Dr Jennifer Allsopp

Dr Jennifer Allsopp

Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology
Birmingham Fellow

Contact details

Email
j.c.allsopp@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@JenniferAllsopp
Address
School of Social Policy
Muirhead Tower
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Jennifer’s research centres on how people move and mobilise to support what they perceive to be viable futures for themselves, their families and their societies in the context of migration. Her most recent work explores the relationship between immigration control, welfare and wellbeing, with a focus on gender, aging, and the politics of membership and belonging. She is passionate about comparative studies in international migration and the pursuit of innovative methodologies and is currently collaborating with colleagues across five continents to develop a new toolkit for ethical and effective migration research partnerships.

Jennifer is a regular advisor to the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties (LIBE) Committee on ethics, anti-smuggling and human rights and has contributed to multiple government inquiries into migration and the human rights of children and young people. Her current work looks at storytelling and survival, seeking to bridge her background in the social sciences and the humanities in a forthcoming monograph, Reading Dante with Refugees.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Social Policy, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, Green Templeton College October 2014 – December 2018). Pass with excellent comments, no corrections.  
  • MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (Distinction), University of Oxford, St Antony’s College October 2010 - July 2011 (Thesis title: ‘Contesting Fraternité: Vulnerable Migrants and the Politics of Protection in Contemporary France’. Supervisor: Professor Matthew Gibney.)
  • BA Hons in Modern Languages: French and Italian (First Class), University of Oxford, Wadham College October 2006 - June 2010 (Thesis title: Narratives of exclusion and inclusion: the ethics of hospitality in the novels of Maryse Condé)

Biography

Alongside being a Birmingham Fellow, Jennifer is a Senior Visiting Fellow with the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research, a Research Associate with the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford and a regular advisor to the European Parliament.

A keen advocate of collaborative working, Jennifer’s first book, Policing Humanitarianism: EU Anti-Smuggling Policies and their Impact on Civil Society (Hart, 2019) explores the nexus between the anti-smuggling policies of the European Union’s Home Affairs agencies and its Member States, and the policing and criminalization of humanitarian assistance to migrants and refugees. It reports on extensive fieldwork which she conducted in Hungary and Serbia, Italy, Greece, the UK and France between 2015 and 2018 at the height of the so-called European ‘refugee crisis’.

Jennifer’s second book, Youth Migration and the Politics of Wellbeing (Bristol University Press, 2020) is co-authored with Dr Elaine Chase. It is the product of a cutting-edge four-year participatory research project, Becoming Adult, which examined the wellbeing trajectories of over 100 unaccompanied young migrants and refugees in Europe.

Jennifer is currently working on two monographs: Men, Power and Borders will bring together a decade of research on the gendered nature of migration as a lived experience, in addition to exploring borders as sites of policing and control where gender identities are performed and contested. Her ethnography, Reading Dante with Refugees, meanwhile, is an ambitious and personal portrait of the politics of storytelling. 

Before joining Birmingham, Jennifer worked for two years at Harvard University as a Postdoctoral Fellow in International Migration and Coordinator the Immigration Initiative at Harvard (IIH) where she led the global Immigration Fellows program and policy research brief series. She also organized a global online conference which attracted a live audience of 700 early career scholars from across the five continents. Prior to this, Jennifer worked as a Research Fellow with the London International Development Centre Migration Leadership Team (LIDC-MLT) where she co-developed a participatory strategy for global migration research for the United Kingdom’s Economic and Social, and Arts and Humanities Research Councils. As part of this work, Jennifer co-convened migration conversations with a range of stakeholders in 12 locations around the world including in Delhi, Nairobi, Medellin, London, New York, Thessaloniki, Barcelona, Brussels, Beirut and Johannesburg.

Jennifer has previously worked for the United Nations; as a strategist with a range of non-for-profits; as a researcher at the Universities of Oxford, Exeter, Birmingham, Queen Mary and the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London); and as a consultant with the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). For six years, she worked as a commissioning editor for the human rights and social justice platform openDemocracy 50.50 where she reported on questions of gender equality, social justice and migration from around the world. 

Postgraduate supervision

Jennifer is currently interested in supervising PhD students interested in:

  • migration,
  • gender and ageing
  • the comparative politics and social policy of migration and asylum.

She is also keen to support students interested in new methodologies and ethical explorations, especially as they include the humanities and the arts alongside the social sciences. She is keen to work with internationally minded scholars. Her particular geographical specialisms include Europe, North and Central America and the Middle East.

