EVENT INVITATION: Commonwealth Migration: learning from the past, anticipating the future – 14 June

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You are invited to attend…

Commonwealth Migration: learning from the past, anticipating the future

14 June, 6:30pm – 9pm
Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H 0XG
(Find it on a map)

Immigration from the countries of the Commonwealth has played an important part in creating modern day Britain. Yet from the 1960s through to the political debates of the present day it has also proven to be intensely controversial, polarising large parts of the population into pro- and anti-migration campaigns.

To mark the significance of the 50th anniversary of the first Commonwealth Immigrants Act, the scholar and prominent commentator on immigration policy, Professor Nigel Harris, will set out his views on the world created by immigration control legislation and ask whether this approach will be sustainable if future years see a shift in the global economic and political order.

 With responses from:

Dr Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah (Chair), Director of the Royal Commonwealth Society
Professor Satvinder Juss, Kings College
Patsy Robertson, Chair of the Ramphal Institute
Dr Ike Anya, Consultant in public health medicine

Register

Events: Refugee Law Seminars, 10 May 2012

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1.  Oxford Migration Law Discussion Group:

Today’s group meeting will start at 5 pm (instead of 6h30) and will take place not in the Senior Common Room, but in Seminar Room F at the Law Faculty (University of Oxford, St Cross Building, St Cross Road, Oxford OX1 3UL).

Kate Ogg (Oxford RSC) will present her paper: “Separating the persecutors from the persecuted: a feminist and comparative examination of exclusion from the refugee regime”.

For further details on the Migration Law Discussion Group see: http://www.law.ox.ac.uk/discussion_group/MLDG

Looking forward to meeting you!

Violeta Moreno Lax

violeta.morenolax@qeh.ox.ac.uk

2. Refugee Law Initiative Seminar Series:

A reminder that the Refugee Law Initiative seminar series on International Refugee Law will continue on this Thursday 10 May.

We are very pleased to welcome Professor Patricia Tuitt (Birkbeck) who will be speaking on:

“Refugees, Law and Postcolonial Theory”

Please note the updated title of the event. The event will take place at 17.30 in the Chancellors Hall, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU.

Please do not hesitate to forward this email to others in the field who may have an interest in attending. For further details please see www.sas.ac.uk/rli.

All welcome!

Call for Papers: Deadline Reminder! International Conference: on Migration and Well-Being

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Call for Papers

International Conference: Migration and Well-Being: Research Frontiers

Tel Aviv University, Israel

January 8-10, 2013

We invite paper submissions for the International Conference on Migration andWell-Being organized by Tel Aviv University and RC31.

International Advisory Committee

David Bartram, University of Leicester, UK

Peter Kivisto, Augustana College, USA

Peggy Levitt, Wellesley College, USA

Marco Martiniello, University de Liege, Belgium; FRS-FNRS

Ewa Morawska, University of Essex, UK

Israeli Organizing Committee

Adriana Kemp, Tel Aviv University

Noah Lewin-Epstein, Tel Aviv University

Moshe Semyonov, Tel Aviv University

Sergio DellaPergola, Hebrew University

Rebeca Raijman, University of Haifa

Keynote Speaker: Professor Doug Massey, Princeton University

The conference will address such issues as:

- Economic and psychological well-being of immigrants

- Social exclusion and xenophobia

- The contribution of immigrants to the well-being of the local population, particularly the aging

- The role of remittances in improving the welfare of immigrant families

- Well-being of asylum seekers and refugees

- Education and children of immigrants

- Migration policies and the well-being of immigrants

Papers relevant to the main theme of the conference, Migration and Well-Being, will be particularly welcome. Other papers will be considered as well, space permitting.

Submission of Papers

All paper presenters should submit an application consisting of the following two items:

a) Name of Author(s) and affiliation(s)

b) A short abstract (maximum of 500 words)

Please upload your abstract here, or send it as an attachment to migration.conference@gmail.com.

 

Deadline for submission: **May 15, 2012**

Decisions will be sent out: June 30, 2012

For more information on the conference, please visit our website.

