Migration

Small Boats Past

Rob Waters 23 January 202522 January 2025

Rob Waters traces the history of the image and rhetoric of the 'small boat' in British migration policy.

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Asylum Denial Beyond Borders

Niro Kandasamy 21 January 202521 January 2025

Niro Kandasamy exposes the entangled histories of asylum denial over time and space.

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The Siege of Sidney Street

Andrew Whitehead, Constance Bantman & Marybeth Hamilton 24 October 202423 October 2024

How did a 1911 East End police shootout affect the history of anarchism in London and beyond?

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Britain’s ‘Bespoke’ Borders

Michaela Benson 29 August 202428 August 2024

Michaela Benson unpacks the Hong Kong British National (Overseas) visa, and how it has contributed to redrawing humanitarian protection and migration policy after Brexit.

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Bonds of Mutuality in East Harlem

Brenna Moore & Carey Kasten 15 August 202413 August 2024

How have a small - and declining - group of nuns built grassroots power with immigrant families in East Harlem?

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Shark, Attack!

Costanza Bergo 16 July 202416 July 2024

Costanza Bergo explores Australia's history of settler colonialism and anti-refugee propaganda through the ocean's apex predator — the shark.

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On Direct Action

Megan McInerney & Thomas Jones 13 February 202412 February 2024

What does the accidental death of an anarchist in London in 1894 tell us about forgotten histories of direct action?

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Settler colonialism and the line of violence

Costanza Bergo 6 February 20248 August 2024

The border is one of the key technologies of settler-colonial necropolitical power. Constanza Bergo reflects on the violence of the Australian coastal border-line.

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Walking Against the Expulsive Environment

David Herd 2 November 20239 November 2023

The political landscape greeting refugees in the UK is no longer simply hostile - it is expulsive.

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No Recourse to Public Funds

Rosa Schling, Hannah Kemp-Welch & Imran Bukenya 19 October 202318 October 2023

What lessons might the past hold for migrants seeking childcare in the UK but having No Recourse to Public Funds?

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Class and the Partition of India

Sakshi Mavi 18 September 202312 August 2024

Sakshi Mavi explores how oral history helps us understand people's experience of the Partition of India.

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Remembering the Bangladesh War

Manas Ray 20 July 202318 July 2023

How did the youth uprising of the 1970 make itself felt in West Bengal? Manas Ray remembers.

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Travelling Ayahs and Amahs and the Long History of Care Work

Julia Laite 11 May 20239 June 2023

Ayahs and Amahs were empire's care-workers, raising the children of colonial families. Julia Laite on a new online exhibition that foregrounds their stories.

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The ‘Criminal’ People Smuggler and the Illegalisation of Refugee Flight

Ruth Balint & Julie Kalman 28 March 20233 April 2023

The UK Illegal Migration Bill is inhumane and ineffectual. Australia knows.

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Refugees

Ria Kapoor 4 January 202315 January 2024

This Virtual Special Issue curates History Workshop’s contribution to refugee studies - with a new introduction and 20 articles, free access for six months.

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International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

Sorcha Thomson & Akram Salhab 29 November 202219 January 2023

In 1977, the UN established the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. How was the struggle for national self-determination supported by global solidarity, anticolonial movements, and international institutions?

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Queerness and Atheism in Post-War Ireland

Charlie Lynch 11 July 20224 January 2023

What can the biography of William Mcllroy, a gay humanist from post-war Northern Ireland, tell us about the negotiation of non-conforming identities in the face of inflexible religious conservatism? Charlie Lynch investigates the…

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How Last Century’s “Servant Problem” Became Today’s “Labour Shortage”

Maia Silber 6 July 202229 October 2022

How do century-old debates about the "servant problem" reverberate through today's political struggles around migration, labour, exploitation, and race? Maia Silber explores.

