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Who Do We Think We Are?

Active listening questions

Listening and Learning from Who do we think we are? 

We are big proponents of bringing podcasts into teaching and developing ways of using them as educational resources. With this in mind, for each episode of Who do we think we are? and Beyond the Headlines, we have prepared a set of 3 active listening questions. These can be used by students for self-study, in preparatory exercises before class, and in the classroom. Questions for WDWTWA Series 1; Series 2, Episodes 1-5; BtH Series 1, Episodes 1-5 were prepared by Niamh Welby, our student intern for Summer 2022. 

Download our active listening questions here or read them below.

WDWTWA Season 1

Episode 1: Why we need to look at history to understand British citizenship today?

• After listening to the podcast how would you define British Citizenship
• What example of a change in citizenship law was the most impactful to you and why?
• Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how / how not?

Episode 2: What can the development of immigration legislation tell us about citizenship in Britain?

• After listening to the podcast how would you define belonging?
• What example of a change in immigration legislation was the most impactful to you and why?
• Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?

Episode 3: How the Commonwealth Immigration Acts laid the foundations for the Windrush Deportation Scandal

• List three long term impacts caused by deportation during the Windrush scandal
• What example of the Windrush scandal was the most impactful to you and why?
• Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?

Episode 4: How the British Nationality Act 1981 laid the foundations for a stateless population within Britain’s borders

• How did the British Nationality Act 1981 racialise others through its design?
• After listening to the podcast how would you define ‘the global immigration industry’?
• Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?

Episode 5: What can the UK’s citizenship test tell us about the shape of Britishness today?

• After listening to the podcast how would you define citizenisation?
• Which barrier within the citizenship test was the most impactful to you and why?
• Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?

Episode 6: What can the Hong Kong BN(O) visa tell us about borders and belonging in Britain today?

• What condition introduced in the Hong Kong British Nationals (overseas) visa scheme was the most unfair to you and why?
• List 3 limitations associated with the Hong Kong BN(O) visa scheme.
• Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?

Episode 7: What can English-language testing for the purposes of immigration and citizenship tell us about who counts as British today?

• After listening to the podcast how would you define the relationship between language and nation-building
• What is one political function of introducing language testing?
• Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?

Episode 8: What do Clause 9 (Nationality and Borders Bill) and the history of citizenship deprivation in the UK tell us about Britishness today?

• What does the case of Shamima Begum highlight about Clause 9 of the Nationality and Borders Bill?
• After listening to the podcast how do attempts to securitise Britain lead to discrimination?
• Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?

Episode 9: What do the children denied the right to nationality through their British parents tell us about citizenship?

• What is one example of gender discrimination within citizenship?
• What example of a nationality anomaly was the most impactful? Why?
• Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?

Episode 10: What can we learn about British citizenship from the Chagos Islanders

• What is the key goal of the British Indian Ocean Territory Citizens Campaign?
• List three ways the British Overseas Territories Act of 2002 has restricted access to nationality for many
• Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?

WDWTWA Season 2

Episode 1: What does the Nationality and Borders Act mean for British citizenship?

• What requirement/clause within the nationality and borders bill was the most impactful and why?
• After listening to the podcast how would you define the language of illegality?
• Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how / how not?

Episode 2: What does British citizenship have to do with Global Social Inequalities?

• What example of an inequality caused by citizenship was the most impactful and why?
• After listening to the podcast how would you define the concept of Forgotten Europe?
• Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?

Episode 3: How do protest and resistance make citizens and citizenship?

• What example of an act of citizenship was the most impactful / are there any similar current examples of acts of citizenship
• After listening to the podcast how would you define acts of citizenship? –
• Has this changed how you view your own acts of resistance how/how not?

Episode 4: What do family migration rules reveal about British citizenship today?

• What example of family migration was the most impactful and why?
• what was the purpose of increasing annual income threshold for sponsors?
• Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?

Episode 5: What can we learn about British and EU citizenship from Brexit?

• How has Brexit changed access to British citizenship based on an economic rationale?
• How are ideas of what it means to be British presented through discourse with the EU?
• Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?

