Please join us for the University of Manchester Sociology Annual Lecture 2026, followed by a drinks reception.
About the lecture
The University of Manchester Sociology Annual Lecture brings a distinguished guest lecturer to Manchester to share their research. This year we are pleased to welcome Professor Bridget Anderson (University of Bristol).
The lecture will take place in the John Casken Lecture Theatre in the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama, and will be followed by a drinks reception starting at 5pm in the foyer of the Humanities Bridgeford Street Building: all attendees are welcome at the reception.
Abstract
Across many countries of the world we are experiencing polarization and division in our politics with migration as a flashpoint. Migrants are represented as competitors with citizens for the privileges of membership. In this context, citizenship is a fantasy, offering access to rights and equality, whereas the reality is banal, with many citizens finding themselves trapped in poor work or low benefits and subject to discriminatory treatment. In this presentation I will argue that recognising the banality of citizenship can help to reframe debates on migration. I will begin by asking who counts as a ‘migrant’, showing how political this seemingly neutral category is. I will claim that that public understandings of the migrant as poor and negatively racialised are a reflection of the logics of immigration regimes and that to understand why this has such purchase we need to attend to the glamour of the nation as well as the bureaucracy of the state. I will then consider how rights become visible because they are denied to migrants taking as an example the ‘right to work’ and consider what this tells us about ‘banal citizenship’. I will argue that migration is a lens through which we can better understand socio-economic relations that shape migrants’ and citizens’ experiences alike, and thinking migrants and citizens together, recognising differences, but not assuming them can help us move away from positioning the migrant and citizen as competitors for the privileges of membership and from the corrosion of mistaking deservingness as a measure for justice.
About the speaker
Bridget Anderson is the Director of Migration Mobilities Bristol and Professor of Migration, Mobilities and Citizenship at the University of Bristol. She is interested in the relation between migration, race, and nation, historically and in the contemporary world. She takes as her starting point that the 'migrant' and the 'citizen' and the differences between them are constructed in law and in social and political practice. She is particularly interested in how immigration laws make particular kinds of employment relationships and her current research includes the EU funded project PRIME – Protecting Irregular Migrants in Europe. Her recent edited volume Rethinking Migration: Challenging Borders, Citizenship, Race is published by Bristol University Press and is open access.
Queries
For any queries about the event, please contact sociologydepartmentuom@outlook.com. We hope to see you there!
Getting here
Please see our Maps and Travel page for directions to both the Martin Harris Centre and the Humanities Bridgeford Street building (although if you don't know where this is you can follow the crowd from the lecture theatre!).
See AccessAble for accessibility information for both buildings.
