Blog post by Chiara Martini, University of Milan, Italy
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For anyone who has spent time in Athens in recent years – especially those involved in migration research or work – Victoria Square is a place they have undoubtedly passed through and become familiar with. Victoria Square, located in central Athens, offers a unique lens through which to understand the complexities of migration and social stratification in contemporary Europe.

​In my Identities article, ‘Victoria Square, Athens: migratory movements and social stratifications in the centre of the Greek capital’, I explore how this seemingly ordinary space reflects larger migration dynamics, showcasing the intersection of diverse communities, solidarity efforts and social tensions in urban environments

Blog post by Aaron Winter, Lancaster University, UK; Co-Editor, Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power

In the past, I’ve warned against seeing Trump and fascism as the ultimate threat(s) because they can serve as extreme, exceptional and, in the case of the former, individualised distractions from problems in the wider system, mainstream politics and liberal democracy in ways that can position these as a bulwark despite their role in mainstreaming the far right and upholding the same inequalities and injustices. Then there was Musk’s Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration and questions about what it meant. In many ways, Musk may serve the same purpose for Trump as the latter has for American society and politics by making him look less illiberal, extreme and scary. That does not mean we should not be concerned about Trump or more importantly fascism but also be attuned to the inequalities and injustices in the system, mainstream and democracy that may not only be distracted from but also justified, exploited and exacerbated by it. We see this most acutely in how the liberal mainstream has embraced the war on ‘woke’ and migrants in order to prevent something worse. Something that, despite or possibly because of this, has been emboldened and is already occurring.

Of course, few expected much from Trump’s second inauguration on 20 January 2025. As much as many feared the new administration would oversee the rise of fascism and collapse of American Democracy, there also seemed to be an atmosphere of resignation. At the very least, many probably thought that he could not possibly do worse than in his appearance on 6 January 2021 just prior to the last inauguration. If anything, it was the events of that day that led many to assume it would not happen again, either because Trump would not get re-elected or his victory would at least satisfy the extremists. Everything seemed to be going as expected with the typical combination of procedure and ritual, albeit with extra nationalism, glitz and guests. The latter included far right celebrities such as former head of Breitbart and Trump Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and X CEO Elon Musk, as well as other tech bros. One notable guest, Brexit and UKIP funder Arron Banks could not attend his own Stars and Stripes and Union Jack Party because he was denied entry to the US. This led to outrage from those more often heard demanding tougher border controls. 

Blog post by Alyssa Marie Kvalvaag, Nord University, Norway

When questions around migration appear in a European context, the concept ‘integration’ often follows. Despite being a well-established concept within migration policies and studies, many scholars have highlighted that integration is characterized by ambiguities and multiple, often unclear, meanings (e.g., Grillo 2011; Kutor, Arku, and Bandauko 2023; Vertovec 2020).

In my Identities article, ‘Contesting integration discourses: migrant organizations and epistemic resistance in northern Norway’, I explore how leaders of migrant organizations use and contest integration discourses by drawing on their experiential ways of knowing and doing. Migrant organizations are understood as organizations created by migrants and run (primarily) for migrants. I argue that leaders of migrant organizations use integration discourses to ‘do’ multiple things, at times subverting common ways of knowing about integration and carving out new spaces of possibilities in thinking about what integration is and may be.