More Than a Label: Migration Law and Justice in the UK, with Pinar Aksu

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In this week’s episode, we speak with researcher, theatre-maker, and human rights campaigner Pinar Aksu about migration justice, hostile immigration law, and the possibilities and limitations of using law to create social change.

Drawing on her work in migrant justice campaigning and community organising, and her ongoing doctoral research ‘Art and Law in Migration’, Pinar reflects on how immigration law shapes the lives of people seeking asylum and refuge, the pressures facing those trying to access justice, and what more collaborative, community-led approaches to legal practice can look like. 

Pinar shares her insights on:

• How over a century of immigration law – from the 1905 Alien Act to recent immigration legislation – reveals enduring patterns of hostile, divisive, and criminalising approaches within UK migration policy
• The barriers people face in accessing immigration justice, including legal aid pressures, capacity constraints, miscommunication, and the human impact of increasingly restrictive immigration laws
• Why creative practice, grassroots organising, and community lawyering approaches that bring legal knowledge into community spaces, centre lived experience, and build collaborative relationships are essential to creating more welcoming and just communities

Additional resources for this episode are linked below:

Learn More

• Listen to Lawmanity podcast episode “Breaking Barriers: Access to Education for Young Migrants, with Andy Sirel”: podfollow.com/lawmanity/view
• Read “Our Grades Not Visas: How community lawyering brought education justice for young migrant and refugee people in Scotland”: https://www.justrightscotland.org.uk/2025/10/our-grades-not-visas-how-community-lawyering-brought-education-justice-for-young-migrant-and-refugee-people-in-scotland/
• Read “Jo Wilding chronicles deepening immigration and asylum legal aid crisis, with failure to recruit staff an ‘existential threat’ to the sector” https://www.ein.org.uk/news/jo-wilding-chronicles-deepening-immigration-and-asylum-legal-aid-crisis-failure-recruit-staff
• Read “Scotland adopts a more inclusive franchise”: https://globalcit.eu/scotland-adopts-a-more-inclusive-franchise/
• Read “Can a Student visa holder sit as a member of the Scottish Parliament? Yes, they can”: https://freemovement.org.uk/student-visa-member-of-scottish-parliament/
• Check out “#LiftTheBan: Give People Seeking Asylum the Right to Work”: https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/lift-the-ban/
• Check out Refugees for Justice: https://www.refugeesforjustice.org.uk/
• Check out Sistren Legal Collective: https://sistren.co.uk/community-lawyering/

Take Action

·      Maryhill Integration Network: https://maryhillintegration.org.uk/get-involved/

·      Govan Community Project: https://govancommunityproject.org.uk/get-involved/

·      Community Infosource: https://www.infosource.org.uk/get-involved.html

·      Refuweegee: https://www.refuweegee.co.uk/copy-of-about

·      Scottish Detainees Visitors: https://sdv.org.uk/join-us

·      The Welcoming (Edinburgh): https://www.thewelcoming.org/get-involved-the-welcoming-edinburgh/

Find out more at https://lawmanity.pinecast.co