Peripheral Populations and their Integration Research Group

The Peripheral Populations and their Integration Research Group (PPIRG) researches:

• the experiences and challenges faced by peripheral groups (e.g. low-waged migrant workers, workers in the informal economy, refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants to the UK under special visa schemes, second generation ethnic minority immigrants) in integrating into their communities (e.g. social and economic integration)
• the causes and effects of migration, particularly from low-income to high-income countries
• the extent to which national and international regulation and policy, and practice on the part of their advocates (e.g. NGOs, trade unions) have improved rights and well-being of peripheral populations.

The Group is led by Professor Lilian Miles and Dr Maria Granados.  We are interested in developing research projects and funding applications with researchers across disciplines to investigate what social integration looks like, in terms of policy and practice, and how the integration of peripheral groups can be achieved.   

The Peripheral Populations and their Integration Research Group has conducted research and knowledge exchange activities into the following areas:

• Women migrant workers and reproductive health
• Migrant workers’ social and market inclusion during the pandemic
• Barefoot entrepreneurs and their struggles in the informal economy
• Gender empowerment in social enterprises in the UK 
• Improving resettlement planning for Syrian refugees in London

See all projects

• Freeman, T., Miles, L. and Ying, K. (2023). Self-surveillance practices of factory women migrant workers receiving SRH interventions in Malaysia: The effects of salience, gendered subjectivity and universalism. Economic and Industrial Democracy.
• Miles, L., Freeman, T., Capucci Polzin, A., Reitz, R. and Croucher, R. (2023). Migrant workers navigating the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK: Resilience, reworking and resistance. Economic and Industrial Democracy. (https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X231199874)
• Granados, M. L., Rosli, A., & Gotsi, M. (2022). Staying poor: Unpacking the process of barefoot institutional entrepreneurship failure. Journal of Business Venturing, 37(3), 106204
• Freeman, Tim; Miles, Lilian; Ying Kelvin; Lai Wan Teng, Mat Yasin, Suziana (2021). At the limits of ‘Capability’: The sexual and reproductive health of women migrant workers in Malaysia. Sociology of Health and Illness (https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13323) 
• Miles, Lilian; Freeman, Tim; Lai Wan Teng, Mat Yasin, Suziana, Ying, Kelvin (2021). Empowerment as a prerequisite to managing and influencing health in the workplace: The sexual and reproductive health needs of factory women migrant workers in Malaysia. Economic and Industrial Democracy, (https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0143831X211024725)

Academic staff

• Professor Lilian Miles
• Dr Maria Granados
• Dr Anastasia Alexeeva
• Dr Vincent Rich
• Dr Setenay Dilek Fidler
• Dr Rukhsana Kausar
• Dr Koko Kondo
• Dr Melahat Sahin-Dikmen
• Dr Petros Karatsareas
• Dr Vasoula Hadjivarnava

External members

• Ainurul Rosli, Brunel University
• Tim Freeman, Middlesex University London 
• Adriana Ruiz Restrepo, CIVISOL, Colombia