Multi-stakeholder knowledge exchange events as a tool of migration infrastructure: evidence from the North West of England

Abstract In a knowledge exchange (KE) event that focused on migration in the North West of England, mutual aid between stakeholders appeared as a powerful aspect of KE, as the substance that can hold different migration infrastructures together. The proceedings demonstrated that KE events act as a catalyst for the collaboration of actors who have varying stakes in authority, provision, and resolve, which are essential elements of migration infrastructures. KE is thus crucial for the de-politicization and rehumanization of the discourse on migration, by drilling down right to the core of implementation, resource management, multi-agency cooperation, and the fast changing migration ‘industry’. While the university appears as a key actor in articulating the discursive, KE helps to collaboratively review knowledge production and de-systematize it, moving away from what matters to politicians to what matters to those living and working on the ground.