Borderline

"Ukraine has provided us with, I think, the most striking, the most rapid, the most swift and complete legal offensive or lawfare strategy that has ever been implemented."In this episode

A decade ago, journalist and "American without papers" Jose Antonio Vargas outed himself as an undocumented immigrant in a national magazine. Today he works with Hollywood and TV studios to humanise the immigrant story through pop culture. In this episode

It starts with unauthorised migrants and doesn't end there. Filmmaker Sonita Gale follows professionals, students and British citizens whose lives were upended by the UK's immigration system.Sonita Gale is the director and executive producer of Hostile, a documentary film about the UK hostile environment, now in cinemas.  Show notes[00:00:09] Intro[00:03:54] "The home of my parents is the home of the migrant story."[00:07:29] "A film about the migrant struggle"[00:13:08] "Different experiences, all interlinked by the hostile environment"[00:16:27] "People will start having more empathy, love and understanding"[00:21:04] "Where have you been the last 20 years?"[00:28:30] “I started to question whether that hostile environment is going to turn on me”[00:32:10] Where to see the film[00:33:21] Outro

An emergency podcast with immigration lawyer and founder of freemovement.org Colin Yeo on the British government's bare minimum help to Ukrainian refugees, the gap between pronouncements and practice, and how Europe's own programme is putting Britain to shame. Plus:- the Nationality and Borders bill under scrutiny, - non-white refugees discriminated at the border, - lessons from last summer's Afghanistan promises, and - can we trust the EU long-term on this? Show notes[00:00:10] Intro[00:00:42] "Half a million people have fled"[00:03:10] "The UK has done almost nothing"[00:11:01] "The government's been very consistent in being anti-refugee"[00:12:59] "The asylum system is in a really sorry state"[00:15:08] The Nationality and Borders bill[00:18:21] Europe's response is a sharp contrast[00:20:52] International students and other non-white refugees stopped at borders[00:24:53] How you can help[00:26:47] OutroColin Yeo is an immigration lawyer, the founder of freemovement.org and author of Welcome to Britain. Follow him on Twitter at @ColinYeo1.Evacuees from Ukraine seeking free immigration advice or lawyers who want to help can find information and contacts at https://advice-ukraine.co.uk.★ Support this podcast ★

Show notes[00:00:20] Intro[00:03:22] "A large number of first-generation people"[00:04:54] "Fufu is a far superior lunch"[00:09:09] "It's three identities I'm juggling"[00:11:43] “The tension between the collectivist culture of most of the world and this very individualistic American culture”[00:13:54] "People raised in that context approach the world with a different eye"[00:16:23] "If I was not (multicultural) and I was saying the same things, it would be received much differently"[00:18:27] "You can't be an expert of your own experience"[00:22:05] "The people in charge are worried about everyone else's biases when the core problem is their own"[00:26:04] "The Great Resignation? I was way ahead of that curve"[00:31:08] "This value of humility that I was raised with is outdated"[00:39:42] OutroFollow Michael Rain on Instagram and on TwitterWatch Michael's TED talkPhoto by Pamela Chen★ Support this podcast ★

Sure, burnout is not *just* about overwork. But it *is* about overwork.

Read the essay and find all links at www.isabelleroughol.com.When New York Times media columnist Ben Smith and Bloomberg CEO Justin Smith quit to start “a new kind of global news media company,” many of us sniggered at the thought that two middle-aged white American men with literally the same last name could be the ones to bring together all of the world's news consumers. The Smiths may not be the ones to do it. But can anyone create a truly global news source? And most vitally, would there be an audience for it?I've spent my whole career expanding news brands across borders and trying to address audiences as more than just inhabitants of a single nation-state. And I've come to this conclusion: We don't need a global media, we need a globally literate one.★ Support this podcast ★

In 2012, then Home Secretary Theresa May announced the plan: "The aim is to create, here in Britain, a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants." The idea, borrowed from counterterrorism, was to make life so difficult for unwanted visitors that they would give up and go home. Instead, the hostile environment became a policy of systemic discrimination against all immigrants, authorised or not, their British families and any person that could be mistaken for an immigrant. And rather than leaving, many were pushed into illegality by changing rules, long waits and exorbitant fees. Colin Yeo, immigration lawyer, author of Welcome to Britain and founder of freemovement.org, explains how the policy came about and what it's meant for Britons, wannabe Britons and the country's own future. ★ Support this podcast ★

