New Thematic Publications on Migration; Detention; and Human Trafficking

Details of these new publications were originally circulated by Elisa Mason on the incredibly useful: Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog.  Further details can be found on the website at:  http://fm-cab.blogspot.co.uk/

New Publications on Migration

“Collapsing Societies and Forced Migration,” Forced Migration Review 25th Anniversary Collection (March 2013) [text]
- “Looking through a displacement lens at environmental, technological, anthropological, political and other factors affecting societies now and in the past provides food for thought both on how we interpret the past and on how we envisage the future.”

Conceptualizing ‘Crisis Migration’ (SSRN, March 2013) [text]
- “…Does framing different types of migration as ‘crisis migration’ – for example, movement spurred by natural disasters, civil war, the impacts of climate change, or nuclear and industrial accidents – help to illuminate the nature of such movement and the kinds of policy responses required to address it? Or is this just another term for ‘forced migration’?…

Global Hearing on Refugees and Migration, The Hague, 4-5 June 2012 [text]
- Discussions focused on five key themes: “the impact of future demographic changes related to labour migration and refugees; political and social changes; the impact of the global economy; the urbanization of displaced people; and the impact of environmental and climate change on human mobility.”

“Measures to Ensure Respect for and Protection of the Human Rights of all Migrants, with Particular Reference to Women and Children, as well as to Prevent and Combat Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons, and to Ensure Regular, Orderly, and Safe Migration,” Roundtable 2: 2013 High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development Series, New York, 20 Feb. 2013 [access]
- Follow link for agenda, background info., summary report, and video.

Migrants in Times of Crisis: An Emerging Protection Challenge (International Peace Institute, Feb. 2013) [text]
- Meeting note for “Migrants in Times of Crisis: An Emerging Protection Challenge,” New York, 9 Oct. 2012.

*More Migration & More Mixed? Trends to Watch in 2013 (Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat, Feb. 2013) [text]

New Publications on Detention

The Greek Authorities Must Urgently Accelerate the Asylum System Reforms and End Detention of asylum Seekers (Amnesty International, March 2013) [text via Refworld]

Immigration Detention in Australia (Parliamentary Library of Australia, updated March 2013) [text]

Q&A: Immigration Detention (CERIS Blog, Feb. 2013) [text]

Successful Immigration Detention Seminar Held on 1st February 2013 (Asylum-Network, Feb. 2013) [access]
- Follow link for audio files of presentations at “Supporting Immigration Detainees,” London, 1 Feb. 2013.

U.S. Looks to Overhaul Massive Immigration Detention System (IPS, March 2013) [text]

New Publications on Human Trafficking

Ad-hoc Query on Trafficking in Human Beings (EMN, Feb. 2013) [text]

Forced Labour and Human Trafficking (ECHR, Nov. 2012) [text]

Human Trafficking: Should be a Recognized Ground for Asylum (Birdsong’s Law Blog, March 2013) [text]

Methodological Debates in Human Rights Research: A Case Study of Human Trafficking in South Africa, MMG Working Paper 12-07 (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, 2012) [text]

The People Smugglers’ Business Model, Research Paper no. 2, 2012–13 (Parliamentary Library of Australia, Feb. 2013) [text]

Trafficking in Persons: International Dimensions and Foreign Policy Issues for Congress (U.S. Congressional Research Service, Jan. 2013) [text via Refworld]

Trafficking in Persons: U.S. Policy and Issues for Congress (U.S. Congressional Research Service, Feb. 2013) [text via Refworld]

Trafficking of Migrant Workers for Forced Labour (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Jan. 2013) [text via Refworld]

 

 

Call for Papers: Disability, Asylum and Migration

Call for Papers:

Disability and the Global South: An International Journal

www.dgsjournal.org

Disability, Asylum and Migration

Guest Editors: Maria Pisani (University of Malta) and Shaun Grech (Manchester Metropolitan University) Much has been written and documented on migration and the movements of people within and across national borders. In the light of environmental disasters, wars and conflict, food shortages, and environmental degradation, issues concerning the migration – development nexus have received considerable attention with the development literature infused within broader subjects of poverty reduction and humanitarian intervention. However, within the research and literature on forced migration one is immediately struck by the stark absence of disabled people. This absence is evident also across all of the disciplinary fields  in forced migration including international development, anthropology, global health and humanitarian action. Moreover, many countries of resettlement, such as Canada and Australia, actively exclude disabled people from their refugee and asylum programs. Critically, disability studies has yet to extensively engage with the predicament of disabled refugees and asylum seekers and their journeys across a range of geopolitical spaces. This is despite the fact that wars, conflict and environmental disasters that cause people to migrate are also a major cause of impairment and impoverishment, whilst the forced migratory passage impacts disabled people as they flee or attempt to reconstruct their lives in other places. This negligence is sustained by the virtual exclusion of disabled migrants, including Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), refugees and asylum seekers from major policy documents such as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and the most recent offering, the WHO/World Bank (2011) World Report on Disability.

