Borders, Belonging and Justice Panel

This timely MUP panel opens Refugee Week 2026 by confronting a central question of our moment: what does it mean to be a migrant in an increasingly closed, anxious and isolationist world?

Bringing together three leading scholars of migration, borders and justice, Michelle Pace (Un-welcome to Denmark), Mark Rainey (Restless Justice), and Jonathan Darling (Sanctuary Cities and Urban Struggles and Taking Back Control), the discussion will explore how European states, cities and communities are reshaping asylum, bordering practices and the politics of belonging.

At a time when political discourse is increasingly shaped by control, exclusion and retreat, the panel will explore how states are tightening asylum regimes and hardening borders, while migrants navigate systems that are not only complex but often deliberately unwelcoming. Beyond policy, the conversation centres the lived realities of displacement, uncertainty and resilience, asking how individuals endure, adapt and resist within these conditions.

Moving between national policy and urban life, the speakers will also explore the tensions within this landscape. Alongside rising restriction sits a countercurrent of solidarity, with cities, communities and grassroots movements attempting to reimagine belonging and support.

The conversation will be moderated by Dawn Chatty and Frowin Rausis (Oxford Refugee Studies Centre) and will explore:

The tightening of asylum regimes across Europe
The emotional, psychological and political consequences of “hostile” or “un-welcoming” policies
How law and policy shape, and limit, the possibility of protection and belonging
The lived realities of people navigating increasingly punitive systems
The role of cities, local actors and grassroots movements in offering alternative forms of welcome and support
What justice, responsibility and solidarity might look like in a more fragmented world