A conversation with anthropologist and National Geographic explorer Wade Davis about the unraveling of America. The full-length and unedited interview from September 2020.★ Support this podcast ★

Susan J Cohen is an American immigration lawyer who has seen the last few decades of US immigration policy. She talks about the situation Joe Biden has inherited, after Donald Trump changed more than 400 immigration laws, rules and processes; why a record number of arrests has been made at the US Southern border; what is happening in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala or Haiti that is making people move north; and what the impact of the Trump presidency has been on immigrants, lawyers and activists.  Cohen is the founding partner of the immigration law practice at Boston firm Mintz, an author and a songwriter. In 2017 she was part of a small band of legal minds who fought the so-called "Muslim ban" in court and won a short-lived victory.

Crossing the Channel without preauthorisation is legal, the vast majority of people crossing are rightful asylum seekers and there is no such thing as the "first safe country" rule. Also, there is no queue to wait in or to jump, most people aren't trafficked or smuggled, and only a trickle of the world's refugees arrive in rich countries. Refugee rights consultant Daniel Sohege breaks down the false arguments about asylum seekers making the rounds in media and on Twitter. Show notes[00:00:22] Intro[00:03:05] Is this a migrant crisis?[00:06:01] Channel crossings are for many the only option. Still, very few take it.[00:07:25] There just isn't a queue to jump to apply for asylum[00:09:43] "First safe country" is a myth[00:11:55] Arriving by boat without pre-authorisation is not illegal[00:12:46] Most border crossings are not arranged by smugglers[00:16:14] Hard border controls can feed smuggling and trafficking businesses[00:19:47] Airlines and other carriers can be fined for unknowingly helping people carry out their legal right to seek asylum[00:21:35] 98% of those people who cross the Channel seek asylum[00:26:22] How French police harasses asylum seekers[00:27:57] What do we prioritise: the border or human life?[00:31:10] There are better ways to spend our countries' money than on draconian border controls[00:33:08] What a better refugee system could look like[00:36:11] Rich nations are not taking their fair share[00:41:43] Outro

Immigration isn't a one-way ticket. For many, the homeland calls back. From the Basque region to Israel, Jamaica to Taiwan, Kamal al-Solaylee talks to those who've chosen to make their way home as he plans his own return. Will reality match the fantasy? Why is the call of home so powerful? And what if you're still a foreigner there? Show notes[00:00:30] Intro[00:01:29] Migration isn't just a one-way ticket[00:05:27] Ghana's Year of Return[00:07:25] Return is big business, politics and emotion all mixed up[00:09:08] Can reality match the fantasy?[00:13:44] Return is not a failure of the immigration journey[00:16:54] The irrational call of the homeland[00:18:48] The pain of feeling like a foreigner at home[00:23:00] The exploitation of nostalgia[00:25:07] Return can feed or soften the edges of nationalism[00:29:14] Whose return is actually wanted?[00:31:12] Deportees, the unwanted returnees[00:35:02] Kamal's own return plans

Climate change and economic inequality are pushing people of the Global South to move north. Countries in the North are depopulating, losing their workforce and their tax base. It shouldn't be that hard to put two and two together and create migration policies that benefit all of humanity. So why won't we?

How World War II is a British psychosis. Why we don't talk about empire. French universalism vs. British multiculturalism. How the nation state was made up. And a geopolitical utopia out of Star Trek. A freewheeling conversation with author and journalist Jonn Elledge.

Who are you when no nation claims you? Millions of stateless people navigate daily life and personal identity unrecognised by any country. They are the literal citizens of nowhere.Show notes[00:00:00] Intro [00:01:42] What is statelessness?[00:04:51] Born in Germany but not German[00:09:48] Turned around at the airport[00:13:31] Creating a source of truth for stateless people[00:15:24] How one falls through the nationality cracks...[00:22:07] Ad[00:23:00] ... and other ways of becoming stateless[00:26:06] Belonging and self-worth without a national identity[00:32:04] Is citizenship owed or earned?[00:35:34] How "passported" people can help[00:41:14] Outro

Will Buckingham gave me my new favourite word. He's a philosopher so it's only right the word should be Greek. Philoxenia is the word. Love of the foreign. It's that sense of curiosity, desire to connect and good will that make us seek out those we don't know and invite them to share our hearth. It's the cat that runs up to a house guest to smell his hand and rub against new legs. But we fear the stranger too as much as we wish for him. The cat hisses, scratches and hides under the sofa. You know that word – xenophobia. Will Buckingham explores what the stranger means to us and why philoxenia is worth cultivating. In this episode: 

