Migration Working Group – North West
Migration Working Group-North West (MWG-NW) brings together academics, organisations and practitioners working on migration who are either based in the North West of the UK, or researching migration in this region.
Edge Hill University academics’ work touches upon a wide range of topics within the field of migration, such as migrants’ integration, diasporas and representation, refugee law and policy, locality and diversity, and arts, health and wellbeing. The University is also active in supporting humanitarian initiatives for refugees through Action For Refugees.
MWG-NW is in line with EHU’s Research Strategy, which states that the University is committed to responding to and engaging with national and international research agendas and produce research that has direct application to challenges that concern professional practitioners, business, third sector organisations and community groups.

The group works closely with other major research groupings in the University and with organisations and practitioners in the region, and aims to enhance the visibility of migration issues and integrate its work with other academic and professional initiatives at national and international level. Members’ expertise and activities position MWG-NW as a stakeholder in the broad field of migrants’ inclusion and overall public discourse that surrounds migration and broader issues of social justice in the North West of the UK, and at national and international level.
Group members
Group director
Dr Zana Vathi
Reader in Social Sciences
Social Sciences
Deputy director
Dr Ruxandra Trandafoiu
Reader in Communication
Media
Dr Agnieszka Martynowicz
Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Programme Leader Criminology
Dr Daniel Gordon
Senior Lecturer in European History
Professor Kevern Verney
Associate Dean (Research)
Dr Mariagiulia Giuffré
Senior Lecturer in Law
Rosa Fong
Reader in Communication
Dr Ayushman Bhagat
Lecturer in Human Geography
- Antonina Anisimovich
- Charlotte Hastings
- Diane Scutt
- Gergana Ganeva
- Isa Inuwa Dutse
- Dr James Renton
- Martin Ford
- Mike Stoddart
- Prof Owen Evans
- Patrick Soulsby
- Dr Shereen Shaw
- Stacey Harte
- Dr Steven Clayton
- Umit Yildiz
- Dr Yannis Korkontzelos
- Dr Yiannis Koufonikos
- Dr Alex Balch (Liverpool)
- Dr Giuseppe Scotto (Liverpool John Moores)
- Dr Terry Phillips (Liverpool Hope)
- Dr Zaki Nahaboo (Liverpool Hope)
- Philomene Uwamaliya (Liverpool John Moores)
- Aleksandra Marcinkowska (University of Bradford)
- SOLA Arts
- Merseyside Expanding Horizons
- 4Wings
- Asylum Link
- Whitechapel Centre
- The 3Millions
- Homebaked
- Merseyside Refugee Network
- New Europeans
- New Start Homes
- Online Resources Hub
- Refugee Women Connect
- North West Regional Strategic Migration Partnership
- UK Butterflies
- Windrush Defenders Legal C.I.C.
- North West Regional Strategic Migration Partnership (RSMP)
- Anna Key (Liverpool City Council)
- Jill Summers (Liverpool City Council: Community Cohesion)
- Maya al-Safadi (Interpreter)
- Tim Beyer Helm (Worldwide Wednesday Liverpool and New Europeans)
- Wiebke Rüterjans (In Limbo)
Expertise and key publications
Migrants’ identity and integration
Key Members: Dr Zana Vathi, Dr Daniel Gordon, Dr Ruxandra Trandafoiu, Prof Kevern Verney, Dr Tasleem Shakur, Samantha Carney, Niroshan Ramachandran.
Diasporas, media and representation
Key Members: Dr Ruxandra Trandafoiu, Prof Kevern Verney, Dr Daniel Gordon, Antonina Anisimovich, Loreen Chikwira.
Refugees, migration policy and law
Key Members: Dr Mariagiulia Giuffré, Dr Agnieszka Martynowicz, Dr Steven Hirschler, Dr Zana Vathi, Isa Inuwa Dutse, Samantha Carney, Niroshan Ramachandran.
Arts, health and wellbeing
Key Members: Rosa Fong, Prof Owen Evans, Dr Yiannis Koufonikos, Sophie Kelly, Gergana Ganeva, Dr Zana Vathi.
Locality, urban space and diversity
Key Members: Dr Tasleem Shakur, Dr Zana Vathi, Samantha Carney.
Research projects and consultancies
Promoting inclusion for Migrants’ Empowerment
An EU funded project developed in partnership with: Merseyside Expanding Horizons (UK), Per Esempio (Italy), Peñascal S.Coop. (Spain), United Societies of Balkans (Greece), Apprentis D’Auteuil (France), AWO KV Bremerhaven e.V (Germany). The project aimed to improve the quality of youth work addressing the social inclusion of young migrants.
Supporting the Effective Reintegration of Roma Returnees in the Western Balkans
This is a regional project that focuses on return migration and the vulnerability of Roma migrants in its context. The project follows the consideration of the Western Balkan countries as “safe countries of origin” in 2015 by the European Commission.
Promoting inclusion for Migrants’ Empowerment
An EU funded project developed in partnership with: Merseyside Expanding Horizons (UK), Per Esempio (Italy), Peñascal S.Coop. (Spain), United Societies of Balkans (Greece), Apprentis D’Auteuil (France), AWO KV Bremerhaven e.V (Germany). The project aimed to improve the quality of youth work addressing the social inclusion of young migrants.
Supporting the Effective Reintegration of Roma Returnees in the Western Balkans
This is a regional project that focuses on return migration and the vulnerability of Roma migrants in its context. The project follows the consideration of the Western Balkan countries as “safe countries of origin” in 2015 by the European Commission.
EU Migrants of the North West: Continuation and Disruption in the post-Brexit era
The future of 3.2 million EU nationals in post-Brexit UK continues to be at the top of the news agenda, however their voice is rarely heard. This project aims to analyse the impact that Brexit is having on EU citizens residing in the UK.
Bringing the aesthetics in: migrants’ relationship with urban space in Toxteth
This project will interweave cultural geography, urban sociology and environmental psychology to investigate the role of physical environment in the belongingness of migrants. It will look at a specific locality in Liverpool, Toxteth, which is characterised by a strong local identity.
The return to and (re)integration of Albanian migrants and their children in Albania: implications for policy-making
The economic crisis in Greece, where many Albanian migrants have migrated to since the beginning of the 1990s, is affecting the lives of migrants and is catalysing their return to Albania. To date, little is known about this phenomenon. Some press articles maintain that a large part of the Albanian community in Greece have returned or plan to.
A study of Polish migrants deported from the UK
Edge Hill welcomes Dr. Witold Klaus who will be working in close collaboration with Dr. Agnieszka Martynowicz to develop knowledge in Poland and the UK about the pre- and post-deportation experiences of EU nationals.