M. (2022) Parallels and Differences Between Ending Commonwealth And EU Citizen Free Movement, Eurochildren Research Brief Series, No. 4, 2022

- MEDIA: Nigerian family deported after years in Netherlands despite integration, NL Times, 23 May 2025

How to cite this episode

Sigona, N, van Liempt, I, Hajer, M., de Vlaming , F. , Bonizzoni, P., (2025) “Let's talk regularisation", Mobility, work and rights: the I-CLAIM podcast, S1 E7, 6 June 2025.

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In this episode of Mobility, Work, and Rights, Nando Sigona speaks with Letizia Palumbo, researcher at the Univiersity of Venice Ca' Foscari and author of Taking Vulnerabilities to Labour Exploitation Seriously. The book examines how European and national legal frameworks shape migrant workers’ vulnerabilities—particularly in agriculture and domestic work and how intersecting legal, economic, and social factors create and exacerbate exploitation. With a focus on Italy and comparisons with the UK, this episode unpacks the tensions between labour migration policies and measures to combat severe exploitation. Join us for a thought-provoking discussion on the systemic dimensions of labour exploitation and the challenges in protecting migrant workers' rights.

Our podcast picks

- BOOK: Palumbo, L (2024) Taking Vulnerabilities to Labour Exploitation Seriously: A Critical Analysis of Legal and Policy Approaches and Instruments in Europe, Springer IMISCOE Research Series. Open Access

- BLOG: Situational Vulnerability in Supranational and Italian Legislation and Case Law on Labour Exploitation by Maria Grazia Giammarinaro and Letizia Palumbo

- REPORT: Palumbo, L, Sciurba A (2018) The vulnerability of women migrant workers in agriculture and the EU: the need for a Human Rights and Gender based approach, European Parliament Open AccessHow to cite this episode

Sigona, N, Palumbo, L (2025) “Structures of exploitation", Mobility, work and rights: the I-CLAIM podcast, S1 E6, 21 March 2025.

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What is irregular migration? We often start our conversations with this question, today we really want to dig in on how and why media and political narratives on irregular migration really matters not only because they shape public perceptions but also how our institutions respond to this phenomenon.

Our hosts, Nando Sigona and Ilse van Liempt, explore these questions with two guests: professor Bastian Vollmer who coordinated the I-CLAIM work on narratives and representations of irregular migration and Michele Levoy, director of PICUM.

Our podcast picks …

I-CLAIM Country reports on narratives of irregular migration:

- UK: https://i-claim.eu/project/the-narrative-construction-of-migrant-irregularity-in-the-united-kingdom/

- Italy : https://i-claim.eu/project/the-public-discourse-on-migration-irregularity-and-work-in-italy/

- The Netherlands: https://i-claim.eu/project/discourses-about-irregularised-migrants-in-the-netherlands/

- Finland: https://i-claim.eu/project/narratives-of-irregular-migration-in-finland/

- Germany: https://i-claim.eu/project/discourses-about-irregularisedmigrants-in-germany/

- Poland: https://i-claim.eu/project/narratives-about-irregularised-migrants-in-poland/

EU: https://i-claim.eu/project/discourses-about-irregularised-migrants-at-the-eu-level/

How to cite this episode

van Liempt, I , Sigona, N, Levoy, M, Vollmer, B (2025) “Narratives of irregularity", Mobility, work and rights: the I-CLAIM podcast, S1 E5, 8 March 2025.

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In the fourth episode of Mobility, Work, and Rights, hosts Nando Sigona and Ilse van Liempt explore the relation between migration status and working conditions and what it means to work the nightshift.

Nando and Ilse are joined by two guests who help them in this task: Julius Cezar MacQuarie who teaches and researches at the University of Cork and his the author of Invisible Migrant Nightworkers in 24/7 London (Springer 2023); and Renzo Sgolacchia, architect, researcher and film-maker, author of Living Labour, a documentary on the lives of Polish, Spanish and Roma workers in the Netherlands.

Our podcast picks …

Books:

- Invisible Migrant Nightworkers in 24/7 London (2023): https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-36186-9

- Living on the Margins: Undocumented Migrants in a Global City by Alice Bloch and Sonia McKay (2017)

Films:

- Invisible Lives: Romanian Night Workers in London

- The Sleepless Bat Trailer a.k.a Nightshift Spitalfields

Report:

Cleaning up Westminster: Understanding Racial Capitalism Through Ethnographies of Racialised and/or Migrant Night Cleaners in UK Parliament.

Article:

Night-Time and Refugees: Evidence from the Thai-Myanmar Border | Journal of Refugee Studies

Podcast:

NightWorkPod

How to cite this episode

Van Liempt, I , Sigona, N, MacQuarie, JC, Sgolacchia, R (2025) “The night shift and the politics of exhaustion”, Mobility, work and rights: the I-CLAIM podcast, S1 E4, 21 January 2025.

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For this interview special of Mobility, Work & Rights, Nando Sigona speaks with Davide Colombi, co-author with Sergio Carrera of Irregularising Human Mobility (Springer 2024), a new open access book examining the history and current state of play of EU law and policy covering irregularised migration and how migration policies have been problematised at the EU institutional level, in particular by the European Commission. As Donald Trump prepares to take office next year and the new European Commission, led by Ursula von der Leyen, begins its term this December, Nando and Davide explore what lies ahead for the politics of migration in the coming months.