Event: Racism and anti-racism in the United States: contesting ‘the new Jim Crow’

Racism and anti-racism in the United States: contesting 'the new Jim Crow'

Speaker: Prof Tithi Bhattacharya, Purdue University, US

Tuesday 15 May 2012, 5.30pm, at Runnymede Trust, 7 Plough Yard, Shoreditch, London EC2A 3LP. Nearest tube: Liverpool Street

The murder of black teenager Trayvon Martin in a gated community in Sanford, Florida made international headlines. Academics and policy-makers who argued that America had arrived at a ‘post-racial’ society, in which race played little role in determining social practice, had to scramble to explain how this killing fell within the law.

In this seminar Tithi Bhattacharya explores two simultaneous trends in political developments in America - increasing racialisation of law and civil society from above and the beginnings of a new era of anti-racist struggle. Following Michelle Alexander and her analysis of The New Jim Crow*, she argues that the killing of Trayvon Martin has become the 'rule' in the context of the US state and its relationship to people of colour.

What made this murder an 'exception’ - prompting large anti-racist marches across the US - is the recent rise in mass resistance, including the emergence across the US of the Occupy Movement. Tithi Bhattacharya examines the intersection of these two forces - the American state from above and the new mass movement from below – and the potential outcomes for anti-racist struggles in America.

* The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (New Press 2010)

Organised by Runnymede Trust and the Centre for Research on Migration, Refugees & Belonging (CMRB) at UEL.

Further information available in the attached Flyer:  Seminar – the ‘new Jim Crow’.

Event: Displaced Childhoods: Oral History and Traumatic Experiences

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From the Oral History Society Website:

Displaced Childhoods: Oral History and Traumatic Experiences

Oral History Society Annual Conference: Friday and Saturday 13-14 July 2012

Southampton Solent University in association with Modern Languages, University of Southampton

Conference venue: Southampton Solent University Conference Centre, Sir James Matthews Building, 157-187 Above Bar Street, Southampton, Hampshire, SO14 7NN

Download provisional programme | Download conference registration form

Displaced Childhoods: Oral History and Traumatic Experiences

Please click the poster above to download and print an A4 copy for your institution

This multidisciplinary conference will showcase how oral history is increasingly being used to explore the impact of traumatic events such as war, evacuation, conflict and growing up in care has on children and their adult selves. We have an exciting line up of speakers from both the UK and overseas, presenting papers on a range of topics around displaced childhoods, as well as on methodological and ethical issues. The conference will be of interest to all those working in the field of oral history.

Key themes of the conference include:

• Internal migration and the global movement of children from Spain, India, the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda
• The ‘Forgotten Children’ forcibly migrated to Australia
• Childhood experience of civil disasters
• The effects of growing up in care and long-term hospitalisation
• The development of therapeutic environments for children and young people with emotional, social and behavioural disorders.

Keynote Speakers

Dr Joanna Sassoon , project manager of the Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants oral history project at the National Library of Australia; and

Professor Lynn Abrams, author of The Orphan Country: Children of Scotland’s Broken Homes and Oral History Theory

We are pleased to be holding the conference at Southampton Solent University as this year the city commemorates the 75th anniversary of the little known story of Los Niños, the children evacuated to the UK during the Spanish Civil War. An oral history project on Los Niños will be discussed at the conference.

Southampton is well connected by air, coach, rail, road, and sea. And the university is only 10 minutes walk from Southampton rail station.

A conference registration form can be accessed by clicking this link.

Event: Applied Research Methods with Hidden, Marginal and Excluded Populations (30 July – 3 August 2012)

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Applied Research Methods with Hidden, Marginal and Excluded Populations
School in Social Science Data Analysis, University of Essex (UK)
30 July – 3 August 2012

The course (8th Edition) provides an introduction to research methods in conducting research, both qualitative and quantitative, with marginal, hidden and excluded populations, with a specific focus on equity related research. The course introduces the main theories and research approaches on hard-to-reach populations using different frameworks and techniques.

This intensive course will provide tools to address key issues such as the lack of known sampling frame; the difficulties in reaching the target group; the concepts of impact, attribution and contribution; and the political dimension of research findings. The course explores topics such as: estimation and sampling techniques; participatory research; evidence-based policy versus policy-based evidence; innovation, crowdsourcing and the use of technology; the art of combining qualitative and quantitative methods; and ethical considerations arising when conducting research with hidden and marginalized populations.