This special issue aims to transcend disciplinary, epistemological, and other boundaries, inviting researchers, activists and practitioners to engage in critical debate around all aspects of the migration experience and disability, following journeys for asylum from global South to global North or within the global South. We are keen to hear from those in the global South, in particular empirical work that prioritises and renders visible these lives and voices, and that pushes for disability and migration as a key area of study and practice. We encourage contributions exploring a range of themes including (not exclusively):

*  Causes of forced migration among disabled people in the global South . Experiences of disabled people during exodus and post-conflict/humanitarian contexts . Intersections of disability, race, culture,  poverty, gender and legal status in the migration process . Asylum, disabled bodies, and (re)construction of disabled lives across borders . Globalisation, neoliberalism and the role of the disabled migrant in contemporary imperialism . Racism, xenophobia and the position of the disabled migrant . Medicalisation and treatment in the West

*  Disabled migrants in policy and practice: critical analyses . Disabled migrants in resettlement . Disability and migration in disciplines: reviews and approaches for inclusion (e.g. disability studies and migration studies) . Disabled migrants, voice, and claims for social justice

Those wishing to submit an article, please email your full manuscript to both Shaun Grech (S.Grech@mmu.ac.uk) and Maria Pisani (maria.pisani@um.edu.mt). Please insert ‘Submission for Disability and Migration Special Issue’ in the subject line. Manuscripts will be sent anonymously for double peer review, and comments and recommendations relayed to authors through the editors.

Deadline for submission: 1st September 2013.

 

New Publication: Prison Service Journal – Special Edition Migration, Nationality and Detention

A special volume of the Prison Service Journal has just been published on the subject of `Migration, Nationality and Detention.’  The Prison Service Journal (PSJ) is published by HM Prison Service. Its purpose is to promote discussion on issues related to the work of the Prison Service, the wider Criminal Justice System and associated fields. The PSJ is hosted by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies following the re-structure of the Prison service and the loss of the Prison service website.

This volume is available to download here:   January 2013 No. 205

Call for Papers: Religion and Migration conference

*** Apologies for Cross Posting ***

On Friday April 26th, 2013 Columbia University Religion Graduate Students’

Association will host a conference on religion and migration entitled:

*Religion on the Move: Movement, Migration, Missions and New Media across Religious Traditions *

We are delighted and honored to have as keynote speaker for the conference *Professor Michael D. Jackson*, Distinguished Visiting Professor of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. We are now also accepting paper proposals for this event; please find below our Call for Papers and further details.

With all best wishes,

Elizabeth Tinsley and Laura McTighe

*Conference Coordinators

* The history of religion is a history of movement. But what happens when religion is on the move?

In this conference, we are interested in examining how an interdisciplinary approach to migratory experiences might illuminate the dynamic interplay between the limited possibilities in which people find themselves and the capabilities they nonetheless possess for creating viable, even vibrant, forms of social life. By treating religion as an embodied and spatial phenomenon that intersects with political and economic structures in complex and often unexpected ways, this conference aims not only to contribute to the nascent field of religion and migration but also to broaden its theoretical and methodological repertoire for future studies of religion on the move inclusive of movement, migration, missions and new media.

A spatial analytics of movement as pilgrimage might draw our attention to the intertwining routes believers trace as they undertake the hajj to Mecca. Historical attention to the making of regional/national migrations might shed new light on, for example, the unique urban sacred order built by millions of black southerners moving north in the decades of the United States Great Migration, or on the intergenerational histories of peoples displaced because of their religion. An anthropology of the diffusion of missionaries to far-flung lands might include studies of their roles as evangelists moving along trading routes (Buddhists in Southeast Asia), active participants in colonial expansion (Jesuits in the Americas), or ambivalent resisters to imperial power (Protestant sympathizers with Indian independence). And a cultural study of new media forms can help map patterns of religious mobility through the emergence of portable devotional materials carried by journeying practitioners. Whatever our approach, studying religion on the move attunes us to how mobility is not only an aspect of religious experience across traditions, times and spaces, but is also constitutive of religious beliefs, practices and communities.

We encourage submissions from those in all fields with interests in the study of religion. Our discussion will address, but is by no means limited to, the following questions:

- How have religious institutions been related to migration through colonial bonds, missionary proselytization, and/or the transnational bridges created by new technologies and media?

