Race and Migration

We are living through a period of resurgent racism and xenophobia, driven by state and non-state actors, and causing significant, material harm to individuals and communities in the North East, the UK, and beyond. Understanding how this operates — at structural, institutional and individual levels, and how it can be challenged — has never been more important.

Yet migration is far more than a story of harm or crisis. The movement of people shapes economies, cultures, cities and communities, and raising questions about mobility, belonging, identity and connection — questions that reach across the full breadth of academic disciplines.

Building Hopeful Futures

The Race and Migration IDRT is an interdisciplinary research community at Northumbria University, bringing together scholars from across the social sciences, humanities, arts, applied sciences, health and beyond. The IDRT seeks to further enhance Northumbria's considerable and diverse strengths in scholarship related to race and migration, approached from a wide range of angles.

We are rooted in the North East — a region with rich, often-overlooked histories of migration and global connectivity — while understanding it as embedded in national and international networks.

Much of our work centres the voices and experiences of communities affected by racism, displacement, and inequality; other strands explore migration as a source of connection, opportunity and cultural exchange. Combining rigorous scholarship with policy engagement and community partnership, we pursue three overarching goals: to illuminate lived experiences of marginalisation, to develop practical solutions for equity and social justice, and to build hopeful futures where diversity is a strength.

Through participatory research, we work alongside communities as co-creators of knowledge, and collaborate with regional, national and international partners to make meaningful, impactful, lasting change.