14:00-15:15 Wednesday 19 November | Cinema 1, Watershed | Part of the Festival of Economics 2025
Public discourse around migration to the UK has grown increasingly polarised. Recent shifts in migration policies reflect ongoing debates and adjustments in approach. This panel explores the facts behind the rhetoric, offering perspectives on migration policy, migrants' experiences, and the wider historical context.
Toman Barsbai
Toman Barsbai is a Professor of Economics at the University of Bristol. His research focuses on the causes and consequences of international migration, with a particular emphasis on migrants and their countries of origin. His research has informed migration policies in the Philippines, and he is currently evaluating the use of income share agreements for international educational migration
Brian Bell
Brian Bell is Professor of Economics and Head of Department, Economics at King’s Business School.Brian joined King’s College London in January 2017. Previous to his appointment at King’s, he was Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Oxford (2012-2016) and Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics (2009-2012) – where he remains a Research Associate. He has spent a significant part of his career outside of academia. He worked as an economist and proprietary trader for a number of hedge funds and investment banks in London and also spent time at the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of England.Brian’s main research interests fall in two areas. First, he works on issues related to wages and inequality. This includes work on the pay of CEOs, the impact of immigration on wages and employment and intergenerational mobility. Second, he does work on the economics of crime looking at, inter alia, evidence on the links between immigration and crime and the impact of unemployment when leaving school on subsequent criminal behaviour.Brian is Chair of the Migration Advisory Committee. This body provides advice to the Home Secretary on immigration policy in the UK.
Suraj Modhvadiya
Suraj Modhvadiya leads on international student and staff recruitment, compliance and immigration policy. He engages with members, government departments and sector bodies to shape policy positions, align priorities and deliver coordinated advocacy. His background spans membership bodies, advocacy groups and research organisations, and he specialises in using data and evidence to inform policy, tackle challenges and champion the UK’s global education offer.
Glen O’Hara
Glen O’Hara is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Oxford Brookes University. He has previously taught at University College London, the University of Bristol and New College, Oxford. Professor O’Hara is the author of a series of books about recent British history, including The Paradoxes of Progress: Governing Post-War Britain, c.1951-c.1973 (2012) and most recently The Politics of Water in Post-War Britain (2017). Between 2021 and 2024 he was Principal Investigator on the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded ‘In All Our Footsteps: Mapping, Tracking and Experiencing Rights of Way in Post-War Britain’. In 2026 he will publish his next book, New Labour, New Britain? How the Blair Governments Reshaped the Country, with Manchester University Press. Thereafter he will be working on a subsequent volume, Kingdom Come: Visions of the Future in Modern Britain, which Penguin has commissioned for 2029. He is a regular commentator on public affairs in the press, including in The Financial Times, The Guardian and Prospect magazine.
Heather Stewart
Heather Stewart is the economics editor of the Guardian and was formerly its political ed*****@******************ky.social