- How have the movements of religious traditions been facilitated by economic links such as medieval mercantile and maritime routes or modern globalized flows of capital?

- How has religious movement affected material culture, both in the creation of new media forms by people on the move and in the transformation or hybridization of existing cultural forms in their places of destination?

- How have community practices of transmission been affected by regional and, in the modern period, national migrations, as well as the translation of sacred texts into new languages?

- How has movement reconstituted the boundaries of religious and ethnic identities? How have these boundaries been inscribed on landscapes through the establishment of new neighborhood enclaves and architectural forms?

- Has religion been inflected differently in migrations that are forced (expulsion; evacuation; defection) rather than voluntary?

- Could attention to the embodied nature of migratory experiences shed new light on the study of otherworldly journeys and altered states of consciousness?

Please send a 500-word abstract, along with your name, institution, specialization, and year of study to columbiareligion@gmail.com.

*SUBMISSION DEADLINE: December 28, 2012.* All proposals will receive a response by early-February 2013.

 

Conference: Race. Migration. Citizenship

*** Apologies for Cross Posting ***

Race, Migration, Citizenship:
Postcolonial and Decolonial Perspectives

Birmingham Midland Institute, Birmingham, UK

4-5 July 2013

***Deadline for abstracts Extended to January 10th 2013***

Against the backdrop of decolonisation, a global economic boom was accompanied by tightened border controls, ever more punitive asylum regimes and limited access to citizenship. Immigration from former colonies to former metropoles has been limited in the postcolonial period as racialised discourses have set the West in opposition to an alien ‘rest’. Now, in this ‘age of austerity’, the strength of the old powers is weakening as other parts of the world, the so called ‘BRICs’, grow in strength. Yet the old racial hierarchies appear stubbornly resonant within Europe and the white settler colonies, and other hierarchies, for example around caste, are increasingly coming to the fore in other countries. Foregrounding postcolonial and decolonial perspectives, this conference will provide a forum in which to discuss the context for emerging patterns of exclusion, for asking what the conditions for political equality might be, and for posing the question “what has ‘race’ got to do with migration and citizenship?” among many others.

Keynote Speakers: Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (Duke University), Bernadine Evaristo (Novellist), Inderpal Grewal (Yale University), Ylva Habel (Soderton University), Alana Lentin (UWS), Walter Mignolo (Duke University)

Abstracts of no more than 200 words are welcomed from across the social scences and humanities. There will be 7 streams at the conference, listed below. Please identify clearly which stream you would like to be included in when submitting an abstract.

Streams:

1. Race, Racism, and Prejudice

2. Racial and Colonial Institutional Orders

3. Modernity/Coloniality and Global (In)justice

4. Asylum after Empire

5. Cosmopolitan Citizens and Multicultural Societies: The New Crisis of Europe
6. Europe and Africa. Citizenship and the Legacies of Colonialism
7. Diaspora, Colonialism & Postcolonialism

Further details about the streams can be found here: http://rmcconference.wordpress.com/streams

Send your abstracts to rrmc2013@live.co.uk

Deadline for abstracts: 14th December 2012 ***Extended to January 10th 2013***

Organised by the British Sociological Association, Theory Study Group

Organisers: Dr Leah Bassel (Leicester), Prof Gurminder K Bhambra (Warwick), Dr Ipek Demir (Leicester), Dr Peo Hansen (Linkoping), Gary Hazeldine (BCU), Prof Stefan Jonsson (Linkoping), Lucy Mayblin (Sheffield), Dr Robbie Shilliam (QMUL), Dr Rolando Vazquez (Utrecht),

 

New Publications on Climate Change & Migration; Statelessness; and Evaluations/Lessons Learned

Details of these new publications were originally circulated by Elisa Mason on the incredibly useful: Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog.  Further details can be found on the website at:  http://fm-cab.blogspot.co.uk/

Publications on Climate Change and Migration

Climate Change Litigation – A Rising Tide? (CDKN, May 2012) [text]

Climate Displacement and Migration, Loss and Damage, and the Journey Forward (FIELD, Nov. 2012) [text]
- See also related UKCCMC blog post.

Human Security in the Pacific: The Climate Refugees of the Sinking Islands, Thesis Submitted to the School of Law (Golden Gate University, Nov. 2012) [text]

Where the Rain Falls: Climate Change, Food and Livelihood Security, and Migration (UNU-EHS, Care & CIESIN, Nov. 2012) [access]
- Global policy report and case studies available via the link.  See also related IRIN news story.

Will Climate Refugees Get Promised Aid? (IPS, April 2012) [text]

Publications on Statelessness

UNHCR has published a Self-Study Module on Statelessness that forms part of its E-Learning Course on Statelessness. (Note:  The former is publicly available, the latter is not.)  Other protection-related training modules in this series are provided on Refworld’s Standards and Training web page.