When she was 7, Qian Julie Wang – just Qian Wang then – landed at JFK airport in New York City. Her airsick mother leaned on her for support. Her father, whom she hadn't seen in two years, had skimped on food to afford the cab driving them from the airport. Thus started her life as an undocumented child in America. Show notes00:00 Intro02:32 "A privilege, power and responsibility to share my secret"06:13 "What it means to be a writer"07:56 "At bottom we're all not really that different"09:49 "The before and after of my childhood and my life"13:10 "We had to be everything for each other"15:22 "It was my job to keep us from being noticed"17:44 "Salvation and refuge in books"18:39 "Split between the two worlds"20:48 Membership ad22:19 "Public school in Chinatown"27:49 "I went to school hungry every day"31:18 "Everything I thought was wrong with me was simply a part of being human"34:10 "There's nothing we are afraid of now"39:01 Outro

Ariane Bernard founded Helio in 2020. Her startup has never known a world where you could network in person, meet clients and investors easily or work from a common space with your employees. How do you lead a team you've never seen? And in a multinational startup, how do you work past cultural barriers and incomprehensions when you can't look your coworkers in the eye? She had to find out the hard way. Highlights- "A lot of good team culture is safety, ultimately. You want a culture whose first achievement is the ability to say the words "I don't understand. I don't agree. I propose that we do X. Has anyone thought about Y?" If all team members, whether they are the most junior all the way to your executive team, equally feel like they have access to these words without risking something, then you have the making of solving for many other problems."- "Everything that helps you understand whether people are connecting with a particular goal, everything that helps you understand whether people understand, everything counts because the distance does not help us."- "The uncertainty is, what am I not getting and what is this company not getting if we are not as fully present and as fully engaged as we could be?"- "The complexity of the distributed team is compounded by our cultural differences." - "I don't have a problem going to an American and being like, "turn on your camera, what the hell!" Because the worst thing that happens is that they'll be like, "no, and here's why." But when you're working with folks who come from cultures that you only know in a much more superficial way, those are exactly the things that become like, what am I actually asking them? It feels like I'm just asking them to turn on the camera. It can't be that much. But I don't actually know this. I don't know what this stands for." Show notes[00:00:00] Intro[00:03:14] Making the jump from intrapreneur to entrepreneur[00:06:57] Anchoring a new company culture without an office[00:10:12] Zoom cameras on, please[00:14:07] Take every opportunity to reduce uncertainty[00:15:52] When physical and culture distance combine[00:19:43] Do we still need culture?[00:25:54] "Do as I say" vs just one man's opinion[00:27:51] The Culture Map by Erin Meyer[00:29:31] Good culture is psychological safety[00:36:03] Resting bitch face and the curse of the screen [00:37:39] The benefits of hiring worldwide[00:41:29] If you had a choice... centralised or distributed? [00:44:32] Outro

Travelers from 33 countries – nearly half the planet – were long barred from entry into the United States for pandemic reasons. They'll be allowed in again from early November as long as they can prove they are fully vaccinated and provide a negative Covid-19 test. People who do not have access to the vaccine, however, can add one more item to the list of reasons why they may never set foot in the world's richest country. Journalist Anna Lekas Miller discusses how the United States' pandemic travel restrictions fit into the larger historical and political picture of American borders, from white supremacy to Biden's policies.Show notes00:00 Intro01:47 How US travel restrictions are changing05:53 Vaccination status will increasingly condition travel11:22 Has the pandemic opened privileged immigrants' eyes? 16:47 White supremacy was enshrined in immigration law21:01 Immigration enforcement targets racialized people23:13 Membership ad25:08 Has the Biden administration fundamentally changed the tone?29:49 Kamala Harris's message to Latin America32:44 Looking ahead34:59 Outro