A course description and detailed outline are available at http://www.essex.ac.uk/summerschool/media/pdf/Outlines/2R%20Applied%20Research%20Methods%20with%20Hidden%20and%20Marginal%20populations.pdf

Topics in this year’s course:

Innovation and the use of technology: SMS, crowd sourcing and mapping
- Using SMS and mobile phones for research and data collection
- Crowdsourcing and mapping: Ushahidi (introduction)

Qualitative methods
- Participatory research methods
- Rapid assessment
- KAP (Knowledge Attitude and Practice)
- Positive deviance

Quantitative methods:
- Cluster sampling
- Adaptive cluster sampling
- Time location sampling
- Lot Quality Assurance (LQAS)
- Small area estimation
- Capture and recapture
- Respondent Driven Sampling RDS (intro)
- Social network analysis applied to hard-to-reach populations (introduction)

Description
http://www.essex.ac.uk/summerschool/courses/session2/2r.html

Note:  Applications will be accepted until 1 June 2012, but apply soon as courses fill up quickly!

Contacts and registration
For information please contact :
Ms. Melanie Sawers, Administrative Director
Essex Summer School In Social Science Data Analysis, University of Essex UK
email: mels@essex.ac.uk
tel: +44 (0) 1206 872502

Event: Film Showing – Love in the Time of the Frontier

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Film showing | UCL Anthropology Department

Love in the Time of the Frontier
Three short films on migrations, detentions and expulsions across the Mediterranean

by Alexandra D’Onofrio
produced by FortressEurope
http://fortresseurope.blogspot.it/

Wednesday 16th May
5-7pm
UCL Anthropology Department
Daryll Forde Seminar Room

Three short films that trace the lives of Kabbour, Nizar and Abderrahim and their encounters with the North Africa/Europe border, Italian immigration centres and expulsion procedures, but also with love, paternity and solitude.

Love in the time of the Frontier (20 minutes)
Luck will save me (18 minutes)
Daddy’s not coming back (15 minutes)

(Arabic, Italian, English and French, with English subtitles)

The films will be followed by discussion with the director, Alexandra D’Onofrio, and the producer, Gabriele Del Grande

All welcome!

for information: a.elliot@ucl.ac.uk

Film Showing

Event & Call for Papers: Understanding the migrant experience

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Please find below a call for papers for our forthcoming postgraduate research conference on ‘Understanding the migrant experience’.

The conference will take place at Swansea University’s Centre for Migration Policy Research (CMPR) from 25th-26th June 2012 and provides an opportunity for postgraduate students researching migration and the experiences of migrants (including forced migrants) to further explore the themes of our recent ESRC Research Seminar Series, and to showcase their work.

The deadline for proposed papers has been extended to **9th May 2012.** Please circulate widely!

Best wishes

Professor Heaven Crawley
Director, Centre for Migration Policy Research

ATTACHMENT:

‘Understanding the migrant experience’, Postgraduate Research Conference: 25th-26th June 2012 to be held at the Centre for Migration Policy Research (CMPR) Swansea University, Wales, UK

CALL FOR PAPERS

During 2009-10, the Centre for Migration Policy Research (CMPR) at Swansea University held a series of events as part of an ESRC Research Seminar Series on the theme of ‘Understanding the migrant experience’. Details of the seminar series and briefing papers on each of the events can be found at www.swansea.ac.uk/cmpr/events/seminars

This conference provides an opportunity for postgraduate students researching migration and the experiences of migrants to explore the seminar themes in more detail and to showcase their work. Additionally, but by no means less important, the conference will contribute to broader academic and policy discussions, increasing awareness and understanding of the migrant experience and its importance in policy making and political debates.

Papers on all aspects of the migrant experience are invited from postgraduate students at all stages of their research and across all academic disciplines. Interdisciplinary contributions are particularly welcome. The conference themes are:

- What is the ‘migrant experience’? Theorising the concept

- Methodological issues in researching the migrant experience

- The role of gender, age, class and race in shaping ‘the migrant experience’

- The arts as a tool for understanding the experience of migrants

- The politics of representation

- How the migrant experience can inform the policy making process

- Different aspects of migrant experience, for example, the journey, immigration processes, detention, integration

There is no conference fee and overnight accommodation will be provided for all participants on 25th June. Participants are expected to cover their travel expenses and any additional accommodation costs. Refreshments and lunches will be provided.

