Michael Collyer addresses how immigration policy impacts the “hostile environment” in Morocco and Libya

30 January 2020 | Press release

This Thursday, January 30, the Director of Research at the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex, offers the conference “Hostile environments in the Mediterranean” in Barcelona.

A political geographer at the University of Sussex, Collyer will present the conclusions of his forthcoming book Hostile Environments at the IEMed this Thursday, January 30 (18:30).

The “hostile environment” policy, fostered by Theresa May from 2010 as UK Home Secretary, has become the dominant approach to migration control around the world. This is what Michael Collyer, Professor of Geography and Director of Research at the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex believes, who sees in immigration containment measures (borders, barriers, controls …) a double message: one physical and one that sends the message of “you are not welcome, we are not going to help you; stay where you are.”

Collyer researches the relationship between people on the move and state institutions and is a member of the UK Department for International Development’s External Reference Group on Migration.

He regularly collaborates in research of the International Organization for Migration or the United Nations Agency for Refugees, among other organizations.

His most recent book is Migration (with Michael Samers, 2017), while in 2020 he will publish Hostile Environments, the main conclusions of which he will present at the conference at the IEMed. The conference will be presented by Lorenzo Gabrielli, professor of the Master in Migration Studies (GRITIM-UPF), with which the IEMed co-organizes this conference of the Aula Mediterrània 2010-2020 cycle.