“Addressing Statelessness,” Chapter in Global Appeal 2013 Update (UNHCR, Dec. 2012) [text]

“Book Review: Statelessness in the European Union: Displaced, Undocumented, Unwanted, Caroline Sawyer & Brad K. Blitz, eds., New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011,” Law & Society Review, vol. 45, no. 4, p. 1077 (2011; posted Nov. 2012) [text via SSRN]

The CoE Tackles Statelessness, but Ends up Mired in the Politics of Multiple Nationalities (ENS Blog, Nov. 2012) [text]

The Gulf’s Stateless People without Rights Decades after Independence (Human Rights First Blog, Nov. 2012) [text]

Terrorized, Starving and Homeless: Myanmar’s Rohingya Still Forgotten (CNN, Nov. 2012) [text]

Under the Radar and Under Protected: The Urgent Need to Address Stateless Children’s Rights (ENS Blog, Nov. 2012) [text]
- A UNHCR Regional Protection Officer provides background re. this report.

Publications on Evaluations and Lessons Learned

Asylum and Population Control: Assessing UNHCR’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Programme in Guatemalan Refugee Settlements, Working Paper, no. 83 (RSC, Sept. 2012) [text]

Commander’s Guide to Supporting Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: Observations, Insights and Lessons (Center for Army Lessons Learned, Sept. 2012) [text]

Coordinated Assessments in Emergencies – What We Know Now: Key Lessons from Field Experience (ACAPS, Nov. 2012) [text via ReliefWeb]

Dangerous Liaisons? A Historical Review of UNHCR’s Engagement with Non-state Armed Actors, PDES/2012/03 (UNHCR, Dec. 2012) [text]

Evaluation and Review of Humanitarian Access Strategies in DG ECHO Funded Interventions (Global Public Policy Institute, June 2012) [text via ALNAP]

Evaluation of the Consortium of British Humanitarian Agencies (CBHA) Pilot (DARA, 2012) [text via ALNAP]

Evaluation of the Protection Standby Capacity (ProCap) and Gender Standby Capacity (GenCap) Projects (Global Public Policy Institute, Dec 2011) [text via ReliefWeb]

Organisational Effectiveness Assessment: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (Multilateral Organisation Performance Assessment Network, Dec. 2011) [vol. 1] [vol. 2]

Special Evaluation Study: ADB’s Response to Natural Disasters and Disaster Risks (Asian Development Bank, Oct. 2012) [text]

 

Courses: Upcoming HREA E-learning Courses on Migration & Asylum

*** Apologies for Cross Posting ***

Source: Forced Migration Discussion List.

Courses:  Upcoming HREA E-learning Courses on Migration & Asylum

Dear Colleagues,

HREA will be offering two new e-learning courses “Migration and Asylum (Foundation Course)” and “EU Migration and Asylum Law and Policies” from 13 February-26 March 2013:

MIGRATION AND ASYLUM (FOUNDATION COURSE) (13 February-26 March 2013)

This course introduces the participants to the international migration system; discussing and analyzing the most commonly used categories of migration (including the migration-asylum nexus), its causes and consequences, current trends and figures, as well as the main international, regional and national policy and operational approaches and challenges.

Week 1. Introduction to Main Concepts in Migration Discourse Week 2. Global Trends in Migration Week 3. The Migration-Asylum Nexus Week 4. The Legal Framework Week 5. Policy Approaches: Migration Policies and Practice Week 6. International Migration and Social Justice

For more information and online registration, please visit:

www.hrea.org/migration-and-asylum

EU MIGRATION AND ASYLUM LAW AND POLICIES (13 February-26 March 2013)

The European Union (EU) is one of the central players of today’s international community. Composed of member states which were traditionally sending countries, they have become key destinations for migrants and refugees from all over the world in the past half century. The internal EU migration trends have also special features as older members and newer ones have different patterns for sending and receiving migrants. A number of complex policies and programmes have therefore been designed in views of addressing these phenomenons while cooperating with third countries in the areas of migration and asylum. For those living and working outside the EU, understanding its complex migration system can be a true challenge. This course aims to provide participants with a clear overview of the basic EU migration and asylum laws and policies and policy-making procedures, allowing them to focus deeper on a specific topic of their interest through assignments.