The deadline for abstracts is **9th May 2012.** Proposals should be in the form of a Word document of no more than 300 words and should include the title of your proposed paper and full contact details. Please send your proposal to migration@swansea.ac.uk

Further information about the conference is available from Bozena Sojka at b.i.sojka-koirala.595224@swansea.ac.uk, telephone +44 7890735317 or + 357 99717019

Event: Migrant Voice Annual Conference 2012

Information taken from the Migrant Voice website at: www.migrantvoice.org:

From MONOlogue to DIalogue;

Strengthening and hearing migrants’ voices in the debate on migration

May 11th 12-6pm -

May 12th 9am-2.30pm

At: Amnesty International, The Human Rights Action Centre,

17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA

Migrant Voice Annual Conference

Migrant Voice is delighted to invite you to its second annual conference examining public attitudes and media representation of migrants and further developing our strategies for migrants’ engagement in the public conversation on migration.

The conference will bring together members of our networks in the three cities (London, Birmingham and Glasgow) with other migrants, the media and academics to exchange their learning, build solidarity and develop alternative and positive media messages on migration.

The two day event will bring experts in the field of messaging, public attitude and migration to shed the light on the latest research and activities to engage the public in dialogue, including Professor Heaven Crawley from Swansea University, Dr Scott Blinder from the Migration Observatory, Dr Aine O’Brien from FOMACS, Don Flynn from Migrants Rights Network, and others.

A media panel, including UNHCR’s Roland Schilling, and journalists including Ronke Phillips from ITV, Dr Kurt Barling from the BBC, and other media, will provide an insight into the British media perspective on the coverage of migration, and highlight opportunities for migrants to engage with and influence the media.

The conference will be a market place for exchanging innovative and inspirational projects and initiatives from across the UK and from Ireland, and will see workshops facilitated by leaders in the art of communication, including ‘Tamasha’, ‘IceandFire Theatre’, ‘FOMACS’, ’38 degrees’, ‘Virtual Migrants’ and others.

Day one will conclude with the screening of our film ‘Yurik’ and a reception.

Day two will engage members of the Migrant Voices for Change Network in hands-on media training and activities and facilitated discussions on strengthening the network, its messages and activities.

Please RSVP info@migrantvoice.org or call 020 8960 0121 indicating if you would like to attend day one of the conference only or if you would like to join the Network and participate in both days of the conference. Attendance is free but places are limited and will be given on a first come first served basis.

Photo: By beth Crosland from the Migrant Voice annual conference 2011

Event: RSC Public Seminar Series: Forward, backward, stalling? Critical reflections on the completion of the Common European Asylum System-reminder 9 May

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RSC Public Seminar Series Trinity Term 2012

Wednesday May 9 at 5.00pm Seminar Room One, Queen Elizabeth House, 3 Mansfield Road, OX1 3TB

Maria-Teresa Gil-Bazo will present “The Future of International Cooperation on Refugee Protection“

Abstract:

International cooperation has long been recognized as a necessary prerequisite for the satisfactory solution to the plight of refugees (Preamble to the 1951 Refugee Convention). Yet, its actual implementation remains one of the most controversial issues in refugee protection.

The most sophisticated mechanism developed by States to embody this principle, currently contained in the so-called Dublin II Regulation, has been subject to scrutiny from its inception by domestic as well as international courts. The only consensus among all actors involved seems to be its unsatisfactory performance and its continuous need for reform. The EU is currently negotiating a recast Dublin II Regulation that needs to provide an appropriate response to Member States obligations of protection in the context of international cooperation, as interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights in the M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece case (judgment of 21 January 2011) and by the Court of Justice of the European Union in the N.S. v Secretary of State for the Home Department (C-411/10) case (judgment of 21 December 2011).

Bio:

Dr María-Teresa Gil Bazo is Lecturer in Law at Newcastle University (UK), where she teaches Public International Law, EU Law, Human Rights, and a postgraduate course on “The Movement of Persons in a Global World”. She is also a Research Associate at the Refugee Studies Centre (University of Oxford) and a member of the Spanish Bar Council.

Previously, she was Lecturer in International Refugee and Human Rights Law at Oxford University, where she has also been the Director of its Summer School in Forced Migration. Dr Gil-Bazo has undertaken research stays at the Centre for European Studies at The Australian National University (Canberra, Australia), the European University Institute (Florence, Italy), and the United Nations (Geneva, Switzerland). Her recent publications include an analysis of the right to be granted asylum under article 18 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (cited by UNHCR in proceedings before the Court of Justice of the EU in Case C-411/10 N.S. v Secretary of State for the Home Department), commentaries to Articles 40 (territorial clause) and 41 (federal clause) of the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees, and a study on secondary movements of refugees commissioned by UNHCR for the Expert Meeting on “International Cooperation to Share Burden and Responsibilities” (Amman, Jordan, June 2011) in the context of UNHCR’s commemorations of the 60 the Anniversary of the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees.

