Although migration between the countries of the Global South is increasingly significant in terms of its scale, complexity and consequences, migration research typically focuses on the movement of people to the countries of the Global North reflecting the political and policy interests of researchers and funding bodies.

As the work of the Migration for Development and Equality (MIDEQ) Hub, draws to a close, Professor Heaven Crawley reflects on the challenges of ‘walking the talk’ when it comes to decentering migration research. MIDEQ is the UK’s largest GCRF-funded project bringing together partners from 12 countries in the Global South to tell a new and very different story of migration and its relationship to inequality. But this process has been far from straightforward.

From pulling together the funding proposal to designing the research, undertaking data collection in the context of a global pandemic, dealing with the fallout from sudden and dramatic funding cuts, and grappling with publishing biases, the project’s researchers have been in an almost constant tussle with dominant assumptions about what and whose knowledge ‘counts’ and how to ensure ‘equitable partnerships’ in the context of deep and long-standing inequalities access to resources for the production of knowledge. 

Understanding the processes through which these epistemic injustices happen, rather than just the epistemic outcomes, can help us to identify ways to address the structural inequalities with which the production of migration knowledge is often associated.

This interdisciplinary conference will address the meanings and effects of legal, political, economic, social and cultural borders in African and international politics.

It is well-known that legal borders on the African continent are colonial legacies and possess a high level of uncertainty with, for example, only a third of legal borders in sub- Saharan Africa being clearly demarcated. But not all borders manifest themselves the same way. Depending, on the category of border, location and actor we focus on, they are either targets of contestation or of solidification. And their meanings have changed over time.

The African Union has identified ill-defined borders and potential sources of conflict (for instance, linked to natural resources) as a key challenge. A perception of the porousness of African borders and of the scope for large-scale migration from Africa to Europe has underpinned major interventions by the European Union and its member states that have led them to ‘externalise’ their migration policies to African countries that aim to reinforce borders and border security. But the EU is not the only actor that is trying to shape politics on the African continent as the United States of America, Russia and China are also intervening on the bilateral and regional levels.

This conference will explore the implications for migration and mobility as well as for human rights and the protection of people displaced by conflict and persecution. These top-down interventions may neglect or even confound the long-established networks based on trade or pastoral activities that operate across borders and can be engines of economic growth and creativity. Borders thus play a central role in the production of two key and interlinked issues in African and global politics: (in)security and human migration. The nexus between (in)security and migration is connected to the presence of borders that delineate and demarcate between territories and peoples while also playing a powerful role in structuring social and political relations in ways that can play out across various levels from the international to the more micro-processes associated with everyday practices at border regions.

This conference is jointly convened by the EUI's Migration Policy Centre and Global Governance Programme and the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy (University of Ghana). Please note that attendance is by invitation only.

The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research invites submissions from researchers working on or interested in scholarly migration and mobility to attend a one-day symposium in Rostock on October 15, 2024. The symposium aims to promote lively exchange and collaboration among a group of interdisciplinary scientists (from areas such data science, scientometrics, demography, science of science, sociology, migration studies, and more) with interests related to scholarly migration and scientific mobility. We welcome submissions that use a broad set of methods and data. The use of the Scholarly Migration Database is particularly encouraged, but not required.

Centre des Colloques (Campus Condorcet)

Chair: Mireille Le Guen (UCLouvain) & Valentine Becquet (Ined)

PROGRAMME:

Avancées, reculs et tours de passe-passe : une chronologie
Arlette Gautier (Université de Bretagne Occidentale)

Droits reproductifs en France : avancées sélectives, contrôles subsistants
Lisa Carayon (USPN, Iris)

Global abortion policies and trends: progress and resistances
Ernestina Coast (LSE)

The Alignment of Fertility Goals and Behaviors: Looking Back and Looking Ahead
Sara Yeatman (University of Colorado Denver)

This event offers a valuable chance to engage with a diverse community of stakeholders from the migration, mobility, and asylum sectors.

The Migration Policy Centre has built a large alumni network through its various training programmes. These programmes connect stakeholders working on migration, mobility and asylum from a range of sectors. Our alumni events continue fostering these connections, providing unique opportunities to link research projects with real-world practice.

This online workshop foresees the presentation 'Migration responses to humanitarian crises: Compassionate policy or false hope?'.

The alumni network gatherings aim to showcase the impactful work of our alumni, offer a glimpse into the latest projects at the Migration Policy Centre, create a space for networking and professional exchange, and identify and explore potential areas for collaboration.

Participation in the workshop is by invitation only.

This seminar will feature a presentation based on Chiara Berneri’s book ‘Private sponsorship of refugees in Europe’, that focuses on the European experiences of private sponsorship of refugees. After contextualising these experiences and briefly highlighting some notable examples, the presentation will look at private sponsorship programmes characterised by naming and additionality. It will be argued that such programmes should be further explored and experimented in Europe. This could be possible by balancing out private sponsors’ claims with state sovereignty, in matters such as welfare, integration and security.

Chiara Berneri is a Law Lecturer at The Open University since September 2021. Chiara's research interests focus, in particular, on the intersection between immigration law, human rights, state sovereignty and citizenship. She has published two books with Hart. She also published in leading journals, such as the European Journal of Migration and Law and the European Journal of Law and Economics.