Dr Nando Sigona

Birmingham Fellow

School of Social Policy

Contact details

Telephone +44(0)121 415 8030

Email n.sigona@bham.ac.uk

School of Social Policy
Room 927, Muirhead Tower
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham, UK
B15 2TT

About

Nando Sigona is a sociologist with over ten years research and teaching experience in migration, refugee and ethnic studies. He joined the School of Social Policy in February 2013 as a Birmingham Fellow. Dr Sigona’s work investigates the interplay between forms and modes of contemporary membership, migration governance (both immigration and emigration), and the politics of belonging. This will be achieved through in-depth examinations of a range of experiences of membership including, but not limited to, those of: ethnic minorities; citizen children of undocumented migrant parents; former unaccompanied asylum seeking children; people with dual citizenship; ‘failed’ asylum seekers; and stateless people.

Nando is one of the founding editors of Migration Studies, a new refereed journal by Oxford University Press due to start publication in Spring 2013. He maintains a personal blog - Postcards from..., contributes for magazines, newspapers and blogs, and is active on social media.

Follow Nando on Twitter @nandosigona

Qualifications

  • PhD in Sociology, Oxford Brookes University
  • BSc in Politics (Hons), University of Naples L’Orientale, Italy

Biography

Before joining the School of Social Policy as a Birmingham Fellow in February 2013, Nando was Senior Research Officer at the Refugee Studies Centre and Senior Researcher the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford.

Nando has a background in Politics, Sociology and Social Anthropology. He has taught on the MSc in Migration Studies and the MSc in Forced Migration and Refugee Studies at the University of Oxford and in October 2012 was awarded the University of Oxford’s Teaching Excellence Award for ‘outstanding contribution to the MSc in Migration Studies’. Previously, he taught sociology of diversity, migration and forced migration at Oxford Brookes University and City University London.

His research sets to explore the impact of globalisation, migration and human rights regime on meanings and practices of citizenship and non-citizenship in countries affected by significant population movements. His research interests include: statelessness, diasporas and the state; Romani politics and anti-Gypsyism; ‘illegality’ and the everyday experiences of undocumented migrant children and young people; and governance and governmentality of forced migration in the EU.

His work has appeared in a range of peer reviewed journals, including Sociology, Social Anthropology, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and Ethnic and Racial Studies. He is author or editor of books and journal’s special issues including Romani politics in contemporary Europe: poverty, ethnic mobilisation and the neoliberal order (with Nidhi Trehan, Palgrave, 2009), Refugee Community Organisations and Dispersal: Networks, Resources and Social Capital (with David Griffiths and Roger Zetter, Policy Press, 2005), The Roma in the new EU: Polices, Frames and Everyday Experiences (with Peter Vermeersch, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2012), and Rifugio Europa? (Studi Emigrazione, 2006).

Nando is also one of the founding editors of Migration Studies, a new refereed journal by Oxford University Press due to start publication in Spring 2013.

Dr Sigona speaking at TEDxEastEnd, London, October 2012

Postgraduate supervision

Nando welcomes proposals for doctoral and post-doctoral research in the following areas: 

  • The intersection between migration, rights and citizenship 
  • Everyday experiences of superdiversity
  • Neoliberalism, globalisation and governance of human mobility
  • The impact of superdiversity on public services
  • The politics of refugee voices and silences
  • Romani politics and anti-Gypsyism 
  • Emerging policy and practice on statelessness
  • Undocumented migration and experiences of mobilisation among undocumented migrants
  • Child and family migration 
  • Dual citizenship and the experiences of dual citizens
  • Transnationalism and diasporas
  • Policy and practice of migrant integration and ideas of membership in the EU

Research

  • In protracted limbo: A comparative study of the transitions to adulthood and life trajectories of former unaccompanied children in Europe. In collaboration with the Oxford Institute of Social Policy, University of Oxford 
  • Stateless diasporas and immigration and citizenship regimes in Europe. Lead researcher, part of the Leverhulme-funded Oxford Diasporas Programme, University of Oxford
  • Undocumented migrant children and families in the UK. Completed in 2012 and funded by the Barrow Cadbury Trust.

Other activities

  • Associate Editor, Migration Studies, Oxford University Press 
  • Editorial board member, ‘Anthropology’ series, SEID Editore, Italy
  • Editorial board member, ‘Migration’ series, CISU, Italy
  • Member, British Sociological Association
  • Research Associate, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford
  • Research Associate, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford 
  • Research Associate, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford
  • Member of the European Academic Network in Romani Studies, European Commission and Council of Europe
  • Member of the Steering Committee of UrbaRom, academic network on public policy, localities and the Roma

Publications

Books

Sigona, N. and Trehan, N. (eds) (2009) Romani politics in Europe: Poverty, Ethnic Marginalisation and the Neoliberal Order, Palgrave.

Griffiths, D., Sigona, N. and Zetter, R. (2005) Refugee Community Organisations and Dispersal: Networks, Resources and Social Capital, Bristol, Policy Press.

Journal editorship

Sigona, N. and Vermeersch, P. (eds) (2012) Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, special issue on ‘The Roma in the new EU: polices, frames and everyday experiences’, 38 (8).

Clough Marinaro, I. and Sigona, N. (eds) (2011) Journal of Modern Italian Studies, special issue on ‘Anti-Gypsyism and the politics of exclusion: Roma and Sinti in contemporary Italy’, 16 (5).

Journal articles

Sigona, N. (2012) ‘In between competing imagineries of statehood: Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians leadership in newly independent Kosovo‘, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 38 (8).

Sigona, N. (2012) ‘Globalisation, rights and the non-citizen‘, Sociology, 46 (5): 982-988

Sigona, N. (2012) ”I’ve too much baggage’: the impact of legal status on the social worlds of irregular migrants’, Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, 20 (1): 50-65

Sigona, N. (2011) ‘The governance of Romani people in Italy: discourse, policy and practice’, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 16 (5): 590-616.

Sigona, N. (2011) ‘L’Union européenne et les Roms: pauvreté, haine anti-Tziganes et gouvernance de la mobilité’, Cultures et Conflits, 81-82: 213-222.

Bloch, A., Sigona, N. and Zetter, R. (2011) ‘Migration routes and strategies of young undocumented migrants in England: a qualitative perspective’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, First published: 22 March 2011

Research monographs and other research-based outputs

Sigona, N. and Hughes, V. (2012) No way out, no way in: Irregular migrant children and families in the UK, Oxford: COMPAS.

Bloch, A., Sigona, N. and Zetter, R. (2009) ‘No right to dream’: the social and economic lives of young undocumented migrants in Britain, London: Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

View Blog 'Postcards from...' for a full list of publications

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