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Demography and migration

Essays and videos on social issues, history, political life and the future

Animals and humans Anthropology Archaeology Automation and robotics Cities Demography and migration Economic history Economics Education Environmental history Fairness and equality Future of technology Gender Global history History History of technology Human rights and justice Information and communication Making Nations and empires Politics and government Poverty and development Progress and modernity Public health Race and ethnicity Religion The ancient world The environment The future War and peace Work

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Blurry night photo through car window showing police lights and a figure, creating a dramatic scene with blue lighting.

videoDemography and migration

The volunteers who offer a last line of care for migrants at a contentious border

30 minutes

Aerial photo of workers harvesting oranges, loading crates onto a tractor in an orchard.

videoDemography and migration

In California’s farmlands, immigrant workers share their stories of toil and hope

17 minutes

Black and white photo of a group of men playing musical instruments and sitting in a wooden room.

essayMusic

The beat of goombay

Diasporas are made of vast constellations of countless people, fused together through memory, meaning – and music

Salwa Halloway

People collecting water from a makeshift station in a camp, surrounded by orange netting and tents in the background.

essayEthics

Moral refuge

You can believe in border control yet protect those fleeing to safety. So what is our ethical obligation to refugees?

Bradley Hillier-Smith

An elderly couple sit beside a child standing next to a canal with bare trees behind them. The man talks to the child and has a walking stick beside him.

essayDemography and migration

The vanishing of youth

The precipitous decline of birthrates throughout the world poses a serious threat to humanity. What is to be done?

Victor Kumar

Aerial photo of a snowy town with colourful buildings and a vast frozen landscape in the background.

essayThe environment

On unstable ground

A ‘great reshuffle’ of the land is underway. It will force us to reconsider traditional ideas of property and ownership

Michael Albertus

Illustration of two people with closed eyes softly singing into a microphone, featuring simple brushstroke style.

videoLanguage and linguistics

Why Susan listens to recordings of herself speaking a language she no longer remembers

5 minutes

Photo of three women viewed from behind near a lake with trees. One holds a megaphone and wears a colourful embroidered shirt.

videoFamily life

The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them

21 minutes

Painting of a bustling 17th-century market square with people, horses and a church, surrounded by historic buildings and boats on a waterway.

essayGlobal history

There are no pure cultures

All of our religions, stories, languages and norms were muddled and mixed through mobility and exchange throughout history

Inanna Hamati-Ataya

An adult and two children in a mall atrium, dressed in winter clothing.

essayBiography and memoir

A grief with no name

As a child, I was torn from a culture that I never knew. It is a loss that defines me, even as I struggle to define the loss

Jelena Markovic

People in a church with raised hands in worship, expressions of joy and devotion on their faces.

essayNations and empires

Utopia brasileira

Within less than a decade, Brazil will have as many evangelicals as Catholics, a transcendence born of the prosperity gospel

Alex Hochuli

Photo of a desert scene with tall cacti and a person standing, set against a sunlit rocky hill.

videoHuman rights and justice

Can providing humanitarian aid be illegal? A troubling case from the US-Mexico border

17 minutes

A painting of two girls with long hair each holding peacock feathers standing in front of a textured, muted background.

videoFamily life

The precious family keepsakes that hold meaning for generations

10 minutes

Ancient Mayan ruins, including a prominent stone pyramid, surrounded by dense green jungle under a cloudy sky.

essayArchaeology

Beyond kingdoms and empires

A revolution in archaeology is transforming our picture of past populations and the scope of human freedoms

David Wengrow

A person with black hair and glasses, in a teal T-shirt with VIBES in rainbow text, and a backpack stands smiling in a garden with flowers and trees.

videoWellbeing

Born in China, Zee seeks a gender-affirming life in the American Midwest

11 minutes

An early morning view across an old bridge towards the spires of a historic medieval city partially obscured by fog

essayHome

Return of the descendants

I migrated to my ancestral homeland in a search for identity. It proved to be a humbling experience in (un)belonging

Jessica Buchleitner

Three children in colourful clothing walk through a dense, leafy forest with sunlight filtering through the canopy.

essayAnthropology

Societies of perpetual movement

Why do hunter-gatherers refuse to be sedentary? New answers are emerging from the depths of the Congolese rainforest

Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias

A close-up of a weathered, rusty metal plate attached to a deteriorating wooden surface with bolts, showing corrosion and peeling layers.

essayGlobal history

One ship, many stories

How a single, unglamorous, workaday merchant vessel tells the history of the 19th-century world in many violent chapters

Boyd Cothran & Adrian Shubert

Three motorcyclists are riding on an empty road winding through English moorland beneath a blue sky

essayStories and literature

Citizens

Devon, 1970s: I’m a rector’s son, hanging out with Boz the biker. My life is about to open up – what does it promise for him?

Tim Pears

Illustration of a father and his young daughter with backpacks in the rain at night, holding an umbrella, standing on a cliffside looking out at the distant city lights of Hong Kong across a dark body of water.

videoDemography and migration

One story, in a sea of millions, of swimming from China to freedom in Hong Kong

14 minutes

Historic nautical map depicting the Pacific Ocean with detailed coastlines, islands, and ships sailing in the sea, surrounded by navigation lines.

essayDemography and migration

Asians in early America

Asian sailors came to the west coast of America in 1587. Within a century they were settled in colonies from Mexico to Peru

Diego Javier Luis

A man and a woman with tattoos are standing in a kitchen, one shirtless and the other in a blue top, both in a contemplative mood.

essayEconomic history

Matrimony and the market

The sexual revolution promised new norms of intimacy based on egalitarianism. So far, only the rich have cashed in

Daniel Tutt

Footprints on a sandy desert landscape with sparse bushes, distant mountains, a cloudy sky, and an antenna structure in the background.

essayArchaeology

Finding the First Americans

Archaeology and genetics can’t yet agree on when humans first arrived in the Americas. That’s good science and here’s why

Jennifer Raff

A woman with a colourful scarf covering her face stands in a queue, surrounded by other masked individuals in an outdoor setting.

videoDemography and migration

How the world’s harshest lockdown hit India’s millions of migrant workers

27 minutes