Biography

Biography
Richard is Head of the School of Global Studies, a new School of study established at Sussex in 2009. He has held the post of Professor of Human Geography since 2003, and became CEO of the 'Migrating out of Poverty' research consortium, a major international partnership funded by DFID and involving universities in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Bangladesh and Singapore, in early 2012.  This consortium grew out of the earlier 'Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty', also funded by DFID, of which Richard was Director from 2003-09.

Based at Sussex since 1995, Richard spent the Autumn term of 2011 as Visiting Fellow at the University of Neuchatel, funded by an International Short Visit Fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation.  From January to March 2007, he was Visiting Researcher at the Institut Nationale des Etudes Demographiques in Paris. 

In 2012, Richard was elected Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences, whilst in 2008, he won the Royal Geographical Society's 'Back Award' for contributions to public policy.

Richard completed his undergraduate degree in Geography in 1986 (Oxon) and his PhD in 1990 (London).  From 1989-1995 he was Lecturer at King's College London.

Role

Professor Richard Black is Head of the School of Global Studies at Sussex. 

Community and Business

From 2009-11, Richard served as Chair of the Lead Expert Group for a Foresight project on 'Migration and Global Environmental Change', within the Government Office for Science.  His external roles include membership of the steering committee of the Nansen Initiative on Cross-Border Dispalcement, and active engagement with a number of international organisations. In 2009, he was on the advisory board of the civil society days for the Global Forum on Migration and Development, whilst in 2003, he was special advisor to the House of Commons International Development Select Committee inquiry into migration and development.

Richard has also worked as a consultant for a number of organisations, including the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the European Training Foundation.

Richard Black's work focuses on the study of international migration, including forced migration and post-conflict return, and related social, economic and environmental transformations. Together with colleagues at Sussex and elsewhere, he has recently been involved in developing new approaches to the understanding of the consequences of climate change for migration patterns globally, resulting in contributions to Nature in 2011, and Nature Climate Change in 2012.

He is also actively researching and writing on the development of public policy on migration and poverty, especially in poor countries, and on immigrant integration in the UK, particularly relating to recent East European and African migrations.  Work on migration and poverty is linked to the Migrating out of Poverty research consortium, which is led from Sussex, and also to an EU-funded project on Migration from Africa to Europe (MAFE), led by INED, Paris from 2009-12.

Richard's latest book, A Continent Moving West?, focused on East European migration since accession, and was published in 2010.

Previous research funded by UK Home Office, ESRC and the European Commission on return to the Balkans, and by DFID on return to West Africa sought to develop a framework to understand how return migration affects different stakeholders in 'sending' and 'receiving' countries, and to promote the sustainability of this return in terms of poverty reduction and post-conflict reconstruction.

Richard has also worked on post-war return to Mozambique and its impact specifically on the natural resource sector, comparing present day policy with colonial forestry interventions, and edited a collection on the Millennium Development Goals which appeared in early 2004.

Richard's teaching ranges from undergraduate geography and development studies, to postgradaute teaching on migration.

He is also supervisor to a number of doctoral students, listed below, and contributes to a range of training courses for professionals.  Applicants wishing to study for a doctorate should write in the first instance with a one-page outline of their research ideas to migration@sussex.ac.uk

Current doctoral students (all jointly supervised):

Fran Meissner (Migration Studies) Socialising with diversity: numerical smallness, social networks and the super-diversity. (Fran is based at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious Diversity in Gottingen).

David Rubyan-Ling (Migration Studies) The politics of belonging in diaspora: an ethnographic study of Sierra Leoneans in London

Vanessa Iaria (Migration Studies) Iraqi refugees assisted and self-repatriation from Syria and Jordan

Max Martin (Geography): Migration, climate change and images of place in Bangladesh.