It's got the Big Brother and Newspeak of 1984, the predictive policing of Minority Report, the monitoring and neighbourly delation of the Stasi and the cultural erasure of the Khmer Rouge. And concentration camps. In Xinjiang, the Chinese Communist Party may well have created the perfect police state. Journalist Geoffrey Cain investigates the Uyghur genocide and reveals what happens in the real world when you combine totalitarian ideology with artificial intelligence.Show notes00:17 Intro02:26 A day in the life of a Uyghur woman07:28 Every totalitarian dystopia wrapped into one10:16 A 21st-century genocide12:32 The technology doesn't even need to be that good15:48 Why China went after the Uyghurs18:06 Membership ad19:47 How the return of the Taliban might impact the Uyghurs21:45 Dystopia in the dark24:34 How China exports its surveillance27:51 How Western corporations and economies got trapped30:44 The New Cold War32:46 The death of techno utopianism35:23 First let's fix the financial system 38:35 Outro

Movement is core to the human experience and to the emancipation of ambitious young people all over the world. Leaving home – really leaving – is the final step of one's education, says Felix Marquardt, author of The New Nomads. But globetrotters must leave another place – La La Land, the magical world where their privilege isolates them from the world as it really is for most of humanity. And just as important as the moment we leave, is the moment we come home. For the first episode of the new season, a wide-ranging conversation about belonging, climate, addiction, the lessons of indigenous cultures and why we've been thinking about nomadism all wrong, with author and recovering "global schmoozer" Felix Marquardt. 00:15 Intro02:07 Meet Felix Marquardt 03:37 Who are the New Nomads?06:12 The two most important moments in one's life08:37 The limits of digital nomadism12:22 We've been thinking about nomadism all wrong16:39 What indigenous cultures can teach us 18:41 (Ad) The genesis of Borderline 20:57 A civilization of addicts27:13 How we resist despair30:27 Leaving La La Land38:51 Outro

Tips from a digital nomad and a global team manager on how to work from anywhere successfully. (Audio from a LinkedIn livestream on 7 July 2021)See it on LinkedIn. See it on Youtube.★ Support this podcast ★

Refugees are modern Scheherazades. They trade their story for another chance at life. The sultan is an indifferent asylum officer behind her desk, a well-meaning charity worker or a hostile native citizen. But so much truth goes untold. The exhausting expectations of gratitude, the long wait that douses your inner fire, the battle for dignity and the big impact of small acts… Iranian American novelist Dina Nayeri lifts the veil in The Ungrateful Refugee, her first memoir, weaving her personal story with reporting in Greek refugee camps. 02:18 Why she made the move from fiction to nonfiction05:07 How the refugee experience has changed from the 80s07:30 A culture of disbelief in immigration offices09:54 When refugees become storytellers to security guards14:18 How culture changes storytelling17:21 What you lose when you wait21:51 How womanhood and refuge interplay24:19 Why do we make a difference between political refugees and economic migrants?26:46 Stop asking what refugees can do for us28:45 Why dignity matters31:21 What are we entitled to as human beings? Why aren't others?33:16 Rawls' original position and American exceptionalism36:54 The US president changed, not the system38:53 What individuals can do to help40:19 Gratitude is private44:09 Political engagement is assimilation46:17 Outro

Through dogged reporting in The Guardian, Amelia Gentleman showed that British residents and citizens who had arrived from the Caribbean in the 1950s and 60s had been mistakenly classified as unauthorized immigrants. That came to be known as the Windrush Scandal. Three years on, I caught up with Amelia Gentleman ahead of Windrush Day to talk about its aging victims, the compensation scheme and the Home Office's promises of reform. And in the waning days of the EU settlement scheme, we ask: Just as the Windrush generation was caught out by the end of free movement in the empire, could the Brexit generation be Britain's next immigration scandal? 00:23 Intro02:42 Amelia Gentleman's career story04:20 The Windrush scandal: a primer08:14 Malice, incompetence or both?10:49 People screaming into the void14:42 When austerity and the hostile environment meet17:31 Individual cases were solved, but systemic issues ignored19:51 How these stories became "The Windrush Scandal"25:29 Has the compensation scheme held its promises?29:08 Could the EU Settlement Scheme be the next Windrush scandal?35:53 How do you relate to a country that has turned its back on you?44:07 Outro

How can one institution be so universally criticized, not just by the immigrants and citizens who at one point or another must use its services, but by all those who encounter it, whether lawyers, judges, activists, journalists, or even those who work there. Daniel Trilling, a journalist who has been covering immigration for a decade, spent six months investigating for The Guardian the organizational culture and history of the Home Office to answer this simple question: wtf is going on there? He talked to me about what he found. Sources & further reading

