The voices of migrant women have been ‘amplified’ in a new project that has just been released in Sheffield.

Four podcast episodes have been funded by the University Of Sheffield, aimed at ‘building bridges between female migrants and scholars’. 

Dr Patrícia Nabuco Martuscelli, an International Relations lecturer, and one of the co-directors of the migration research group at the university, has teamed up with Livia Barreira, a writer and journalist with an online platform celebrating migration and diversity in Sheffield, to launch the Living in Sheffield podcast.

Dr Nabuco Martuscelli said: “The podcast gives a space for material so we can share the amazing migrant women that we have here in our community.

“Their amazing projects, their amazing ideas. Voices that sometimes are not given enough space in our communities.”

The podcast launch recognised the City of Sanctuary movement, which aims to create welcoming environments and safe places for people fleeing violence and persecution. 

Sheffield City Council unanimously agreed to support this movement on 18 June 2007, during Refugee Week, making it the first city in the UK to do so. There are now multiple Cities, Boroughs and Towns of Sanctuary across the country. 

The four episodes cover the themes of multilingualism, activism, race and racism, and access to higher education. They discuss women’s lived experiences in the city, as well as academic sources and studies completed with the university. 

Both hosts hoped to be able to produce more episodes, and in the future would want the chance to be able to cover entrepreneurship, sexuality and gender identity, access to the NHS, and disabilities for migrant women. 

Dr Nabuco Martuscelli said: “Sheffield as a city has an intrinsic connection with migration. So this has some symbolism that is very important, especially now when we see so many restrictive migration policies and demonising discourses against migrant communities. 

“We want to normalise migration discussions in a country where migration has been highly polarised.

“Considering the riots that we had, the movement and the fear that migrant communities faced during summer here, the podcast also aims to value the contributions of migration to try to deconstruct this narrative that we see by many politicians, sometimes in the media, and especially far-right discourses.” 

Ms Barrera said: “I am very proud of my accent. I hope it can encourage and empower all the migrants to not feel there is something wrong about their own voice, because there’s not.  

“There’s something wrong with people who think that way, which is ignorance. I think it’s a subtle message, but I love it.” 

Recording began in May, and each episode is between 40 and 50 minutes long. 

Ms Barreira said: “It is not very often we have a podcast talking about this, especially in Sheffield as well. So this was one of the motivations, to have more safe spaces to talk about these topics.” 

“In my opinion we have so many talented people in our community, and I would love to see more spaces and more opportunities for everyone.” 

Episodes are released every two weeks, and are available via the University of Sheffield Player.