LISTEN AGAIN: a full podcast of this event is available via our Publications & Media page
What have migrants ever done for us? The Migration Museum Project and Cara launch their new Great Minds series of seminars examining they ways in which Britain’s intellectual life has been enriched by migrants, with the first event in the series at the Dana Centre in January 2013. Future events will explore the hugely significant contributions made by people from migrant backgrounds to the fields of Architecture, Politics, Music, the City and more.
Chair: Ian Blatchford, director of the Science Museum
Eva Loeffler OBE – The Paralympics
Eva Loeffler, daughter of Sir Ludwig Guttmann, will be discussing her father’s work and legacy as founder of the Paralympics
Professor Dinesh Bhugra CBE – The Psychology of Migration
The brilliant Professor Dinesh Bhugra will present some of his own research into migration and mental health.
Ross MacFarlane, the Wellcome Collection – Pharmaceuticals
Ross MacFarlane of the Wellcome Collection will explore the work of Henry Wellcome’s pharmaceutical research laboratories, and his work in the field of tropical medicine.
Thursday, 17th January 2013, 7.00 -9.00pm at the Science Museum’s Dana Centre
LISTEN AGAIN: a full podcast of this event is available via our Publications & Media page
There’s been a huge explosion of interest in genetic genealogy and personal DNA testing. But how much do we know about the migration of our ancestors? What do we really want to discover from DNA tests? How much will genetics really be able to tell us about ourselves?
Facilitator George Alagiah was joined by archaeologist and author David Miles, geneticist Dr Turi King and Patrick Vernon who discussed these issues and more. They were also joined by Yorkshireman John Revis, who shared the surprising results of his own DNA test.
This event was preceded by a drinks reception sponsored by the Science Museum
Thursday, 26th January 2012, 7.30pm
Dana Centre, 165 Queen’s Gate London SW7 5HD

See photos of this event here
Full audio will shortly be available here
Speakers: Author and journalist Robert Winder, former Home Secretary David Blunkett, journalist and broadcaster Sarfraz Manzoor and development expert Titi Banjoko.
Tuesday, 25 October 2011, 6.30pm
RSA, 8 John Adam Street 
WC2N 6EZ London

Immigration used to involve packing an entire life into a suitcase and moving to a new country for good. Now, with modern communications and transport, it is far more fluid and dynamic. Modern migrants need not lose contact with their old homes; they can keep old ties refreshed; and families can span the globe. Children are schooled for periods abroad and migrants live across multiple worlds.
The old assumptions about immigration – the so-called Ellis Island model of arrival, settlement and assimilation – are dissolving fast. What does this mean for politics and policy? How is such mobility changing our attitudes to integration, identity and belonging? What does it mean for the economy, here and abroad? How can we tell this new story?
The event was followed by a reception sponsored by PwC Legal.
Listen to full audio here
See photos of this event here
In conjunction with the London School of Economics Centre for the Study of Human Rights and Matrix Chambers
LSE, NAB.LG01 Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London

Wednesday 13th July 6.30-8.00pm
Speakers: Sir Harry Kroto, Philippe Sands QC, Mike Phillips, Gita Sahgal. Introduction by Barbara Roche
Chair: Rabinder Singh QC
Migrants are often presented as a burden, but no one can deny the impact they have had on Britain’s intellectual life. One quarter of Britain’s Nobel Prize winners in science were born abroad. Our religious, philosophical and ideological heritage has often been inspired by migrants, from royal patrons (Prince Rupert, Prince Albert) to refugees (Ralf Dahrendorf, Isaiah Berlin). It is rarely noticed on the migration balance sheet, but our science, philosophy, critical and spiritual life has been repeatedly shaped and reshaped by newcomers.
Sir Harry Kroto is a Professor of Chemistry at Florida State University who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1996.
Philippe Sands QC is a barrister at Matrix Chambers and Professor of Laws and Director of the Centre of International Courts and Tribunals at University College London.
Mike Phillips is a journalist and writer who has worked for the BBC.
Rabinder Singh QC is a barrister at Matrix Chambers, deputy High Court judge, Crown Court Recorder and Professor of Law.
Gita Sahgal is a writer and journalist.
Barbara Roche chairs the Migration Museum Project and is a former Immigration Minister.
See photos of this event here