Our podcast picks …

– Carrera, S. and Colombi, D. (2025) Irregularising Human Mobility: EU Migration Policies and the European Commission’s Role, Springer
– Carrera, S. and Colombi, D. (2024) Irregularised migration and the next European Commission. I-CLAIM Policy Brief.

How to cite this episode:

Sigona, N, Colombi, D. (2024) “Irregularising human mobility - interview special", Mobility, work and rights: the I-CLAIM podcast, S1 E3, 6 December 2024.

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through our RSS Feed (https://anchor.fm/s/fb89c7d0/podcast/rss)

Get all the latest updates from the I-CLAIM (https://i-claim.eu) on Twitter (https://x.com/iclaimeu) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/iclaim.eu)

In this episode of Mobility, Work, and Rights, hosts Nando Sigona and Ilse van Liempt look at how a migrant can become irregularised and with what consequences.

In conversation with Sabrina Marchetti (University of Venice) and Lena Nare (University of Helsinki) they consider the governance of irregular migration in Europe and compare and contrast how European states address the phenomenon.

On the eve of Donald Trump's second term as US president, Nando and Ilse speak to Walter Nicholls (UC Irvine) about what we can expect from Trump and if and how Europe is moving in a similar direction.

Our podcast picks …

- Näre, L., Palumbo, L., Merikoski, P., & Marchetti, S. (2024). The Legal and Policy Infrastructure of Migrant Irregularity. Comparative Report. I-CLAIM. DOI: https://zenodo.org/records/12564073 - Colombi, D. Näre, L., Palumbo, L., Merikoski, P., & Marchetti, S. (2024). Irregularised migration in Europe. Policy Brief. I-CLAIM.

- ⁠‘SANCTUARY FOR ALL’ OR ‘SANCTUARY FOR THE DESERVING’: How Municipal Bureaucracies Mediate and Decide Contentious Struggles over Urban Citizenship⁠ by Walter Nicholls, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research - The politics of status, ICMPD podcast - "Exploitable by design: Nando Sigona in conversation with Luke Piper", Conversations with Iris, 2024

- Social Scientists Against the Hostile Environment (SSAHE) A new chapter or more of the same? Migration policy under Labour, 2024

How to cite this episode:

Van Liempt, I , Sigona, N, Marchetti, S, Nare, L, Nicholls, W (2024) “Policy and politics of irregularity in Europe and US", Mobility, work and rights: the I-CLAIM podcast, S1 E2, 28 November 2024.

Call to action

Follow the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed (https://anchor.fm/s/fb89c7d0/podcast/rss)

Get all the latest updates from the I-CLAIM (https://i-claim.eu) on Twitter (https://x.com/iclaimeu) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/iclaim.eu)

In the first episode of Mobility, Work, and Rights, hosts Nando Sigona and Ilse van Liempt kick off the series by unpacking a key question: What exactly is irregular migration? Misunderstandings around this issue shape how it’s talked about in politics and the media, and how policies are made. Nando and Ilse explore what irregular migration really means and why it has become such a hot topic across Europe. They look at how different countries respond to migration and why cities seem to be more progressive than national governments in handling the presence of migrants with precarious legal status.

To help them in this task, Nando and Ilse are joined by two special guests: Dr Blanca Garcés Mascareñas, Senior Research Fellow at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, and Dr Myriam Cherti, Senior Researcher at the University of Oxford’s COMPAS.

Together, they break down why definitions matter and how they shape the way we think about irregular migration.

Our podcast picks …

- De Verbranders, a podcast all about Europe’s borders and resistance to them https://soundcloud.com/de-verbranders

- This episode of Al Jazeera’s Inside Story with Nando Sigona: ⁠https://youtu.be/xPQR4t33tW4⁠

- This episode of Who do we think we are? with Ida Danewid talking about racial capitalism and immigration enforcement ⁠https://migzen.net/podcasts/who-do-we-think-we-are/s3-e10-migration-and-the-making-of-global-britain/⁠

How to cite this episode:

Van Liempt, I , Sigona, N, Garcés Mascareñas, B and Cherti, M (2024) “What is Irregular Migration? Definitions and Why They Matter”, Mobility, work and rights: the I-CLAIM podcast, S1 E1, 28 October 2024.

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Welcome to Mobility, Work and Rights: the I-CLAIM podcast, where we challenge common misunderstandings about irregular migration in Europe today. Your hosts are Nando Sigona, a sociologist based at the University of Birmingham in the UK specialising in migration and citizenship, and Ilse van Liempt, a human geographer based at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands focus on belonging, citizenship and the spaces of everyday life in Europe. In this series, we consider some of the key questions surrounding irregular migration, starting from perhaps the most fundamental ones: what is irregular migration? Who counts as an irregular migrant?

Our series draws on research from the I-CLAIM project, which aims to improve the living and labour conditions of irregularized migrant families across Europe. The project is funded by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe programme and UKRI.