Dr Anna Lindley

Research interests

Anna Lindley is Reader in Migration, Mobility and Development at SOAS University of London. Anna’s research focuses on global migration and displacement dynamics, politics and experiences.

Diaspora remittances, transnationalism, livelihoods and related policy interventions, have been a long-standing interest, in the Somali context and more generally, leading to Anna’s book The Early Morning Phone Call: Somali Refugee Remittances, and various journal articles and books chapters. This was followed by work exploring the wider nuances of relationships between crisis and migration, in the edited volume Crisis and Migration: Critical Perspectives.

Anna’s research currently focuses on the hard edges of immigration regimes, particularly in the UK where she has worked on immigration detention, asylum processes and most recently exploring refugee homelessness and housing. This has been published in Geoforum, Migration Studies and the Journal of Human Rights Practice, as well as various reports and blogs.

Prior to joining SOAS, Anna worked at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society and the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. Her research has been funded via: the ESRC, EC, BA/Leverhulme Small Grant and SOAS knowledge exchange and impact funds. She has collaborated with UNDP, UK and Norwegian government development agencies, UNDP, Oxfam, Africa Educational Trust, the Bar Council of England and Wales, Tai Pawb and Asylum Welcome. She also served as a committee member in the early years of the SOAS Sanctuary Scholarship Scheme and the Council for At-Risk Academics SOAS Network Representative.

At SOAS, Anna has been BA Global Development Programme Convenor since 2021. Her primary focus in teaching is on migration and development; migration politics, policy and practice; and global forced migration, to undergraduate and postgraduate students.