Professor Kavita Datta

Kavita Datta is Professor of Development Geography and Director of the Centre for the Study of Migration at Queen Mary University of London. Spanning development and economic geography and migration studies, her research focuses on transnational migration, financialisation and migrants financial practices. In addition to the Migration Leadership Team project, Kavita’s other projects are exploring the financialisation and professionalization of remittance intermediaries after the financial crisis in London (Disciplining the Remittance Marketplace? PI, Leverhulme Trust); migrants transnational inheritance norms and practices (Transmitting (in)equality across borders: Shifting Inheritance Practices and Outcomes among Indian Migrants in London, ESRC-CASE) and the arts-migration nexus and the politics of waiting among young refugees (Athens-Paris-London, Co-I, QMUL). With research expertise in the UK, Southern Africa and India, Kavita has published numerous journal articles and book chapters. She is author of Migrants and their Money: Surviving Financial Exclusion in London (Policy Press and University of Chicago Press, Bristol and Chicago, 2012); co-author of Global Cities at Work: New Migrant Divisions of Labour  (Pluto Press, London, 2010) and co-editor of Housing Finance in Developing Countries (Routledge, London, 1999).