Marco Distinto, an Open University Business School PhD graduate, marked the beginning of Refugee Week 2021 by discussing his PhD research, which looks at the human stories behind the 2015 refugee crisis in Italy.
As a migrant from the South of Italy, Marco wanted to challenge current ideological discourses around migration by sharing the real stories of migrants and the people who support them.
His thesis ‘Refugee reception centres and the integration of the migrant: an exploratory study of discourses and practices of not-for-profit organizations working to support refugees in Italy’, was supervised by Dr Cinzia Priola, Dr Alexandra Bristow and former OU academic Professor Peter Bloom. Marco passed his PhD viva with no corrections on 21 October 2020.
You can listen to Marco talking about his research in more detail below.

Wednesday, September 2, 2026 - 09:00 to Friday, September 4, 2026 - 17:00
University of Donja Gorica, Oktoih 1, Podgorica 81000, Montenegro
This academic conference hopes to draw feminist scholars, activists and communities together to consider what caring feminism across borders might mean now and for the future.
Thursday, March 4, 2027 to Friday, March 5, 2027
The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, United Kingdom
Contact SOMF 2027 Team
The annual European convening of the service operations management research community; an event designed for deep discussion, new collaborations, and the open exchange of work-in-progress alongside finished research.