Student Consultation

I am normally available to meet students between 10 and 11.30am on Fridays. For alternative times, please email Christina Oelgemoller: e.c.oelgemoller@sussex.ac.uk

Kniveton, Dominic R, Smith, Christopher D and Black, Richard (2012) Emerging migration flows in a changing climate in dryland Africa. Nature Climate Change, 2 (6). pp. 444-447. ISSN 1758-678X

Black, Richard, Bennett, Stephen R G, Thomas, Sandy M and Beddington, John R (2011) Climate change: migration as adaptation. Nature, 478. pp. 477-479.

Black, Richard, Adger, W Neil, Arnell, Nigel W, Dercon, Stefan, Geddes, Andrew and Thomas, David (2011) The effect of migration on global environmental change. Global Environmental Change, 21 (1). S1-S2.

Wright, Katie and Black, Richard (2011) International migration and the downturn: assessing the impacts of the global financial downturn on migration, poverty and human well-being. Journal of International Development, 23 (4). pp. 555-64.

Wright, Katie and Black, Richard (2011) Poverty, migration and human well-being: towards a post-crisis research and policy agenda. Journal of International Development, 23 (4). pp. 548-54.

Kniveton, Dominic, Black, Richard and Schmidt-Verkerk, Kerstin (2011) Migration and climate change: towards an integrated assessment of sensitivity. Environment and Planning A, 43 (2). pp. 431-450. ISSN 0308-518X

Black, Richard, Engbersen, Godfried, Okolski, Marek and Pantiru, Cristina, eds. (2010) A Continent Moving West? EU Enlargement and Labour Migration from Central and Eastern Europe. Amsterdam University Press.

King, Russell, Black, Richard, Collyer, Michael, Fielding, Anthony and Skeldon, Ronald (2010) People on the Move: An Atlas of Human Migration. University of California Press.

Black, Richard and Skeldon, Ronald (2009) Strengthening data and research tools on migration and development. International Migration, 47 (5). pp. 3-22. ISSN 0020-7985

Black, Richard and Castaldo, Adriana (2009) Return migration and entrepreneurship in Ghana and Cote d'lvoire: the role of capital transfers. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 100 (1). pp. 44-58. ISSN 0040-747X

Markova, Eugenia and Black, Richard (2008) The experiences of 'new' East European immigrants in the UK labour market. Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 16 (1). pp. 19-31. ISSN 1759-8273

Kniveton, Dominic, Schmidt-Verkerk, Kerstin, Smith, Christopher and Black, Richard (2008) Climate Change and Migration: Improving Methodologies to Estimate Flows. Unset. International Organization for Migration, Geneva.

Black, Richard, Kniveton, Dominic, Skeldon, Ronald, Coppard, David, Murata, Akira and Schmidt-Verkerk, Kerstin (2008) Demographics and climate change: future trends and their policy implications for migration. Working Paper. Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty, University of Sussex.

Black, Richard, Jones, Larissa, Pantiru, Maria Cristina, Sabates-Wheeler, Rachel, Skeldon, Ronald and Vathi, Zana (2007) Understanding migration as a driver of poverty reduction in Europe and Central Asia. Working Paper. University of Sussex, Brighton.

Markova, Eugenia and Black, Richard (2007) East European immigration and community cohesion. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York, pp. 1-80. ISBN 9781859355817

Black, Richard (2007) Should governments encourage migration? Kasarinlan: Philippines Journal of Third World Studies, 22 (1). pp. 173-178. ISSN 2012-080X

Black, Richard (2006) Moving backwards? Migration in sub-Saharan Africa. In: The politics of migration: a survey. Routledge, pp. 112-129. ISBN 9781857433654

Black, Richard and Gent, Saskia (2006) Sustainable return in post-conflict contexts. International Migration, 44 (3). pp. 15-38. ISSN 0020-7985

Black, Richard, Collyer, Michael, Skeldon, Ronald and Waddington, Clare (2006) Routes to illegal residence: a case study of immigration detainees in the United Kingdom. Geoforum, 37 (4). pp. 552-564. ISSN 0016-7185