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Freedom Seekers in Restoration London

Simon Newman 29 June 202213 January 2023

Newspaper advertisements for enslaved boys who escaped into early modern London reveal very little about the freedom seekers, and rather more about those who enslaved them. But what can we learn of Cuffee, who risked everything to escape in…

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Syrian Voices: A New Community Oral History, Archival and Documentary Film Project

Angela Flynn & Mehreen Saigol 11 April 202212 January 2023

In this piece, Angela Flynn and Mehreen Saigol explore how an oral history project with Syrian refugees can offer a path to a more inclusive society. Prioritising the voices of the Syrian diaspora in the UK, the Syrian Voices project…

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Ukraine: Histories and Boundaries of a Refugee Crisis

Jo Laycock 9 March 202229 October 2022

As its people flee Ukraine following Russia's invasion, Jo Laycock offers a historical framework through which to understand displacements from and in Ukraine. Can exploring longer trajectories of displacement help refugees make sense of…

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Moving Stories

Julia Laite 26 January 202219 January 2023

How can the stories of families illuminate the histories of migrations?

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Refugees: scrutiny and intrusion in the archive

Peter Gatrell 19 January 202229 October 2022

The modern asylum process imposes upon refugees a requirement to recount their experiences to officials to determine their eligibility. Peter Gatrell considers what is at stake in analysing the surviving archival record.

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A Small Place

Joe Moran 4 January 202229 October 2022

Joe Moran reflects on his trip to scatter his father's ashes on Scattery, a tiny island off west Clare, Ireland, and in the process explores its resonances for histories of family, migration, and the power of small places.

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Settler Histories and Sustainable Meats

Efrat Gilad 25 October 202120 January 2023

How did a desire for meat in a climate that did not support cattle rearing allow settlers to expand their reach? Efrat Gilad explores the history of meat consumption and the expanded meat trade as larger numbers of European Jews arrived in…

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Black British Histories

11 October 202114 January 2023

This new Virtual Special Issue of History Workshop Journal brings together over 30 years of research, to reflect on the meaning and significance of Black British history.

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Family History: The Next Generation?

Sophie Scott-Brown 20 September 202120 January 2023

Family history is in robust health, after years in the scholarly wilderness. Sophie Scott-Brown looks at new horizons for this rich seam of history, colliding private with public and biology with culture in provocative ways

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Afghan Civil Wars and the Location of a Nation

Elisabeth Leake 19 August 202129 October 2022

The stories of Afghans themselves are frequently overlooked in reporting on the country, reflecting a long history of Western engagement. Elisabeth Leake explores the past and future of Afghan nationhood and citizenship, forged by…

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Refugee Tales: Now and Then

Margaret Reynolds 11 August 202120 January 2023

What might be the links - real and metaphorical - between Anne Frank's story of exile and persecution and the work of C.S Lewis? Margaret Reynolds explores.

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Radical Objects: Irish Women Emigrants’ Letters

Beth Kitson 28 June 202129 October 2022

At the end of a long day of physical domestic work, Margaret Nagle, an Irish-born domestic servant living in 1860s […]

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Migration

What

Where

When

Series

Small Boats Past

Asylum Denial Beyond Borders

The Siege of Sidney Street

Britain’s ‘Bespoke’ Borders

Bonds of Mutuality in East Harlem

Shark, Attack!

On Direct Action

Settler colonialism and the line of violence

Walking Against the Expulsive Environment

No Recourse to Public Funds

Class and the Partition of India

Remembering the Bangladesh War

Travelling Ayahs and Amahs and the Long History of Care Work

The ‘Criminal’ People Smuggler and the Illegalisation of Refugee Flight

Refugees

International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

Queerness and Atheism in Post-War Ireland

How Last Century’s “Servant Problem” Became Today’s “Labour Shortage”

Freedom Seekers in Restoration London

Syrian Voices: A New Community Oral History, Archival and Documentary Film Project

Ukraine: Histories and Boundaries of a Refugee Crisis

Moving Stories

Refugees: scrutiny and intrusion in the archive

A Small Place

Settler Histories and Sustainable Meats

Black British Histories

Family History: The Next Generation?

Afghan Civil Wars and the Location of a Nation

Refugee Tales: Now and Then

Radical Objects: Irish Women Emigrants’ Letters