Borders & Belonging
Migration is a complex phenomenon – for individuals, it is a personal journey that can result in struggle or triumph depending on life circumstances; and for countries, it can be an economic driver, or a source of social tension or even conflict.
Host Maggie Perzyna, a researcher with the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration program at Toronto Metropolitan University, explores the complexity of migration with the help of leading academics and professionals working with migrants on the ground.
Season 4 of Borders & Belonging explores reflexivity: the practice of turning research back on itself to examine how we know what we know.
This season draws on the lived experiences of pioneering scholars whose work has transformed how we understand human movement across borders. We then ask each scholar to nominate an up-and-coming scholar they admire, whose research builds on, challenges, or complements their own. Join us as we trace the threads connecting scholarship across time, experience, and perspective.
For show notes and transcripts, visit: https://www.torontomu.ca/cerc-migration/borders-and-belonging/
Signal Award wins in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Borders & Belonging
Why is xenophobia so entrenched in South Africa?
In contrast to the late Desmond Tutu's hopeful aspirations for the "rainbow nation" and his efforts to champion human rights, post-apartheid South Africa has been marked by xenophobic violence, adding insecurities for both citizens and foreign nationals. In this episode, host Maggie Perzyna asks why xenophobia has become so entrenched across the political spectrum, and connects the dots between apartheid, economic development and the scapegoating that’s directed toward the state.
Guests: Silindile Mlilo, PhD research fellow and Project Manager at Xenowatch, African Center for Migration and Society, University of Witwatersrand; Trevor Ngwane, Director of the Center for Sociological Research and Practice, University of Johannesburg; and Loren Landau, Professor, University of Oxford and University of Witwatersrand, African Center for Migration and Society.
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🌎 Have a question or episode idea? Email bordersandbelonging@gmail.com.
