Many scholars working in the field of migration are inspired to do so from their own biographical histories and experiences. The humanities and social sciences have a rich range of writings that give voice to the emergence of transcultural communities, the experience of mobilities and migration, of displacement, diaspora, hybridity and belonging. A growing body of literature is available, also in fictive texts, telling stories of colonialism, post-colonialism, migration, mobility, cosmopolitanism and the search for belonging in a glocalised world.

I was personally inspired to engage with the broad field of refugee and migration studies as a consequence of the impact of the Bosnian war and the break up of the Yugoslavian federation on my sociological and criminological imagination. Engaging first with newly arrived Bosnian refugee communities in Nottingham and three waves of Afghan refugees in London, I went on to work with newly arrived migrants seeking safety and liveable lives from the Middle East and the global South. This book emerges from my experience of doing research with asylum seekers, refugees, undocumented people and communities funded largely by the AHRC as well as local authorities and the Home Office via Government Offices in the East and West Midlands.

My own biography includes a family history embedded in the migration of Irish grandparents and the impact of poverty and unbelonging on their lives and my family's internal migration from the North East to the Midlands. My socialisation was rooted in socialism, trade unionism, Irish literature and gendered politics that in turn led to a deeply political attitude to social and sexual inequalities and a commitment to Marx's dictum that people ‘make history but not in conditions of their own choosing’. And, that we should not only seek to understand our social worlds but to change them. Thus the importance of critical theory and ‘praxis’ (purposeful knowledge), of gaining knowledge from below, the vital importance of social justice, citizenship and processes and practices of inclusion in our theory, research and social policy with refugees and asylum seekers.

This book is written within a trajectory of more than two decades of research with marginalised groups and communities using critical theory, participatory action research (PAR) and participatory arts (PA)-based methods.