Course outline

Week 1. Introduction to EU Policy on Immigration and Asylum Week 2. Institutional Framework of European Immigration and Asylum Policies Week 3. Control of External Borders and European Visa Policy Week 4. Employment and Migration Week 5. Status and Integration of Third-Country Nationals Week 6. EU Migration and Asylum Law and Policies in the International Context

For more information and online registration, please visit:
www.hrea.org/eu-asylum-migration-law

LEARNING APPROACH

The courses involve approximately 50 hours of reading, on-line working groups, interaction among students and instructors, webinars and quizzes, and are offered over a 6-week period. The courses integrate active and participatory learning approaches within activities and assignments, with an emphasis on reflective and collaborative learning. The maximum number of course participants is 25.

WHO SHOULD APPLY

The courses are aimed at practitioners and professionals who want to gain knowledge in the field of (im)migration and asylum, government officials (local and national level) dealing with migration and migration-related issues; EU policy makers; national authorities of EU and non-EU countries dealing with migration and asylum policies; staff of inter-governmental organisations such as the IOM and UNHCR; NGO staff members and service providers; and students of law, international relations, politics and social science. Participants should have a good written command of English and have high competence and comfort with computer and Internet use. HREA aims to ensure equal gender and geographical distribution across the selected participants. The maximum number of course participants is 25. It also possible to audit the course. A Certificate of Participation will be awarded upon successful completion of the course.

COSTS

Tuition fee for participants: US$ 435 (25% discount) if paid by 15 December 2012; $ 490 (15% discount) if paid by 15 January 2013; $ 575 after 15 January 2013.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have further questions.

Best wishes,

Paula Carello
Program Director Migration & Asylum
Human Rights Education Associates (HREA)
E-mail: p.carello@hrea.org

Updated Publication: Migration and Disaster-Induced Displacement: European Policy, Practice, and Perspective – Working Paper 308

This is a follow-up to an earlier posting to give details that a newly revised edition of this working paper is now available for access and download online.  Further details are as follows:

Migration and Disaster-Induced Displacement: European Policy, Practice, and Perspective – Working Paper 308
By Michael D. Cooper

Abstract taken from the Center for Global Development webpage:

Over the last decade, a series of devastating natural disasters have killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions, and decimated the built environment across wide regions, shocking the public imagination and garnering unprecedented financial support for humanitarian relief efforts. Some suggest that disaster migration must be supported by the international community, first as an adaption strategy in response to climate-change, and second, as a matter of international protection.

This study surveys the current state of law as it relates to persons displaced by natural disaster, with a specific focus on the 27 member states of the European Union plus Norway and Switzerland. Its findings show that a few express provisions are on the books in Europe and that there is reason to believe that judicial and executive authorities may interpret other, more ambiguous, provisions to encompass the protection needs of disaster-displaced individuals. Few, if any, of these provisions have been engaged for this purpose, but a number of recent European developments with respect to disaster-induced displacement merit further scrutiny.

[Download Full Working Paper]
(Source: Author: Michael D. Cooper.)

 

Call for Papers: Norface Migration Interdisciplinary Conference – “Migration: Global Development, New Frontiers”

*** Apologies for Cross Posting ***

Call for Papers: Norface Migration Interdisciplinary Conference – “Migration: Global Development, New Frontiers”

I would like to inform you about a large inter-disciplinary conference on migration we are organising at University College London from the 10th – 13th April, 2013 – “Migration: Global Development, New Frontiers”.

We have an excellent programme, with a mixture of academic podia, keynote and invited lectures, policy podia, and contributed sessions, and we have invited some of the best scholars from across disciplines and policy makers to speak at the event. We aim to make this the key conference on migration. The call for papers for the conference is now open.

Copied below is the jpg of the poster for the call for papers.  You can download a high resolution copy of the poster from the conference website – http://www.norface-migration.org/sites/index.php?site=5&page=2 .

I would be grateful if you could distribute our call for papers to your mailing list.  In addition, if you could please also advertise our conference within your department and to other parties interested in migration research. Further details about the conference are available on our website:

http://aprilconference2013.norface-migration.org/

 

Many thanks for your time and help in advance.

Best regards

Qanitah
NORFACE Migration Programme Administrator
Department of Economics
University College London
Gower Street
London, WC1E 6BT

http://www.norface-migration.org/

http://aprilconference2013.norface-migration.org/

Online event: Migration in a Changing World: Where Do We Go Now?

*** Apologies for Cross Posting ***

Source: Forced Migration Discussion List.

The latest event in the Exchanges Online Conference Series, Migration in a Changing World: Where Do We Go Now?, began today at 9am GMT.

