Migration Experts Series | Loren Landau

In the third video in the series, the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) interviews Dr. Loren Landau, the South African research chair on mobility and the politics of difference at the African Centre for Migration and Society of the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in South Africa. Dr. Landau also serves on the editorial board of the International Migration Review, a CMS peer-reviewed publication and the premier interdisciplinary journal for international migration, refugee movements, and ethnic group relations.

In this video, Dr. Landau discusses his recent research into urban “estuaries” and “archipelagos” that challenge how scholars traditionally view human mobility and governance. A political scientist by training, Dr. Landau’s research explores how mobility — including the movement of both domestic and international migrants— is reshaping the politics of rapidly diversifying and expanding communities. In places like Johannesburg, South Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, and Maputo, Mozambique, these “estuaries” on the peripheries of state authority are giving rise to novel forms of political community, institutions, and ethics that Dr. Landau argues will characterize the future of African urbanism.