The Society’s Field Research Programme has officially started with a launch meeting in Colombo. Two PhD students and a post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Sussex have joined the group
The international project team includes researchers from all the countries involved.
Back (l-r) Fiesal Rahman, International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD); Dom Kniveton, University of Sussex; Shenali De Silva, Centre for Migration Research and Development (CMRD); JoAnn McGregor, Sussex;.Kopalapillai Amirthalingam, CMRD; Mike Collyer, Sussex; Abdullahi Odowa, Observatory of Conflict and Violence Prevention (OCVP); Ayan Yusuf, OCVP; Laura Hammond, SOAS University of London.
Front (l-r) Andrew Baldwin, Durham University; Elmond Bandauko, Development Governance Institute (DGI); Kudzai Chatiza, DGI; Danesh Jayatilaka, CMRD; Richard Black, SOAS; Chris Smith, Sussex; Sarder Shafiqul Alam, ICCCAD.
By 2050, 5.2 billion people are expected to live in urban areas in Africa and Asia, almost double that of today. The movements of migrants, typically into informal settlements on the margins of rapidly growing cities, are some of the most important and least studied patterns of migration on both continents.
Migrants on the Margins, a three-year research project led by the Society in partnership with a consortium of UK universities and international partners, is attempting to assess the impacts of such migration on the cities, communities and the individuals themselves. Funded by donations from Society members, the Department for International Development, the Economic and Social Research Council,, the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the University of Sussex, it will involve mapping, field surveys and interviews in Colombo (Sri Lanka), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Harare (Zimbabwe) and Hargeisa (Somaliland).
The multi-disciplinary project team are working closely with local stakeholders and research institutes in each of the four cities being studied. The first fieldwork is planned for January 2017.
Find out more here.