Dr Gil-Bazo has acted as consultant for the Council of Europe, UNHCR, and the European Commission. She regularly teaches at seminars and conferences in universities abroad, as well as at events organized by international organisations for judges, practising lawyers, government officials, and the military. Dr Gil-Bazo has been a member to OSCE and UN Missions in Albania and in Bosnia-Herzegovina .

A reception will be held after the lecture. All welcome.
For further info email: rsc-outreach@qeh.ox.ac.uk

Event: Esther Rantzen presents charity screening of film on heroic WWII rescue of Jewish children

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Esther Rantzen presents charity screening of film on heroic WWII rescue of Jewish children

(Source: Refugee Council, 19 April 2012).

The Refugee Council will hold an exclusive charity screening of Nicky’s Family on 31 May, which tells the story of Sir Nicholas Winton who rescued 669 Jewish refugee children from persecution by the Nazis in Czechoslovakia in 1939. Esther Rantzen who features in the film, and Lord Alf Dubs, who was one of the children rescued by Winton, will speak at the event at The Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St. John’s Wood, London.

Originally from London, Sir Nicholas Winton, now 102 years old, arranged six trains to bring the children to the UK after seeing them in refugee camps, and persuaded the UK’s Home Office to allow them in. The 2011 film by Slovak director Matej Minac is due to be released later this year.

The screening, which is open to the public, is one of a range of events taking place to celebrate the 18th birthday of the Refugee Council’s Children’s Section in 2012. They have supported 18,000 refugee children since the service was set up in 1994, and all proceeds from the event will go towards continuing this work.

Esther Rantzen said:
“I first came across Sir Nicholas Winton’s incredible story when I was presenting That’s Life. His extraordinary achievement in saving so many children from the Holocaust is an inspiration to us all. Since that time, tragically, there have been millions more innocent victims of war and genocide, which is why I feel so strongly about the great work the Refugee Council is doing to support refugee children and adults to this day.”

Sir Nicholas Winton, whom the film is based on, said:
“I saw first hand the difficulties children were facing in refugee camps in Czechoslovakia before World War II, which spurred me into action. I am delighted the Refugee Council is showing this film to mark the work they too have been doing with refugee children. The world has changed a lot since 1939, but children coming here today from war torn countries, with no family or belongings, need all the support they can get, which is why I hope the Refugee Council can continue its great work with refugee children.”

Donna Covey, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council said:
“We are delighted to be screening this film about Sir Nicholas Winton’s extraordinary rescue mission for Jewish refugee children all those years ago. While the circumstances facing refugee children coming here today are very different, they face similar challenges in starting again in a strange country, far from family and friends. This year we are celebrating 18 years of supporting thousands of refugee children, and we are grateful to all those coming to this event to help us raise vital funds so we can carry on with this important work.”

Bob Kirk, President of The Liberal Jewish Synagogue, said:
“Our Synagogue has a long and continuing tradition of involvement with the plight of refugees. In the 1930s our then Senior Rabbi arranged for dozens of German-Jewish refugees, especially children and young people, to come to Britain. Both my wife Ann and I arrived here in 1939 when, following Kristallnacht, almost 10 000 unaccompanied children were brought to this country from Germany and Austria through the Kindertransport. A number of them – including Ann – were sponsored and given a home by members of the congregation. Today we are delighted to be able to host this event at The LJS, and wish the Refugee Council every success in its work.”

Details of the event:

Date: 31 May, 2012
Time: 7pm for drinks reception and screening
Venue: The Liberal Jewish Synagogue, 28 St. John’s Wood Road London, NW8 7HA
Tickets: £15 (under 18s free)

Buy tickets here: www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/nickysfamily

Follow the discussion on Twitter at #childrefugees

ENDS

Notes to editors

For further information please contact:

Philippa McIntyre, Refugee Council Media Officer
020 7346 1214/ 07956 636 219
Philippa.mcintyre@refugeecouncil.org.uk

Caroline Bach, Executive Director, The Liberal Jewish Synagogue
020 7286 5181
ljs@ljs.org

About the Refugee Council
The Refugee Council is the leading organisation working with refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. The Children’s Section has been supporting separated children since 1994, to help them navigate the complex asylum system, and offering projects and activities to enable them to integrate into British life. Their work also includes supporting young people who are wrongly being treated as adults and are being held in detention centres, and victims of trafficking.

