S2E3- Migration and Policy

Описание: Episode Overview


In this episode, Layal and Pablo examine migration as a structural reality rather than a recurring crisis. They challenge the tendency to frame mobility as an emergency and argue that movement is shaped by political systems, economic inequality, climate pressure, and historical rupture.


Pablo draws on his policy experience to show how institutions respond too slowly to fast-moving realities. Migration policy often prioritizes control over understanding. It reacts to symptoms instead of causes. Layal pushes the conversation toward narrative responsibility and questions how language strips migrants of agency. Labels like “refugee” and “economic migrant” reduce sensitive lives into manageable categories.


The discussion widens through a literary reference. Pablo recommends ‘Free: Coming of Age at the End of History’ by Lea Ypi. The book traces Albania’s transition from a closed communist state to sudden openness. It captures how political shifts reshape freedom, belonging, and choice long before people cross borders. The reference grounds migration in lived experience rather than abstraction.


The episode ends with a clear position. Migration policy must stop treating people as problems to manage, and must instead, recognize migrants as political actors shaped by history and structure. Mobility is a reality of our present and our future, and accessibility must be a granted right. 
Recommended Reading
‘Free: Coming of Age at the End of History’ – Lea Ypi


Pablo recommends this autobiographical novel as essential reading for understanding migration through political transition. Ypi recounts her childhood in Albania during the collapse of communism and the shock of sudden openness. She shows how ideology, freedom, and identity shift unevenly during systemic change.


The book reinforces the episode’s core argument. People do not move in a vacuum. History moves first.


About The Guest 


Pablo Pastor Vital is a PhD candidate at Lund University, where his research engages with finance migration, policy, and institutional response, and is the former president of the Mediterranean Youth Council. His work bridges academic analysis and real-world governance, with a focus on how political systems define mobility and belonging.


Transcript


Layal Beyhum (host) 00:05


Hello everyone and welcome to the Nonviolence Now podcast brought to you by Pace E Bene, where we explore the principles of nonviolence, where it all started, and how it shows up in today's digital world. Hello everybody and welcome back.





It's your host Layal Beyhum, and today I am joined by a great friend of mine and a former colleague Pablo Pastor Vidal. In today's episode, we're looking at migration from a very particular lens, and it's that of an academic one. Pablo holds a Masters of Arts in European Interdisciplinary Studies from the College of Europe and a double degree in Law and Political Science from Universidad Carlos Tres de Madrid. He currently is a research affiliate of the Refugee Law Initiative at the University of Lund and co-president of the Mediterranean Youth Council. It's so good to have you here with us, and I'm really looking forward to today's conversation. How are you doing today? 





Pablo Pastor (guest) 01:06


I'm doing great, Layal, thank you so much for the invitation and to be able to talk to you. It's great honestly to be here. 





Layal Beyhum 01:13


When we hear this phrase of the migration crisis, what picture flashes first and what do you think is wrong with that picture? 





Pablo Pastor (guest) 01:23


The first picture that comes to our minds is a lot of migrants coming into a country. They come in boats. They come in very bad conditions and they just go into the streets. Let's say it's a health problem. It's a public order problem. And, and of course, migration is so much more complex than this.


And this kind of migration is only a very small part. So for example, I want to talk about a picture that they sell from my own country in Spain. So in Spain, we had a very recent episode where there was a lot of Islamophobia against Muslims precisely because some groups in the far right were actually waiting for some small issues to happen. So there was a case where there was a young person where there was some kind of violence episode. It's very complex. What actually happened is not very clear, but there was some kind of violence and that person wasn't even from that town, but what happened later was that everything went viral. A lot of extreme groups came from other parts of Europe and this made it to the news and, and, and actually showed how difficult it is to manage for a country like Spain, that we have so much history of cultural exchange of migration to manage something like this. 





Layal Beyhum 02:37


What are the different types of migration? Because we heard different terms, immigration, immigration, political asylum, expat.



What are these different notions and w...