‘Migration, Equality & Racism: 44 Opinions’ is a book with 44 thought-provoking opinion pieces from more than 80 VUB researchers and co-authors. Philosophers, lawyers, psychologists, health scientists, sociologists, geographers, criminologists, communication and political scientists ... look at migration, equality and racism from different disciplinary angles.
Together they question widespread beliefs on these societal topics, and backed by academic research, empirical evidence, and rigorous analysis, they take a stance and propose solutions that might disturb. The goal of the book is to address the ever more salient issues of migration, equality and racism in a multi-disciplinary way and to inspire an informed debate.
The book was launched on January 21, 2021 with an online event broadcasted from Brussels theatre (KVS). The launch included interviews with some of the authors, a dance performance, slam poetry and photographs from Brussels that illustrate the texts. You can watch the entire launch of the book and interviews with the authors on our Facebook or YouTube page.
Following the launch of the book, some of the pieces were published in Belgian newspapers and magazines such as De Standaard, MO* and Knack (in Dutch).
At the upcoming IMISCOE Annual Conference (July 7-9), BIRMM director Ilke Adam and coordinator Hannah Vermaut will be discussing the experiences with this book and scientists' public engagement. You can join the discussion of the panel ‘Migration, Equality and Racism: How scholars may engage in polarized times’ on July 8 at 4.30 pm.
'Migration, equality & racism: 44 opinions' is free for download on our website. Does the book inspire you and would you like to do something with it? Do you want to review the book? Please get in touch, we would love to discuss this book with you. Contact BIRMM with your questions and ideas at
The idea for this book was initiated by Caroline Pauwels, the rector of VUB, after the creation of the BIRMM research centre in 2018. BIRMM brings together over 100 researchers from 11 disciplines working on migration, minorities and diversity related topics. The book was created under the direction of Ilke Adam, Tundé Adefioye, Serena D'Agostino, Nick Schuermans and Florian Trauner and its realization came about within the framework of VUB Poincare, a think tank that sets up cooperation between researchers from different disciplines to look into today's societal challenges.