For more information on how to participate: http://wileyblackwellexchanges.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/wb-exchanges-how-to-participate.pdf

Register at http://www.blackwellpublishingsurvey.com/f/150456/7115/

Read the programme at http://wileyblackwellexchanges.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/migration-program2.pdf

Follow the Conference on Twitter at http://twitter.com/WBExchanges Visit the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/wileyblackwellexchanges

More information is available at http://wileyblackwellexchanges.com/

 

Seminar: Rescuing Migrants in Libya: The Political Economy of State Responses to Migration Crisis – The Case of Ghana

*** Apologies for Cross Posting ***

The Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) has the pleasure of inviting you to a seminar on:

Rescuing Migrants in Libya: The Political Economy of State Responses to Migration Crisis
– The Case of Ghana
Tuesday, 30 October 2012, 14.00-15.45

Danish Institute for International Studies
Nordskov Meeting Room,
Wilders Plads 8H, 3rd floor, 1401 Copenhagen K

Background

When war broke out in Libya in 2011, an estimated 1.5 million labour migrants in the country were affected. Sub-Saharan migrants – widely accused of being Gaddafi’s mercenaries – found themselves in particularly difficult circumstances. The upheavals in Mali, following the return of Touareg armed groups, are well-known. But what is the situation in other African states?

This seminar examines the involuntary return of Ghanaians labour migrants from Libya. Following migrant appeals for help and mounting public pressure, Ghana engaged in rescue missions, bringing her nationals ‘back home’ from the war. By July 2012, more than 18,500 Ghanaian migrants had been repatriated to Ghana and registered by the authorities. Other than that, state assistance has been very limited. The Ghanaian case raises questions concerning why and how the state respond to their migrant populations in times of crises. Which rationalities and technologies are state interventions based upon? And which historical and contemporary mobility regimes and political economy do they reflect?

Speaker

George M. Bob-Milliar is based at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, and is currently a visiting researcher in the Migration unit at DIIS. His work focuses on democratization in Africa, African Diaspora, chieftaincy, and Ghanaian migration patterns. Bob-Milliar has received several prizes for his work, which has been published in African Affairs, Africa, Urban Anthropology, and the Journal of Modern African Studies, amongst others journals.

Programme

14.00-14.15       Arrival and Coffee

14.15-14.25       Introduction
                        Nauja Kleist, Senior Researcher, DIIS

14.25-14.55       Rescuing Migrants in Libya: The Political Economy of
State Responses to Migration Crisis – The Case of Ghana
                        George Bob-Milliar, Visiting Researcher, DIIS

14.55-15.05       Discussant
                        Finn Stepputat, Senior Researcher, DIIS

15.05-15.45       Open Discussion

Chair: Nauja Kleist, Senior Researcher, DIIS

Practical Information

The seminar will be held in English.

Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. Please use below online registration form no later than Monday, 29 October 2012 at 12.00 noon.

Registration

Yes please, I would like to register for the DIIS event mentioned above:
Full Name, Organisation, and E-mail must be filled out. If a field is not filled out, the form cannot be sent

Please await confirmation by e-mail from DIIS for participation. If you have not received a confirmation from us within 2 workdays, please contact us directly, email: event@diis.dk or telephone +45 32 69 87 51.

Link:-  [Further Information].

 

New Publications on Canada; the Middle East; Syria; and Return Migration

Publications on Canada:

*New Canadian Law Attempts to Block Bogus Refugees (The Asylumist, Oct. 2012) [text]

Shaping the Future: Canada’s Rapidly Changing Immigration Policies (Maytree, Oct. 2012) [access]

Update on Impact of Federal Cuts to Refugee Health Services (Canadian Doctors for Refugee Care, Sept. 2012) [text]

*Whither Refugee Protection in the Changes to the Canadian and British Asylum Systems?, Presentation to RLI Seminar, 17 Oct. 2012 [text]

Details of these new publications were originally circulated by Elisa Mason on the incredibly useful: Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog.  Further details can be found on the website at:  http://fm-cab.blogspot.co.uk/

Publications on the Middle East:

Iranian Defects at UN General Assembly: A New Case for Political Asylum (HR Brief Blog, Oct. 2012) [text]

Refugees in the Middle East Peace Process: Evaluating the Impasse (PRRN Blog, Oct. 2012) [text]

Restricted Existence: A Study of the Social Dynamics and Legal Challenges Faced by Non-camp Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon, IMES Capstone Paper Series (George Washington University, May 2012) [text]

Details of these new publications were originally circulated by Elisa Mason on the incredibly useful: Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog.  Further details can be found on the website at:  http://fm-cab.blogspot.co.uk/

Publications on Syria:

Amnesty “Deeply Alarmed” at UK Government Attempt to Return Syrian Activist to Damascus (Amnesty International UK, Oct. 2012) [text]

Analysis: Not-so-open Borders for Syrian Refugees? (IRIN, Oct. 2012) [text]

Back From the Field: Turkey, Jordan & Iraq (Refugees International, Oct. 2012) [text]
- Map image sourced from this posting.