About the Liberal Jewish Synagogue
The Liberal Jewish Synagogue is located in St. John’s Wood, North West London. It is the oldest and largest Liberal Jewish community in the UK, having celebrated its centenary in 2011, and has been acclaimed as one of the world’s leading congregations. It is the founding congregation of Liberal Judaism in the UK and is allied to the World Union for Progressive Judaism – the world’s largest synagogue organisation with over 1.5 million members.

Event: Mobilising Community Futures, or can/should/must we do away with hope?

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Mobilising Community Futures, or can/should/must we do away with hope?

  23 May 2012, Birkbeck College, University of London

Speakers will include: Davina Cooper (Kent), Matthew Ratcliffe (Durham) and Peter Thompson (Sheffield)

Expectations, visions, political and social agendas and their mediation in cultural formations are at the heart of community identity and of mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. This suggests that developing new ways of reflecting on the changing nature of communities requires that we explore how communities relate to the future.

From the totalitarian constructions of programmatic, abstract utopias in the 20th century to contemporary models of concrete utopia, direct democracy and contemporary ethics of care based on the idea of community as always yet-to-come, hope plays an important role in the formation of concepts of political agency, community belonging, normativity and meaning. For some, hope is understood to be a necessary requirement for political and social change, without which the inspiration and drive towards action is missing. For others, however, hope is seen as a dangerously pacifying affect that stifles necessary action in the present and so must be done away with.

This workshop aims to critically explore the many ways in which ideologies and practices of hope, utopianism and futurity effect communities and their interconnections. We are interested in moving towards a better understanding of the place hope occupies in contemporary thinking about communities. We aim to address the problematic nature of certain appeals to hope or to a future that is yet-to-come, while at the same time we will seek to answer the question to what extent hope is a necessary component of community life and collective agency.

Format of the workshop
We will be exploring the issue from a range of disciplinary perspectives, looking at both social or collective hope and the question of individual hope. To facilitate inter-disciplinary conversations, the day will be structured around three collaborative dialogue sessions, each based around a paper presentation and facilitated dialogue on the issues arising from the paper. The sessions are aimed at creating opportunities for collective exploration, based on thoughtful interaction rather than the traditional Q&A format. We are thus seeking participants interested in the theme of hope from a wide range of disciplines in the arts, humanities and social sciences, who are interested in exploring the significance of hope for our understandings of community.  A session in which themes and questions for further research are formulated will close the day.

Costs
Participation at the workshop is free, but a £10.00 contribution to our costs is requested.

How to apply
To book your place please email Johan Siebers (johan.siebers@sas.ac.uk). The number of places is limited to 40.

Event: Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture 2012 – Wednesday 6 June, 5 p.m

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Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture 2012 – Wednesday 6 June, 5 p.m

“States, Sovereignties and Refugees: A View from the Margins?”

Wednesday, 6 June 2012, 5pm
Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PW

Professor Alessandro Monsutti, Research Director at the Programme for the
Study of Global Migration, Associate Professor at the Department of
Anthropology and Sociology of Development, Graduate Institute of
International and Development Studies, Geneva and Research Associate, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford will deliver the Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecure 2012.

Refugees are defined as people who have lost the protection of their state of
origin and therefore fall under the responsibility of the international
community, represented by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. They are situated at the interstice of national and international
sovereignty.

Building on the Afghan case, one of the most massive forced displacements of
population since World War II, the lecture will examine the growth of a
global bureaucracy linked to the action of international and non-governmental
organisations, philanthropic foundations, think tanks, and even private
security contractors. They promote new forms of transnational governmentality
that involve benevolence and welfare programmes but also coercion and
repression; they may by turns support or challenge the more familiar
territorialised expressions of state authority.

As frequently announced, are we really facing the ultimate crisis of the
nation-state? Viewed from Afghanistan, the situation appears more complex and hardly novel. The state has probably never been the exclusive locus of
legitimate power; a layered and divided national administration has always
coexisted with alternative and segmented de facto sovereignties. But the
general reinforcement of non-state forms of sovereignty does not prevent the
pervasiveness of the state as the organisational entity of today’s
international politics.