Kids who grow up between cultures develop invaluable skills. But having to figure out one's cultural identity, on top of the usual teenage challenges, can make adolescence even harder. Mental health, belonging, conflict, rites of passage… A pediatrician who specializes in multicultural teenagers helps parents navigate a challenging decade. 00:32 Intro02:26 What is a teenager?07:00 Inside the teenage brain09:38 Global living makes adolescence trickier11:24 The importance of telling your story14:08 The mental health challenges of global teens20:47 Conflict resolution, prolonged adolescence and grief in global teens26:31 Screamers, mirrors and wallflowers28:44 The adults global teens become32:35 Outro

If globalists want to build a more united world, they need to look at how nation-states did it – at a smaller scale – in the last couple centuries, says Hassan Damluji, author of The Responsible Globalist. It's a 100-year project, but one we can start now with concrete steps, he adds. Note: this episode is a rerun of a June 2020 interview, in a new edit. 00:00 Introduction01:42 How the nation brought people together04:48 Nationalism vs. patriotism vs. globalism08:45 How to create a global sense of belonging15:32 Why we might want to stop talking about immigration18:40 The rise of a global culture24:11 Let's start with fixing the global tax system…28:34... and then the United Nations33:57 Outro★ Support this podcast ★

Venture capitalist Chris Schroeder travels the world to invest in emerging markets. To the entrepreneurs he meets, Silicon Valley is just one of many models, China is everywhere and South-to-South exchanges are constant. To succeed in this distributed world takes humility, agility and a certain comfort with the uncomfortable. Show notes00:00 Intro01:33 Can you travel over Zoom?03:11 What's been on global entrepreneurs' minds?05:51 How technology unleashed talent08:01 Silicon Valley isn't exactly irrelevant, just less central10:23 Why it made sense for so long for Silicon Valley to be ethnocentric15:24 You have to find wonder in being wrong18:41 America is back. But back to what?26:48 A return to sovereign industries, or the balkanization of the economy?32:09 Capitalism, democracy and the mind models we can't let go of39:32 The skills required to succeed in this world45:03 OutroSubscribe to Chris's newsletter on Substack. Follow him on LinkedIn

The border isn't a line on the periphery of the country, says Leah Cowan, author of Border Nation. It is a fog that covers all of society and can descend upon you at any time if you're an immigrant or racialized as “other.” It wasn't always thus and it can be ended, she insists. 00:43 Intro02:06 What are borders for?04:12 Borders, capitalism and racism08:41 Did borders ever truly disappear?10:15 The border isn't on the periphery, it's everywhere13:07 Immigration enforcement is invisible to the rest of society19:25 How the border breeds crime and violence23:38 Do borders do any good?24:43 Immigrants don't owe you a thing29:11 The case for abolishing borders34:20 "The pandemic is a portal"36:14 Outro

More than half of Covid-19 vaccines administered so far have been in high-income countries, which account for just 15% of the world population. Four out of five doses are purchased outside COVAX, the UN-backed procurement scheme that had attempted to set up fair and equal access for all countries. The most successful vaccination campaigns, in the US, UK and Israel, were unabashed us-first operations. Has vaccine nationalism definitely won? I caught up with Tania Cernuschi, team lead for global access in the World Health Organization's vaccine department, to understand how things got so unequal and whether there's hope to change that. Show notes00:27 Intro02:36 The state of the worldwide vaccination campaign 05:57 Why can poorer countries not access the vaccine?09:22 Should rich countries be vaccinating their young people right now?16:04 Should vaccines be made a public good?19:55 When will enough of the world have been vaccinated?23:27 A note on the AstraZeneca vaccine24:17 What we should learn for the next crisis26:06 OutroSources & creditsHere's just how unequal the global coronavirus vaccine rollout has been, The Washington Post (with helpful interactive data visualization)India is a warning, The Atlantic (26 April 2021)'Vaccine prince': the Indian billionaire set to make Covid jabs for the UK, The Guardian (27 March 2021)Why the UK doesn't need a coronavirus vaccine export ban, Politico (20 March 2021)Joe Biden hints U.S. could share more unused AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, The Globe and Mail (21 April 2021)American export controls threaten to hinder global vaccine production, The Economist (22 April 2021)★ Support this podcast ★