Europe: Act Now to Help Refugees Fleeing Syria (Amnesty International, Oct. 2012) [text]

Iraq/Turkey: Open Borders to All Syrian Refugees (Human Rights Watch, Oct. 2012) [text]

“Syria’s Refugees Face a Bleak Winter,” The Lancet, vol. 30, no. 9851 (Oct. 2012) [full-text]

Details of these new publications were originally circulated by Elisa Mason on the incredibly useful: Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog.  Further details can be found on the website at:  http://fm-cab.blogspot.co.uk/

Lebanon, Syrian Instability, and the Risks of Sunni-Shiite Competition.
Source: Center for Strategic & International Studies
[Download Full Report]
(Source: DocuBase)

Losing Syria (And How to Avoid It).
Brookings Institution.
[Download Commentary]
(Source: DocuBase)

Publications on Return Migration:

International Migration

Return Migration: The Experience of Eastern Europe.
A new article by Reiner Martin and Dragos Radu.
International Migration -Volume 50, Issue 6, pages 109–128, December 2012.
From the Abstract:

Over the last decade, a significant share of the labour force in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has been exposed to work spells abroad followed by return migration. Although there is a growing literature on CEE return migration, most previous studies are country-specific and no enquiry for the region as a whole has been undertaken so far. In this paper, we attempt to fill this gap. We collate data from the European Union (EU) Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) for a cross-country analysis of return migration in CEE countries. The aim of the paper is threefold. We first review the available evidence and literature on the characteristics and labour market behaviour of return migrants in CEE countries. Second, we provide a descriptive analysis of recent returnees using EU-LFS data. Third, we specifically analyse the income premia for work experience abroad, the occupational choices and the selectivity patterns of recent returnees in CEE countries from a cross-country perspective. Consistent with previous results, we find that the average income premia for work abroad range between 10 per cent and 45 per cent. Migrants are less likely to actively participate in the labour market upon return. They are, however, more likely to choose self-employment rather than dependent employment upon return. Recent migrants are also more likely to experience spells of unemployment in the first year after their return. The latter two findings are reversed, however, when adjusting for the unobserved heterogeneity of return migrants and for regional effects.

[Abstract and Further Information]

 

Call for Papers: Race, Migration, Citizenship Postcolonial and Decolonial Perspectives

*** Apologies for Cross Posting ***

CONFERENCE CALL FOR PAPERS

Race, Migration, Citizenship: Postcolonial and Decolonial Perspectives

Conference Dates: Thursday 4th and Friday 5th July 2013

Location: Birmingham Midland Institute, Birmingham, UK

Against the backdrop of decolonisation, a global economic boom was accompanied by tightened border controls, ever more punitive asylum regimes and limited access to citizenship. Immigration from former colonies to former metropoles has been limited in the postcolonial period as racialised discourses have set the West in opposition to an alien ‘rest’. Now, in this ‘age of austerity’, the strength of the old powers is weakening as other parts of the world, the so called ‘BRICs’, grow in strength. Yet the old racial hierarchies appear stubbornly resonant within Europe and the white settler colonies, and other hierarchies, for example around caste, are increasingly coming to the fore in other countries. Foregrounding postcolonial and decolonial perspectives, this conference will provide a forum in which to discuss the context for emerging patterns of exclusion, for asking what the conditions for political equality might be, and for posing the question “what has ‘race’ got to do with migration and citizenship?” among many others.

Abstracts of no more than 200 words are welcomed from across the social scences and humanities. There will be 7 streams at the conference, listed below. Please identify clearly which stream you would like to be included in when submitting an abstract.

Streams:

1. Race, Racism, and Prejudice

2. Racial and Colonial Institutional Orders 3. Modernity/Coloniality and Global (In)justice 4. Asylum after Empire 5. Cosmopolitan Citizens and Multicultural Societies: The New Crisis of Europe 6. Europe and Africa. Citizenship and the Legacies of Colonialism 7. Diaspora, Colonialism & Postcolonialism

Further details about the streams can be found here: http://rmcconference.wordpress.com/streams/

Send your abstracts to rrmc2013@live.co.uk

Deadline for abstracts: **14th December 2012**

Source: Forced Migration Discussion List.

 

Call for Papers: Crossroads – Europe, Migration and Culture

Call for Papers:

Conference: Crossroads – Europe, Migration and Culture

Two-day conference at The University of Copenhagen, October 24-25, 2013

“Migration throws objects, identities and ideas into flux” (Kobena Mercer: Exiles, Diasporas & Strangers, 2008).
“The migrant is not on the margin of modern experience – he is absolutely central to it” (John Berger: A Seventh Man, 1975/2010).