Far from being situated at the margins of today’s world, Afghanistan may
paradoxically appear as a laboratory to highlight social and political
processes present in much of the colonial and postcolonial world, and
increasingly in the West.

http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/states-sovereignties-refugees

To confirm your attendance please RSVP: Heidi El-Megrisi
Tel: 01865 281728/9 email: rsc-outreach@qeh.ox.ac.uk

Events: Free Seminars on How to Challenge the Conclusions Reached in OGNs

*** Apologies for Cross Posting ***

Please find below information on the forthcoming training seminars that Still
Human and the Asylum Research Consultancy (ARC) are organising on how to
challenge the conclusions reached in the UKBA’s Operational Guidance Notes
(OGNs) using country of origin information (COI).

To date, Still Human has published commentaries on the Afghanistan, Eritrea,
Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, OPT, Somalia, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe OGNs, which
aim to be useful tools to allow legal representatives to identify relevant
COI and point to potential inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the use of COI
and case law in the OGNs. The Asylum Research Consultancy was commissioned to
produce these commentaries and last year it ran a series of successful
seminars presenting the work to legal representatives throughout the UK.

In May this year, further seminars will be held across the UK for lawyers and
those providing legal assistance to asylum seekers on how to challenge the
conclusions reached in the UKBA’s OGNs. The seminars are likely to include
the Coalition’s latest findings from the commentaries on the DRC, Occupied
Palestinian Territories and Iraq OGNs.

The seminars last one and a half hours and are free. Places are limited so
please book early to avoid disappointment. RSVP to
info@asylumresearchconsultancy.com

- Nottingham, Monday 14th May, 1.00-2.30pm: Paragon Law, 7B Broad Street,
Nottingham NG1 3AJ
- Sheffield, Monday 14th May, 7.00-8.30pm: Quaker Meeting House, 10 St. James
Street, Sheffield S1 2EW
- Manchester, Tuesday 15th May, 1.00-2.10pm: Greater Manchester Immigration
Aid Unit (GMIAU), 1 Delaunays Road Crumpsall Green, Manchester M8 4QS
- Glasgow, Tuesday 15th May, 6.45-8.15pm: Scottish Refugee Council, 5 Cadogan
Square (170 Blythswood Court), Glasgow  G2 7PH
- Birmingham, Wednesday 16th May, 6.00-7.30pm: Blakemores, 40 Great Charles
Street, Birmingham B3 2AT
- London, Thursday 17th May 2012, 6.00-7.30pm: Amnesty International UK, The
Human Rights Action Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA

We would be grateful if you could distribute this information around your
contacts.

Kind regards,
Stephanie and Liz

Stephanie Huber and Liz Williams
Consultants
www.asylumresearchconsultancy.com

Final Reminder: London – City of Paradox International Conference at UEL

London – City of Paradox
An international conference at the University of East London
Docklands Campus, London E16 2RD. 3-5 April 2012
http://www.uel.ac.uk/cmrb/

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN

The 2012 Olympic Games have focused attention on London. Official representations of the Games stress the city’s inclusiveness and its history of bringing together the peoples and cultures of the world.

Although these themes are important, last year’s riots remind us that London is a city of exclusion as well as inclusion. How do we evaluate these different accounts? How to understand the city in all its complexity?

This conference examines London as a city which has both encouraged and discouraged migration and settlement – which has stimulated cultural heterogeneity and homogeneity. It considers how powerful institutions have shaped discourses of nation and empire as well as of internationalism and diversity. It examines the multiple contradictions associated with the past and the present - London, City of Paradox.

Regular conference fee £60; concessions (unwaged, students, seniors) £30. Daily rate £25
(available only on the day); concessions £12. Enquiries to Dr Masi Fathi: m.fathi@uel.ac.uk

Register at: http://uel-iis-b.uel.ac.uk/cmrb/booking/

UEL Docklands Campus is adjacent to Cyprus Station, Docklands Light Railway:
http://www.uel.ac.uk/campuses/docklands.htm

Organised by CMRB: www.uel.ac.uk/cmrb/ in co-operation with Runnymede Trust, Iniva – Institute of International Visual Arts, London East Research Institute, Raphael Samuel History Centre, Centre for Cultural Studies Research, Centre for Narrative Research, Matrix East Research Lab, and the Centre for Performance Studies