Nationalist or globalist? It may come down to psychological health.Strong attachment to group identity is born out of insecurity, explains psychologist Dr Steve Taylor. Psychologically healthy people feel connected to all humans and are able to think beyond borders. Could we lessen nationalistic stife by promoting psychological health? Show notes00:29 Intro03:17 Are humans naturally tribal? 05:04 When humans developed individualism08:55 "Psychologically healthy people are not nationalistic"10:42 The theory of terror management12:07 Post-traumatic transformation and identity15:18 Could we attenuate nationalistic conflict by encouraging psychological safety?17:49 Transnationalism should include more than the human species19:56 Did the pandemic divide or bind communities?22:36 Machiavels and narcissists in power 24:53 What psychologically healthy leadership looks like28:35 Building institutions that encourage good leadership30:52 OutroWhat if the world was one country? A psychologist on why we need to think beyond borders. Steve Taylor for The Conversation, January 2021How to stop psychopaths and narcissists from winning positions of power. Steve Taylor for The Conversation, April 2021Earthrise: The 45th anniversary. Video by NASA.Why ‘Mom' and ‘Dad' Sound So Similar in So Many Languages. John McWhorter for The Atlantic, October 2015★ Support this podcast ★

The UK is reopening, but not transnational families. Visiting friends or relatives abroad is the second most frequent reason for foreign travel. It's about one in four trips out of the UK, twice the volume of business travel. Travel restrictions have reduced these trips to a trickle. For millions who love across borders, spending time together has been impossible for most of the past year. Even illegal. Yet, media coverage of travel restrictions has had a near pathological focus on foreign holidays. This week, we hear the voices of those who wait, still, to reunite. With Arietta Deick, Mary Wooldridge Eligu, Jane Copland and Marion Specker

Asad and Marian's family fled conflict in Somalia and found refuge in eastern Kenya, one of the world's largest refugee camps. That was in 1991. Three decades later, the family still hasn't been allowed to build a permanent home together anywhere. Their story, like a novel you couldn't make up, is that of the broken refugee resettlement system and of responsibilities no one wants to take. American journalist Ty McCormick tells it. ★ Support this podcast ★

Globalization isn't just the stuff of airplanes and container ships. It's not colonization and circumnavigation alone. It started much sooner. Dr Valerie Hansen, professor of Chinese history at Yale University, points to the year 1000 as one early watershed era when the world expanded and became smaller at once. Trade routes criss-crossed the Americas, Islamic scholars mapped the globe and major religions spread across Asia. In large cities, exotic merchants set up shop, black and white people lived together… and sometimes mobs descended on reviled foreigners.01:38 A convergence of global events in 100006:26 250 million people and an agricultural boom09:20 Trade and religion made the world smaller14:02 Slavery introduced the masses to a wider world15:48 Southeast Asia, world factory17:13 How to become a Borderline member18:07 The globe and the average Joe20:17 Xenophobia back then25:02 A series of constantly expanding rings29:50 How that globalization differed from today's

In this conversation, Zoe Gardner, policy advisor at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, covers:  How immigration exposes women to a higher risk of violence and abuse Why policing and immigration enforcement must be decoupled WTF “no recourse to public funds” and the “hostile environment” are How legal migrants are pushed into undocumented status Getting your COVID vaccine even if you're undocumented The exodus of European migrants from the UK & the post-Brexit settlement scheme How US immigration activists inspire the British movement What a safe and constructive immigration system would look like Show notes00:00 Intro02:18 "All women understand how all women have felt over the last week"03:28 "We have a deeply unfeminist immigration system"06:21 "It's by dividing ourselves that we are doing the work of the oppressor for them"08:09 "MPs must put their vote where their mouth is"10:32 "We feed the business model of the worst criminals in our society"16:38 "The hostile environment extends into our NHS"21:55 "Tens and tens of thousands of new undocumented immigrants in our country just overnight"26:27 "If you make a mistake, you are out"29:38 "The movement in the US is a real inspiration to us in the UK"33:52 "People move. People have always moved. People will always move."37:43 OutroReports citedWhen the clapping stops: EU Care Workers after Brexit. JCWI.Migrants with No Recourse to Public Fund experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic. JCWI.Migrants deterred from healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. JCWI. Estimating the UK population during the pandemic. Jonathan Portes and Michael O'Connor, Economic Statistics Center of Excellence.More on the case of Osime Brown★ Support this podcast ★

