Calls for papers: Environmental changes and human mobility: what role for migration governance?

Please find attached the call for papers for the COST Action IS1101 Climate Change and Migration – Bern Workshop: Environmental changes and human mobility: what role for migration governance?, which will take place 24 October, 2014 at the World Trade Institute, University of Bern, Switzerland [Moderator’s note: please see the call for papers below].

We invite abstracts of papers concerned with these questions from different academic disciplines as well as practitioners. Contributions of not more than 1-2 pages should be sent to the conference organisers at  Roberto Cherchi, rcherchi@unica.it; Ilenia Ruggiu, iruggiu@unica.it; Elisa Fornalé, elisa.fornale@wti.org, by 31 July, 2014.

Please refer to the attached call for papers for further information or contact the conference organisers at Elisa Fornalé, World Trade Institute, elisa.fornale@wti.org.

We would be grateful if you could forward this call to interested colleagues and disseminate it through your channels.

Call for Papers

ISCH COST Action IS1101 (Climate change and migration)
Environmental changes and human mobility: what role for migration governance?
Working Group: WGII (Law and Policy)

Date: Friday 24 October 2014
Place: World Trade Institute (WTI), University of Bern

Workshop theme: environmental changes, human mobility and normative implications

This workshop aims to examine the influence of climate change on immigration policies and on the migration governance in a globalized world.

The growing role of environmental drivers is likely to impact international migratory flows, although the normative implications of this interdependence remain underexplored.

The workshop intends to adopt the environmental degradation-migration nexus as one way to gain new insights into post-national rulemaking processes and their normative implications. A key issue is whether states can still adopt migration measures and provide legally effective mechanisms to face natural changes in a world that is increasingly marked by globalization and neoliberalization.

To this end, the workshop will cover the interplay between different legal orders and levels of governance (at the international, regional and domestic level) to overcome the mismatch between normative perspectives and real-life processes.

There should be a reflection on the nexus between environmental migration issues and the existing legal concepts and tools of immigration law. Special attention should be paid to new legal
frames related to environmental migration flows, migrants’ status and human rights protection.

A special investigation should be conducted on the nexus between trade liberalization and immigration policy. To date there has been little research to capture the potential to refer, for example, to free trade agreements and their influences on immigration policies. Studies are also lacking on the impact of regional integration and cross-continental migration agreements on the regulation of migration flows and migrants’ legal statuses, with a specific focus on temporary movement of natural persons. Therefore, this workshop is primarily aimed to further develop legal research that conceptualizes human mobility linked to environmental degradation by identifying migration strategies as effective protective responses.

In addition, it is necessary to focus on new post-national governance in a globalized world: what form can it take in the framework of national environmental-immigration policies?

Issues that may be addressed at the workshop include:
– Challenges to global governance raised by environmental degradation-induced migration at the international, regional and national levels;
– Identification of normative gaps in current implementation and research on environmental migration policies;
– Case study of human mobility as an adaptation strategy to environmental changes;
– Investigation on the interactions of free trade agreements, temporary mobility schemes and climate-change induced migration;
– Analysis of the legal frameworks and policy mechanisms to support environmental migration decisions, both at the international and at the national level.

Structure of the workshop:
The workshop will consist of a keynote lecture, followed by round tables for discussions and case studies/ presentations current research. All statements and presentations should be circulated no later than one month before the workshop. The organizers envisage publishing all contributions of it in a relevant journal as a Special Issue.

Participants:
The organizers will select 12-14 participants from different disciplinary backgrounds addressing the above-mentioned topics and related aspects of human mobility and environmental changes.

Application procedure:
This workshop aims to invite scholars, researchers and policy-makers to present and discuss legal, governance and policy frameworks with particular consideration of the adaptation strategies of climate migrants and future challenges that climate migration poses. We will invite scholars from different disciplines to present expert papers on policy and legal frameworks for managing migration, potential migration or adaptation strategies resulting from climate change at the national, regional and international levels. Representatives from non-governmental organizations, research agencies, government and policy-makers are also particularly welcome to participate.

Please send an abstract of 1-2 pages (max) and a short biography (half page) to the organizers of the workshop:
– Professor Roberto Cherchi, Professor of Public Law, Department of Law, University of Cagliari, rcherchi@unica.it
– Professor Ilenia Ruggiu, Professor of Constitutional Law, Department of Law, University of Cagliari, iruggiu@unica.it
– Dr Elisa Fornalé, World Trade Institute, elisa.fornale@wti.org

Host institution: World Trade Institute, University of Bern, Switzerland

Travel and accommodation: Travel and accommodation expenses will be covered for those participants and paper presenters of the COST Action Network who have been accepted to participate in the workshop. Non-COST members are subject to financial approval procedures.

Deadline for applications: 31 July 2014
Notification of acceptance: 10 August 2014
Full paper submission: Participants will be asked to submit a full paper of 10-15 pages by 1 October 2014.

This Workshop is funded by the COST Action IS1101 Climate Change and Migration: Knowledge, Law and Policy, and Theory

For further details, see:
www.climatemigration.eu
www.cost.eu/domains_actions/isch/Actions/IS1101