 

S1 E1 Why we need to look at history to understand British citizenship today?
  • After listening to the podcast how would you define British Citizenship?
  • What example of a change in citizenship law was the most impactful to you and why?
  • Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how / how not?
S1 E2 What can the development of immigration legislation tell us about citizenship in Britain?
  • After listening to the podcast how would you define belonging?
  • What example of a change in immigration legislation was the most impactful to you and why?
  • Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?
S1 E3 How the Commonwealth Immigration Acts laid the foundations for the Windrush Deportation Scandal
  1. List three long term impacts caused by deportation during the Windrush scandal
  2. What example of the Windrush scandal was the most impactful to you and why?
  3. Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?
S1 E4 How the British Nationality Act 1981 laid the foundations for a stateless population within Britain's borders
  • How did the British Nationality Act 1981 racialise others through its design?
  • After listening to the podcast how would you define ‘the global immigration industry’?
  • Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?
S1 E5 What can the UK’s citizenship test tell us about the shape of Britishness today?
  • After listening to the podcast how would you define citizenisation?
  • Which barrier within the citizenship test was the most impactful to you and why?
  • Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?
S1 E6 What can the Hong Kong BN(O) visa tell us about borders and belonging in Britain today?
  • What condition introduced in the Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas) visa scheme was the most unfair to you and why?
  • List 3 limitations associated with the Hong Kong BN(O) visa scheme
  • Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?
S1 E7 What can English-language testing for the purposes of immigration and citizenship tell us about who counts as British today?
  • After listening to the podcast how would you define the relationship between language and nation-building
  • What is one political function of introducing language testing?
  • Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?
S1 E8 What do Clause 9 (Nationality and Borders Bill) and the history of citizenship deprivation in the UK tell us about Britishness today?
  • What does the case of Shamima Begum highlight about Clause 9 of the Nationality and Borders Bill?
  • After listening to the podcast how do attempts to securitise Britain lead to discrimination?
  • Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?
S1 E9 What do the children denied the right to nationality through their British parents tell us about citizenship?
  • What does the case of Shamima Begum highlight about Clause 9 of the Nationality and Borders Bill?
  • After listening to the podcast how do attempts to securitise Britain lead to discrimination?
  • Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?
S1 E10 What can we learn about British citizenship from the Chagos Islanders?
  • What is the key goal of the British Indian Ocean Territory Citizens Campaign?
  • List three ways the British Overseas Territories Act of 2002 has restricted access to nationality for many
  • Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?
Beyond the Headlines ... with Dr Yvonne Su
  • List 3 inequalities that are present in the global response to the Ukraine war
  • What role does language play in the discourse of accepting Ukranian refugees?
  • Has this changed how you view media headlines? how/how not?
S2 E1 What does the Nationality and Borders Act mean for British citizenship?
  • What requirement/clause within the nationality and borders bill was the most impactful and why?
  • After listening to the podcast how would you define the language of illegality?
  • Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how / how not?
Beyond the headlines … with Aaron Winter
  • Give one example of how the far right has been mainstreamed
  • What role does media play in the portrayal of mass shootings as racist violence
  • Has this changed how you view media headlines? how/how not?
S2 E2 What does British citizenship have to do with Global Social Inequalities?
  • What example of an inequality caused by citizenship was the most impactful and why?
  • After listening to the podcast how would you define the concept of Forgotten Europe?
  • Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?
Beyond the headlines … with Alison Phipps and Tawona Sithole
  •  What example of resistance was the most impactful and why?
  •  How would you define migrant solidarity?
  •  Has this changed how you view your own acts of resistance how/how not?
S3 E3 How do protest and resistance make citizens and citizenship?
  1. What example of an act of citizenship was the most impactful? Are there any similar current examples of acts of citizenship that spring to mind?
  2. After listening to the podcast how would you define acts of citizenship?
