My disciplinary training and identity as a researcher is firmly rooted in human geography, with an emphasis on socio-spatial relations. As a geographer, I see international migration, questions of producing and reproducing home and negotiating belonging and membership, as being spatially embedded in places, located within and across nation-state boundaries.
My research has four main empirical geographical dimensions. Having begun with Afghan refugees in India and Sri Lankan Tamils, I continue to focus regionally on South Asia and specifically on Pakistani migration. I combine this with a focus on Polish migration, and on immigration to Norway (as the UK), and comparative analysis across contexts and cases. Dealing in-depth with Pakistani and Polish migration and their origin contexts over time allows me to contribute to migration studies in ways which transcend traditional divides, examining, for example, intra-EU mobility, third-country nationals and Muslim communities.
In practical terms, my identity as a geographer has led me to geography conferences, such as the annual conferences of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) (RGS-IBG) and the American Association of Geographers (AAG), as well as the biannual Nordic Geographers Meeting (NGM). I have also published in geography journals at the interface of human geography and migration studies, such as Population, Space and Place, Gender Place and Culture and Global Networks, and in geography journals such as Geoforum, Norwegian Journal of Geography, Political Geography and Social and Cultural Geography. When I have the opportunity, I also teach and examine in human geography, at undergraduate and graduate levels, as well supervising at Master’s and PhD level.
Marta Bivand Erdal 