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49 episodes

Gracia Liu-Farrer on the social construction of skill, feat. Helena Hof
10/03/2026 | 35 mins.
What happens when a visa category becomes a verdict on your worth? Gracia Liu-Farrer reflects on the ideas and experiences that shaped her influential work on migration, labour markets and the social construction of skill. She is joined by Helena Hof, whose research examines how labels like "high-skilled" and "low-skilled" are assigned, contested and recognised across cities, institutions and borders.
Together, they discuss why skill is never simply what you know or what you can do, how power and place determine whose abilities get recognised, and what it would mean to think about talent as something cultivated rather than possessed.
Guests: Gracia Liu-Farrer, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute of Asian Migration, Waseda University; Helena Hof, Senior Research Fellow, University of Zurich.
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John Berry on acculturation theory, feat. Saba Safdar
24/02/2026 | 40 mins.
What happens when cultures meet in everyday life? John Berry reflects on the ideas and experiences that shaped his pioneering work on acculturation, integration and belonging. He is joined by Saba Safdar, whose research examines how power, discrimination, policy and even AI shape newcomers’ experiences of adaptation. Together, they discuss how acculturation theory has evolved in an era of super-diversity, why belonging is never neutral and what societies must do to create genuine inclusion.

Guests: John Berry, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Queen’s University; Saba Safdar, Professor of Psychology and Director, Centre for Cross-Cultural Research, University of Guelph.
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Adrian Favell on Eurostars and Eurocities, feat. Sarah Kunz
10/02/2026 | 32 mins.
Adrian Favell reflects on the ideas and experiences that shaped his work on mobility, free movement and Europe's so called borderless future.
He is joined by Sarah Kunz, whose research examines how privilege, race and postcolonial histories shape who gets to move and how migration labels such as migrant, expat and mobile professional reflect power and inequality. Together, they discuss why studying privileged migration matters, how European mobility has changed over time, and how movement is increasing even as access to it becomes more unequal.
Guests: Adrian Favell, Professor of Social and Political Theory and Founding Director of the Radical Humanities Laboratory, University College Cork; Sarah Kunz, Lecturer in Migration Studies, University of Essex.
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Irene Bloemraad on citizenship as claims making, feat. Amanda Cheong
27/01/2026 | 42 mins.
Drawing on a childhood shaped by migration and multilingualism, migration scholar Irene Bloemraad reflects on the ideas and experiences behind her influential work on citizenship as claims-making and the contested nature of belonging. She is joined by Amanda Cheong, whose research on statelessness stems from discovering her own parents were stateless before immigrating to Canada. Together, they explore how citizenship extends beyond legal status into everyday acts of belonging, how birth registration systems can deliberately exclude populations, and where agency and exclusion intersect in the modern politics of membership.
Guests: Irene Bloemraad, Professor of Political Studies and Co-Director of the Centre for Migration Studies, University of British Columbia; Amanda Cheong, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of British Columbia.
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Nicholas De Genova on the production of illegality and the revolving doors of asylum, feat. Soledad Álvarez Velasco
13/01/2026 | 37 mins.
Drawing on a lifetime shaped by activism, art, and encounters with migration, leading migration scholar Nicholas De Genova reflects on the ideas and political commitments behind his influential work on the production of migrant “illegality” and the cyclical nature of asylum.

He is joined by Soledad Álvarez Velasco, whose research follows migrants across Latin America and draws on her own experiences migrating from Ecuador. Together, they explore how asylum systems reproduce illegality, how race and colonial legacies shape migration control, and where hope and solidarity emerge amid exclusion and enforcement.
Guests: Nicholas De Genova, Professor, Department of Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Houston; Soledad Álvarez Velasco, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, University of Illinois Chicago.
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About Borders & Belonging

Migration is a complex phenomenon – for individuals, it is a personal journey that can result in struggle or triumph depending on life circumstances; and for countries, it can be an economic driver, or a source of social tension or even conflict.Host Maggie Perzyna, a researcher with the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration program at Toronto Metropolitan University, explores the complexity of migration with the help of leading academics and professionals working with migrants on the ground.Season 4 of Borders & Belonging explores reflexivity: the practice of turning research back on itself to examine how we know what we know.This season draws on the lived experiences of pioneering scholars whose work has transformed how we understand human movement across borders. We then ask each scholar to nominate an up-and-coming scholar they admire, whose research builds on, challenges, or complements their own. Join us as we trace the threads connecting scholarship across time, experience, and perspective.For show notes and transcripts, visit: https://www.torontomu.ca/cerc-migration/borders-and-belonging/Signal Award wins in 2023, 2024, and 2025.

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