  3. Has this podcast changed how you view your own acts of resistance? And in what ways?
S3 E4 What do family migration rules reveal about British citizenship today?
  1. What example of family migration was the most impactful and why?
  2. What was the purpose of increasing annual income threshold for sponsors?
  3. Has this changed how you view your own citizenship, how/how not?
Beyond the headlines … with Colin Yeo
  1. What inequalities does the lack of ID cards create in Britain
  2. How would you define the hostile environment?
  3. Has this changed how you view your own border control experience, how/how not?
S2 E5 What can we learn about what British and EU citizenship from Brexit?
  1. How has Brexit changed access to British citizenship based on an economic rationale?
  2. How are ideas of what it means to be British presented through discourse with the EU?
  3. Has this changed how you view your own citizenship? And in what ways?
S3 E1 Of Kings, Songs and Migrants
  • What imagined community, or imagined communities, do you feel that you belong to?  
  • Are there public events during which you do or could celebrate your belonging to this or these communities? Which ones? 
  • Who do you think is excluded from this imagined community and how? And what does this tell us about the symbolic boundaries of this community?
S3 E2 Free Movement, limited
  • How would you describe Freedom of Movement?
  • What factors might shape people’s experience of moving within the EU? And relatedly, what challenges or opportunities might people face when they move within the EU?
  • What role does migration play in creating and maintaining a ‘community of Europeans’?
  • In what ways has Brexit changed how you - your family & friends - can move to or within the EU?
S3 E3 Bye, Bye Britain
  • Do you have any family members who have emigrated from their country of origin? What do you know about their reasons for leaving? 
  • What do you think understanding emigration can add to our understandings of migration?  
  • What is the relationship between British emigration and British colonialism? And how does this shape the experiences of British citizens emigrating today?
  • What relationship does your country have with its citizens who have moved abroad?  
S3 E4 A New Plan for Migration?
  • How would you define a migration regime? 
  • What do migration regimes do for states? 
  • In what ways has the UK’s migration regime changed since Brexit, if at all? 
S3 E5 Migration, diaspora, diplomacy
  • What does ‘migration diplomacy’ mean? 
  • What actors do and can engage in migration diplomacy? 
  • What diplomatic instruments can states use to govern international migration? 
  • Which new visa routes and trade and mobility agreements has Britain negotiated and/or implemented since Brexit?  
S3 E6 Migrant Rights 2.0
  • What digital technologies do states use at the border?
  • When and where can and does digital bordering take place?
  • Is digital proof of immigration status secure?
  • What risks do migrants and citizens face in the growing use of digital technologies?
BtH2 E1 Beyond the headlines … at Manchester Museum with Senna Yousef and Caitlin Nunn
  1. What does it mean to call for museums to decolonise? And how does the Ancient History, Contemporary Belonging project approach this in your opinion?
  2. Participatory research takes seriously the power dynamics between researchers and those taking part in research. What do you think the strengths are of a participatory arts project such as this for troubling power and privilege within the research process?
  3. Why did the young people who took part in the Ancient History, Contemporary Belonging project object to the idea that their art works would be presented as a ‘disruption’?
S3 E7 Families at the borders

How would you define a mixed-status family?

Why do states regulate family migrations and with what effect?

What branches of law affect the lives of mixed-status families?

Is a family’s mixed-status permanent? If not, what routes do families take to overcome status inequalities?

S3 E8 Fortress Britain?
  • When and how do migrants become irregularised?
  • What do you understand by the concept of border violence? And what examples discussed in the episode particularly stand out to you?
  • What are the UK’s ‘safe and legal (humanitarian) routes? And what is distinctive about these in comparison to provisions for asylum and refugees outlined in the Geneva Convention?
S3E9 (Not so) safe routes
  • When and what was the institution of asylum established for?
  • Are there differences between asylum and the UK’s ‘safe and legal (humanitarian) routes’? How would you describe and explain these differences?
  • What does the UK’s preference for ad hoc humanitarian protection routes reveal about its approach to migration governance after Brexit?
S3 E10 Migration and the making of Global Britain

What is racial capitalism?

What does a lens onto racial capitalism reveal about the work of borders and migration controls?

Does racial capitalism change how your understanding of UK’s migration regime after Brexit? In what ways?