Doctoral research

PhD title
Thesis title: ‘“Becoming Adult in Another Man’s Land”: Unaccompanied Young Migrant and Refugee Men Negotiating Pathways through Welfare, Asylum and Immigration Regimes’. Funded by the ESRC.  Supervisors: Professor Dawn Chatty (Refugee Studies Centre, Department of International Development, University of Oxford), Fran Bennett (Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford) and Dr Elaine Chase (Institute of Education, University College London) Assessors: Dr Liza Schuster (City University of London) and Professor Mary Daly (Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford).

Research

Gender, ageing and the life course, youth migration, asylum, home affairs policy and criminal law, anti-smuggling and anti-trafficking, politics, social policy, belonging, storytelling, creative and artistic methods, ethics, comparative research

Publications

Published Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Allsopp, J., Vosyliute, L. and Smialowski, S. (2021) ‘Picking 'Low-Hanging Fruit' While the Orchard Burns: The Costs of Policing Humanitarian Actors in Italy and Greece as a Strategy to Prevent Migrant Smuggling’, European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research

Allsopp, J. (2017) ‘Solidarity, Smuggling and the European Refugee Crisis: Civil Society and its Discontents’ Diritto, Immigrazione, Cittadinanza (Rights, Immigration, Citizenship) 3, 1-29.

Allsopp, J. and Chase, E. (2017) ‘Best interests, durable solutions and belonging: future prospects for unaccompanied migrant minors coming of age in Europe’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2017.1404265.

Allsopp, J., Chase, E. and Mitchell, M. (2015) ‘The tactics of time and status: Young people’s experiences of constructing futures while subject to immigration control’, Journal of Refugee Studies 28(2), 163-182.

Carrera, S.  Allsopp, J. and Vosyliūtė, L. (2018) ‘The Effects of Anti-Migrant Smuggling Policies on Humanitarian Assistance in the EU’. International Journal of Border and Migration Studies (IJBMS): 3(4), 236-276.

Gill, N., Allsopp, J., Buddrige, A., Fisher, D., Griffiths, M., Hambly, J., Hoellerer, N., Paszkiewicz, and Rotter, R. (2020) ‘What’s missing from legal geography and materialist studies of law? Absence and the assembling of asylum appeal hearings in Europe. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 45(4), 937-951.

Gill, N., Rotter, R., Burridge, A., Allsopp, J. (2018) ‘The limits of procedural discretion: Unequal treatment and vulnerability in Britain’s asylum appeals’, Social and Legal Studies 27(1), 49–78.

Gill, N., Rotter, R., Burridge, A., Allsopp, J. and Griffiths, M. (2016) ‘Linguistic Incomprehension in British Asylum Appeal Hearings’, Anthropology Today, 32(2), 18-21.

Gill, N., Rotter, R., Burridge, A., Griffiths, M., and Allsopp, J. (2015) ‘Inconsistency in asylum appeal adjudication’, Forced Migration Review 50, 52-54.

Published Books

Chase, E. and Allsopp, J. (2020) Youth Migration and the Politics of Wellbeing: Stories of Life in Transition. London: Bristol University Press.

Carrera, S., Mitsilegas V., Allsopp, J. and Vosyliūtė, L. (2018) Policing Humanitarianism: EU Policies Against Human Smuggling and their Impact on Civil Society. London: Hart.

Published Book Chapters

Allsopp, J. (2017) ‘Agent, Victim, Soldier, Son: Intersecting Masculinities in the European “Refugee Crisis”’. In Freedman, J., Kıvılcım, Z. and Özgür, N. (Eds) A Gendered Approach to the Syrian Refugee Crisis. London: Routledge, 155-175.

Allsopp, J. (2016) ‘The European Facilitation Directive and the Criminalisation of Humanitarian Assistance to Irregular Migrants: Measuring the Impact on the Whole Community’. In Carrera, S. and Guild, E. (Eds) Irregular Migration, Trafficking and Smuggling of Human Beings: Policy Dilemmas in the EU. CEPS: Brussels, 47-57.

Allsopp, J. and Manieri, M.G.  (2016) ‘The EU Anti-Smuggling Framework: Direct and Indirect Effects on the Provision of Humanitarian Assistance to Irregular Migrants’ in ibid., 81-93.

Gill, N., Allsopp, J., Burridge, A., Griffiths, M. Paszkiewicz, N. and Rotter, R. (2018) ‘Law, Presence and Refugee Claim Determination’. In Mitchell, K. Jones, R. and Fluri, J.(Eds) Handbook on Critical Geographies of Migration. Edward Elgar: London.

Carrera, S. and Allsopp, J. (2017) ‘The irregular immigration policy conundrum: problematizing “effectiveness” as a frame for EU criminalization and expulsion policies’. In Ripoll Servent, A. and Trauner, F. (Eds) Routledge Handbook of Justice and Home Affairs Research. London: Routledge, 70-82.

