Russell King is a former Professor of Geography at the University of Sussex and Director of the Sussex Centre for Migration Research, one of the largest groupings of migration scholars worldwide. Trained as a Human Geographer, with BA and PhD degrees in Geography from the LSE, he also has an MSc in Economics and an Mlitt in History. After an academic career as Research Fellow in Middle Eastern Studies at Durham University, Lecturer in Geography at the University of Leicester,and Professor of Geography at Trinity College Dublin, he moved to Sussex University in 1993.

After early studies in land reform – the topic of King’s doctorate and the theme of many of his publications in the 1970s (including Land Reform: The Italian Experience, and Land Reform: A World Survey) – he has for more than thirty years specialised in the study of human migration, researching its various forms (labour migration, return migration, retirement migration, student migration) in many countries around the world. In recent years King has co-authored two books on Albanian migration, Out of Albania with Nicola Mai, and Remittances, Gender and Development: Albania’s Society and Economy in Transition with Julie Vullnetari.

From 2000-2013 King was Editor of The Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, one of the world’s foremost migration journals. Combining his geographical interests in maps and migration, he headed the Sussex team which produced The Atlas of Human Migration.