Willingly or unwillingly, people have migrated to, from and within Europe for centuries, but with the downfall of empires and the rise of the European welfare states in the second half of the 20th century, migration to Europe – especially from the former colonies – reached an unprecedented scale. In addition, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the subsequent dismantling of communism, and the enlargement of the European Union have also led to a significant increase in intra-European migration – a phenomenon that the current economic crisis is likely to intensify even further. Meanwhile, refugees from the world’s conflict zones and destitute areas are continually setting out on journeys of hope to what they imagine to be a European Eden, only to discover that contemporary Europe is in many ways more of a well guarded fortress.

These different kinds of migratory movements have thrown European culture(s) into flux. A variety of cultures which previously had little or no contact with each other are brought together on European soil where they intersect, confront each other, ‘cross-polinate’, and/or live entirely parallel, separate lives right next to each other.

Under the heading Crossroads the conference wishes to address this cultural flux. The emphasis is on the aesthetic expressions of the migrant experience as such as well as on the consequences of migration for European cultures and identities at large.

See the full Call for Papers: http://migrationandculture.ku.dk/call/crossroads/. Deadline for proposals is 31 January 2012

 

Event: Vulnerable Workers, Forced Labour, Migration and Ethical Trading Conference

*** Apologies for Cross Posting ***

NB: Please note that we are offering free bursary places to volunteers, unwaged or low waged people including people with experience of unfree/ forced labour who would like to attend.

Last call for contributions (deadline *28 September*) and call for participants (registration deadline *31 October*):

Vulnerable Workers, Forced Labour, Migration and Ethical Trading A conference at the University of Leeds, UK, Friday 14th December 2012

This 1-day conference will bring together academics, campaigners, and policy makers to explore both the drivers and the broad experiences of vulnerable, forced and exploitative labour, to place the UK experience within a global context, and put questions of globalisation, migration and ethical trading centre-stage. We are particularly interested to support campaigning groups, including trades unions, those supporting refugees, and organisations concerned with the wider implications of forced labour, including ethical trading and the regulation of supply chains; and to consider how research evidence can strengthen the work of those active in these areas.

Keynote speakers:

Alice Bloch, Professor of Sociology, City University Aidan McQuade, Anti Slavery International Nicola Phillips, Professor of Political Economy, University of Sheffield Guy Standing, Professor of Economic Security, University of Bath

We invite papers and other types of contributions (e.g. poetry, photography, film, art) which reflect on these and related questions:

Vulnerable migrant workers

- What is the interplay between asylum and broader migration policy and vulnerable /forced labour?

- How are different groups of non-migrants and migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, vulnerable to exploitation?

Labour markets and trade

- How the does the organisation of production and trade in the contemporary global economy generate vulnerability and forced labour in different contexts?

- What are the links between the politico-economic framework of neoliberal labour markets and exploitative work?

Forced labour

- What value do definitions, international treaties and covenants on forced labour and domestic UK legislative apparatus designed to reduce/eliminate forced labour have in everyday life?

- How do people become trapped in vulnerable and forced labour?

Organising and mobilising

- What opportunities exist for individuals or groups to resist in order to mobilise and eventually exit from vulnerable / forced labouring?

- What interventions might have the potential to reduce unfree/forced labour; e.g. immigration policy solutions; employer sanctions; improving precarious workers’ access to information and organising/mobilising opportunities; strategies for campaigning organisations?

*This includes*:

- contributions across international contexts on precarious work, forced labour and ethical trading

- critical engagement with key terms: vulnerable workers, forced labour, etc.

- presentations offering insights into activism, education and applying research evidence

The conference will be of interest to: academics working in this interdisciplinary field; people with personal experience of unfree/forced labour; policy makers; trades unionists; people working, campaigning, volunteering in these areas; and political activists. The conference will include a mixture of speakers, discussion, and presentations by academics and campaigning groups.

Please send your ideas for papers or presentations (abstracts of max 250 words) by 28th September 2012 to Dr Hannah Lewis, h.j.lewis@leeds.ac.uk .

To register for the conference (£20 higher education, business, statutory, £10 charity and voluntary; unwaged free): see: http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/research/events/conferences/vulnerable-workers/ . Registration closing date 31st October 2012.

Organised by Dr Stuart Hodkinson, Dr Hannah Lewis, Dr Louise Waite, University of Leeds; Prof. Pete Dwyer, University of Salford; and Prof. Gary Craig, Wilberforce Institute, Hull.

The conference is organised on behalf of the ESRC-funded project: Precarious lives: asylum seekers and refugees’ experiences of forced labour (RES-062-23-2895), with additional financial support from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.