Reports, Working Papers and Arts-based Research Outputs

Allsopp, J. (2017) ‘Unaccompanied Minors and Secondary Migration between Italy and the UK’, Becoming Adult Research Brief no. 8, London: UCL.

Allsopp, J., Anzaldi, A., Cossa, E., Di Della, R.A., Fabbrini, L., Legal. Y, Paderni, L. and Vannini, S., (2016) Narrazioni da Museo a Museo: Trasformazioni Migrant tra MAXXI e Museo Pigorini, Rome: European Commission SWITCH Project/ MAXXI Modern Art Museum (art exhibition and book).

Allsopp, J. (2012) Contesting Fraternité: Vulnerable Migrants and the Politics of Protection in ContemporaryFrance, RSC Working Paper no. 82, Oxford: Refugee Studies Centre.

Allsopp, J. (2010) ‘Narratives of exclusion and inclusion: the ethics of hospitality in the novels of Maryse Condé’. Working Paper. Oxford.

Allsopp, J., Hammond, L., Datta, K. and Chase, E. (2018) ‘Bridging the “Evidence” Divide? Critical Reflections on Arts and Social Sciences Interventions in Global Migration Research’. Migration Leadership Team Report. London: London International Development Centre (LIDC).

Allsopp, J., Hammond, L., Datta, K. and Chase, E. (2018) ‘De-centering the “Global”: A South Asian Migration Research Agenda’. Migration Leadership Team Report. London: London International Development Centre (LIDC).

Allsopp, J., Hammond, L., Datta, K., Chase, E. and Brain, L. (2018) ‘From Border Crossings to Everyday Mobility: The State of Migration Research in the Horn of Africa’. Migration Leadership Team Report. London: London International Development Centre (LIDC).

Allsopp, J, Mai, N and Lala, M. (2017) ‘Hillbilly or Tupac? Gendered Cultural Conceptions of Albanian Youth Migration’, Becoming Adult Working Paper no. 3, London: UCL.

Carrera, S., Vosyliūtė, L., Allsopp, J. and Sanchez, G. (2019) Updated Study: Fit for purpose? The Facilitation Directive and the Criminalisation of Humanitarian Assistance to Irregular Migrants, Brussels: European Parliament (report).

Carrera, S., Guild, E., Aliverti, A., Allsopp, J., Giovanna Manieri, M., Levoy, M. (2016) Fit for purpose? The Facilitation Directive and the Criminalisation of Humanitarian Assistance to Irregular Migrants, Brussels: European Parliament (report).

Chantry, J., Birch, A., Allsopp, J. Mollett, G. and Calcutt, I. (2016) Together: A Retrospective of Art by Young Refugees, Leicester: New Walk Museum/Arts Council England (art exhibition and book).

Sigona, N., Allsopp, J., and Phillimore, J. (2014) Poverty, Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the UK: A Review of Evidence, iRiS Working Paper no. 1, Birmingham: Institute of Research into Superdiversity (iRiS).

Chase, E. and Allsopp J. (2013) ‘Future citizens of the world?’ The contested futures of independent young migrants in Europe, RSC Working Paper no. 97/Barnett Papers in Social Research 13.05, Oxford: Refugee Studies Centre.

Mitchell, M. and Allsopp, J. (2014) Captured: Stories of Everyday Life through Words and Image. London: Refugee Support Network (art exhibition and website: http://captured.so).

Tahiru, Y, di Francesco, A., Ndiaye, S., Hosseini, M. Allsopp, J (2017) Becoming Adult in Another Man’s Land. Rome: Piccola Orchestra di Tor Pignatarra (song and music video).

Expertise

Jennifer is trained to a high level of media engagement proficiency in person and via editorials and interviews. 

Languages and other information

  • French
  • Italian
  • Spanish
  • basic Arabic

Media experience

Jennifer’s work has been featured in publications including The Guardian, the Hindu Times, openDemocracy and The Conversation and on multiple programs for the BBC World Service, PBS, ABC and Al Jazeera.

Jennifer is the founder and host of the Immigration and Democracy podcast: https://immigrationinitiative.harvard.edu/podcast

Expertise

Jennifer is a regular advisor to the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties (LIBE) Committee on ethics, anti-smuggling and human rights and has contributed to multiple government inquiries into migration and the human rights of children and young people in the UK and Italy. 

Jennifer has also contributed to UN inquiries and is a Senior Visiting Fellow with the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research in New York. 

She was editor for the widely cited policy issue brief series issued by the Immigration Initiative at Harvard (IIH) between 2019 and 2021.