Raghuram completed her PhD in geography at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1991.[4][3] Her thesis was entitled: Coping strategies of domestic workers: A study of three settlements in the Delhi Metropolitan region, India.[6]
Starting in 1994, Raghuram was a lecturer in geography at Nottingham Trent University.[4]
By 2005, Raghuram had been one of the editors on special editions, of journals, that focussed on migration and gender.[7] Starting in 2005, Raghuram worked at the Open University.[8]
As of 2013, Raghuram was Reader in Geography at the Open University.[9]
As of 2016, Raghuram was awarded the Murchison Award by the Royal Geographical Society.[10] She was the first woman of colour to receive the award.[1]
In she co-wrote a research paper focusing on female migrants from India to the EU;[11] the research paper was for a project called the European Union-UK Cooperation and Dialogue on Migration and Mobility, by the International Labour Office, which is now called the International Labour Organization and is a UN agency.[12]
By May 2025, Raghuram had authored reports for several UN agencies and thinktanks,[1] and her academic output included nine research pieces, most of which are research articles, co-authored with academic geographers Clare Madge and Patricia Noxolo.[13]
As of May 2025, Raghuram is Professor of Geography and Migration at the Open University,[1] and her research focuses on how the world is being reshaped by the geographical movement of goods, people and intellectual outputs.[8] Much of her work has focused on changing the theorisations of migration of more educated migrants and of international students.[10] Also as of May 2025 she is involved in a number of research projects focusing on people migrating from one place in Africa to another.[14]
She has written for OpenDemocracy[15] and been interviewed by the website Womanthology.[5]
She has also been the research director and postgraduate director of the OpenSPACE research centre;[5] the centre focuses on researching inclusivity in accessing outdoor spaces.[16]