Selda Shamloo is taking the Home Office to court. Her mother, who's Iranian, has been repeatedly denied a simple tourist visa to visit her. This is life on an ostracized passport.For many of us, our passport is a symbol of our wanderlust, a badge of our freedom. It's been gathering dust for the past year and we can't wait to get it out. But if you're Iranian or from any other country at the bottom of the passport power rankings, pandemic or not, it won't get you anywhere. The Passport Index ranks Iran 193rd, ahead of just Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Only four countries let Iranians in without visas at the moment, and those who require them, often simply don't grant them. For ordinary families caught in the politics, it can mean years of anguish and administrative complications simply to spend a few days together. Shirin Shamloo hasn't been allowed to set foot in the UK, where her daughter is a citizen, since 2007. And she can't see why. 00:00 Intro01:36 A Tehran childhood05:22 Leaving Iran and becoming British09:37 A father's visit to London13:09 How to become a Borderline member14:10 The first visa rejection18:45 Reapply at your own risk21:06 Taking the Home Office to court29:50 The emotional impact of family separation34:13 "Going back to Iran would be a second immigration" 36:26 "A lot more people can understand my story now."

Liberalism – a belief in the primacy of individual liberty – has built modern democracies. Now it's in an existential crisis, caught between rising authoritarianism and identity politics. I look back and ahead for liberals with British political journalist Ian Dunt.00:14 Intro01:24 Another TCK childhood04:19 Why write a book that goes back 400 years?08:48 What is a liberal?14:16 How liberalism failed to stand for the liberty of most individuals19:28 Identity politics are both a threat and a gift23:00 How to become a Borderline member23:41 “The people” does not exist27:44 Can liberalism make room for tribalism? 30:18 The immigrant's whisper of loneliness32:37 How liberalism survives the pandemic36:11 Outro

People of all kinds – yes, people of color too – go abroad to live, love and learn. They study a language, they follow a partner, they go just for the heck of it or for a midlife crisis. Sometimes, they flee war or poverty, but not usually. Tired of not seeing her story represented, Amanda Bates created The Black Expat – a media centering the stories of Black global citizens. In this episode, she discusses her TCK childhood between Cameroon and the US, the challenges of life in-between and who gets to be called an expat vs. an immigrant. 00:00 Intro01:55 A TCK childhood06:14 An American teenager in Cameroon09:08 A Cameroonian student in the US12:56 Why TCKs and first-gen college students relate16:43 Minority students and the study abroad experience18:34 How to become a Borderline member19:40 Centering the Black expat experience22:27 Blackness is not monolithic29:07 Expat vs. immigrant and the power of words38:17 OutroThe Black Expat is at theblackexpat.com, on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. Its podcast, The Global Chatter, is on all the usual podcasting platforms. 

Exchange students aren't just the butt of jokes in American teen comedies. They're young people going through one of the most transformative experiences life has to offer. Expanding it to more children – dare we say, to all children? – could change not just them, but the world.Katherine Alexander-Dobrovolskaia was dropped in Iowa from the newly broken-up Soviet Union in 1993. Borderline host Isabelle Roughol landed in New Jersey two weeks before 9/11. They reminisce and reflect on the impact of those formative years and share guidance for young people leaving home now – or returning, changed. 00:00 Intro01:23 Pandemic and cancer04:01 Vulnerability and what it means to be there for one another07:13 From Moscow to Africa to Iowa12:10 Being a young stranger in a foreign land15:14 How technology ruined it18:39 Dreaming of a borderless world 22:37 Imagining an universal youth exchange24:32 How to become a Borderline member25:36 Learning empathy through lots of cringe32:19 The returnee's blues & fitting in nowhere and everywhere38:33 Outro

When they narrowly escaped the Third Reich and found refuge in Britain, Peter Gumbel's parents and grandparents cast off their German Jewish heritage to become a perfectly British family. Cricket, Marmite and Church of England. Two generations later, deeply unsettled by Brexit, Gumbel reaches out to Germany again in search of a new passport – and a reckoning with history. In conversation with Isabelle Roughol, Gumbel explores the fragility of identity and who we still are when we can no longer recognize the nations we call home. It's the story of one family and the story of Europe. Show notes: 00:00 Intro01:47 "Home is where I am"03:14 From the Third Reich to Cool Britannia06:35 How Brexit tore through his identity07:56 Choosing a new passport11:21 Coming to terms with a German Jewish heritage15:10 How identity diverges within a single family 17:09 Reconnecting (or not) with a Jewish identity22:57 How to become a Borderline member24:06 His relationship with Britain since Brexit29:26 Could this all happen again?32:08 OutroSources:Citizens of Everywhere: Searching for Identity in the Age of Brexit, by Peter Gumbel. Haus Publishing, London, 2020.

