Melanie Griffiths: Deportable Fathers and Families: The Long-Term Effects of Immigration Status Insecurity

Lecture Series: FORCED MIGRATION
21 October 2026, 4.15–5.45 pm

online

Prof. Dr Melanie Griffiths (University of Birmingham)
Deportable Fathers and Families: The Long-Term Effects of Immigration Status Insecurity [EN]

 

This lecture examines how insecure immigration status affects not only people who are directly subject to immigration controls, but also their partners, children and wider family relationships. Drawing on research with husbands and fathers facing deportation in the United Kingdom – including men who entered via the asylum system, irregular routes, family migration or other immigration pathways – the lecture explores how the threat of deportation and prolonged status insecurity reshape family dynamics over time.

It also considers the experiences of British partners and children who are not themselves formally subject to immigration controls, but whose everyday lives and futures are nevertheless deeply affected by them.

Melanie Griffiths is an Associate Professor in Human Geography at the University of Birmingham, UK. She has spent nearly 20 years researching a variety of immigration and asylum topics, including issues surrounding irregular migration, detention, deportation, and the bureaucratic and legal aspects of the immigration system

Host: Prof. Dr. Kira Kosnick (Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION) 

Registration details will follow shortly.

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FORCED MIGRATION – Lecture Series, Winter Semester 2026/2027

The lecture series is organised by the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION and brings together interdisciplinary perspectives on forced migration, borders, asylum and the reception of refugees. It examines how experiences of displacement are shaped by immigration and asylum regimes, legal insecurity, racialisation, gendered and intersectional inequalities, and changing infrastructures of border control and reception.

Combining theoretical debate with empirical research and perspectives from policy, activism and practice, the series addresses border externalisation and violence, differentiated forms of vulnerability and protection, refugee agency and collective action, and the everyday negotiation of institutional constraints. It also considers issues of local reception, participation and support, linking broader debates on European migration governance with experiences and practices in specific national and local contexts.