Unset (2006) Targeting development: critical perspectives on the Millennium Development Goals. Routledge studies in development economics . Routledge. ISBN 9780415394659

Black, Richard (2006) Return of refugees: retrospect and prospect. In: Palestinian refugee repatriation: global perspectives. Routledge studies in Middle Eastern politics . Routledge, pp. 23-40. ISBN 9780415384971

Black, Richard and Watson, Elizabeth (2006) Local community, legitimacy and culture authenticity in post-conflict natural resource management: Ethiopia and Mozambique. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 24 (2). pp. 263-282. ISSN 0263-7758

Black, Richard and King, Russell (2004) Editorial Introduction: Migration, Return and Development in West Africa. Population, Space and Place, 10 (2). pp. 75-83. ISSN 1544-8444

Black, Richard and Tiemoko, Richmond (2004) Migration, Retour et Impact en Afrique de l'Ouest. In: L'Afrique de l'Ouest dans la competition mondiale: Quels atouts possibles? Karthala/Club du Sahel. ISBN 284586471X

Schafer, Jessica and Black, Richard (2003) Conflict, Peace, and the History of Natural Resource Management in Sussundenga District, Mozambique. African Studies Review, 46 (3). pp. 55-81. ISSN 0002-0206

Black, Richard (2003) Ethical codes in humanitarian emergencies: from practice to research. Disasters, 27 (2). pp. 95-108. ISSN 0361-3666

Black, Richard, King, Russell and Tiemoko, Richmond (2003) Migration, return and small enterprise development in Ghana: a route out of poverty? Working Paper. Sussex Centre for Migration Research, Brighton.

Black, Richard (2003) Breaking the convention: researching the 'illegal' migration of refugees to Europe. Antipode, 35 (1). pp. 34-54. ISSN 0066-4812

Black, Richard (2003) Forced migration and sustainable development: post-conflict opportunities in Ethiopia and Mozambique. Praxis: The Fletcher Journal of Human Security, 18. pp. 31-41. ISSN 1041-9802

Black, Richard, Fielding, Tony, King, Russell, Skeldon, Ronald and Tiemoko, Richmond (2003) Longitudinal studies: an insight into current studies and the social and economic outcomes for migrants. Working Paper. Sussex Centre for Migration Research, Brighton.

Black, Richard (2002) Conceptions of 'home' and the political geography of refugee repatriation: between assumption and contested reality in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Applied Geography, 22 (2). pp. 123-138. ISSN 0143-6228

Al-Ali, Nadje, Black, Richard and Koser, Khalid (2001) Refugees and transnationalism: the experience of Bosnians and Eritreans in Europe. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 27 (4). pp. 615-34. ISSN 1369-183X

Black, Richard (2001) Return and reconstruction: missing link or mistaken priority in post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina? SAIS Review, 21 (2). pp. 177-199. ISSN 0036-0775

Al-Ali, Nadje, Black, Richard and Koser, Khalid (2001) The limits to 'transnationalism': Bosnian and Eritrean refugees in Europe as emerging transnational communities. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 24 (4). pp. 578-600. ISSN 0141-9870

Black, Richard (2001) Environmental refugees: myth or reality? Working Paper. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Black, Richard (2001) Fifty years of refugee studies: from theory to policy. International Migration Review, 35 (1). pp. 55-78. ISSN 0197-9183

Koser, Khalid and Black, Richard (1999) Limits to harmonization: The temporary protection of refugees in the European Union. International Migration, 37 (3). pp. 521-544. ISSN 00207985

Black, Richard (1998) Refugees, environment and development. Longman development studies . Longman, 229pp. ISBN 9780582315648

Black, Richard and Sessay, Mohamed (1997) Forced migration land-use change and political economy in the forest region of Guinea. African Affairs, 96 (385). pp. 587-605. ISSN 00019909

Black, Richard (1996) Immigration and social justice: towards a progressive European immigration policy? Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 21 (1). pp. 64-75. ISSN 0020-2754