To close out Borderline's first calendar year, which will I hope not soon be matched in hardship and heartbreak, I looked back through the first 17 episodes to pick out moments of hope for what lays ahead. Because if there's ever a moment for an absolutely not rational belief that things might be okay, it's surely the new year. ★ Support this podcast ★

Reza Pakravan has everyone's dream job title – explorer. He just released on Amazon Prime, his latest travel series "The World's Most Dangerous Borders" for which he traveled uninterrupted the width of Africa, across areas any foreign ministry generally tells you to keep clear of and which rarely see a film crew. It's full of stories and chance encounters, of the magic and the messes that we make on the road. It's everything we've missed in 2020 and why I wanted to end the year on this episode. ★ Support this podcast ★

A continued pandemic and fresh vaccines, a new US president with old problems, China triumphant and mistrusted, Brexit done at last, and global institutions on the fritz... Let's take a world tour of the geopolitics we can expect in 2021, with Eurasia Group founder and president Ian Bremmer. ★ Support this podcast ★

"The hostility that you feel, one of the purposes is to make you feel ashamed and to hinder you, to make sure you don't act, or you don't aspire, or you don't fight back." Marcela Kunova has been an immigrant in four countries in the last 20 years. She's had time to deconstruct xenophobia. In a deeply personal conversation, we discussed how shame can be internalized and weaponized against immigrants, how it limits us, but also how we can rise in spite of it. We chatted about mental health, vulnerability, belonging, language barriers and how the tide is turning against immigrants. Perhaps the most intimate episode yet. Explore further:  Brené Brown's TED talk on shame My episode on the journalism.co.uk podcast ★ Support this podcast ★

What was it like being an American abroad during the Trump years? How do they feel about the election and the years ahead? Is it time to go back and give back? This week, I brought together three American expats to talk about politics, home, what was broken and what remains. Sarah Browne is veteran innovation catalyst based in London. She is a proud member of IDEALondon, a partnership of UCL, EDF and Capital Enterprise. She is from Wisconsin and California. Geoffrey Cain is a writer and journalist based in Istanbul. He is the author of “Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech.” He is from Chicago. Lauren Tormey is a content designer at the University of Edinburgh. She has written about her experience of the British “hostile environment” immigration system and wants you to help her change it. She is from New Jersey. ★ Support this podcast ★

Join me on November 3rd (and 4th) to watch US election results come in together. Or not come in. Bring your own pizza. Sign up here to receive the call link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-very-borderline-election-night-tickets-127128864857 ★ Support this podcast ★

If we all can't travel or see loved ones across borders, please tell me at least it's working. In May, I found myself in tears when the British government decided to impose quarantines on anyone returning from France in order to combat covid-19. That was the last straw. How dare they close *my* border? Did it even serve a purpose? When in doubt, go to the library. I turned to science to find out if I had been right to cry or if indeed, the government was doing the right thing. What I found out is... it's complicated. 

Why do we feel the need to put people into boxes, to assign categories in order to decipher them? And what happens to those who fit in many... and none at all? I discussed this and other things with Ferdous "Danny" al-Faruque, a third-culture kid all grown up. The second episode in the Borderlives series, exploring the lives and identities of global citizens, and what home even means. ★ Support this podcast ★

Remember Brexit? That's still in the agenda for 2020. The UK and EU have less than two months to agree a free trade deal and avoid a cliff edge. I caught up with Luke McGee, a journalist at CNN who's covered Brexit for years. We talked about where the negotiations stand, what's at stake, whether the British ever felt truly European and who can most afford to walk away. ★ Support this podcast ★

Economic collapse, political chaos, wildfires, protests, pandemic and then a devastating explosion. Lebanese journalist and expat Lynn Chouman talks about how she and her countrymen are dealing with it all, why resilience is a double-edged sword, and how one relates to a country that keeps pushing you away, yet calling you home. ★ Support this podcast ★

Welcome to a new series of intimate conversations with global citizens, who talk about their identity, their choices and what home even means. This week, Janet Matta, an American working mom from Seattle, talks about leaving the United States and continuing a long American tradition – leaving your country to make a better life for the next generation. ★ Support this podcast ★