To celebrate its 50^th anniversary the Migration Institute of Finland is organizing a Migration Symposium on the theme “Migration into the Future”

The keynote lectures are open to all via remote access.

Three of the lectures are in English and one is in Finnish.

We have invited researchers, policy makers, representatives of local and national governments, archival professionals, and organizations from different fields to join us. We will reflect on the future of migration in diversifying working life, in relation to the climate crisis, in regional development, and in archives. Instead of a traditional academic conference, the symposium will bring together a wide range of actors and experts in the field of migration to discuss future perspectives, needs for knowledge, and to develop future avenues for research and collaboration.

Keynote lectures

Thursday 10 October 2024

12.15 – 12.30 pm Opening remarks
Saara Pellander, Associate Professor, Director, Migration Institute of Finland

12.30 – 1.00 pm Key note 1: Negotiating mobilities in climate crisis: Perspectives from the Global South
Niko Humalisto, Associate Professor, Senior Advocate Specialist, Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission

1.00 – 1.30 pm Key note 2: Looking back to go forward: Understanding the intersection of industrial relations, migration, and the labour market in Finland
Dr. Quivine Ndomo, University Teacher, Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Jyväskylä

Friday 11 October 2024

9.30 – 10.00 am Key note 3: Beyond traditional: Novel dimensions and alternative viewpoints of regional development (in Finnish)
Tomas Hanell, Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow, Migration Institute of Finland

10.00 – 10.30 am Key note 4: Migration Archives and Community
Ellen Engseth, Curator, Immigration History Research Center Archives, University of Minnesota

Participation in keynote lectures

You can participate in the keynote lectures through remote access. Those who have signed up to participate online are sent a streaming link by email prior to the event.

Please sign up to the event in advance via this link by 7 October 2024.

For more information, contact merja.skaffari-multala@migrationinstitute.fi.

1st–4th July 2025, Paris–Aubervilliers and online

22nd IMISCOE Annual Conference

Decentering migration studies

In the past years, migration studies have witnessed the renewal of theoretical frameworks, the emergence of new methodologies, numerous empirical studies, and increased collaboration among researchers, all with the aim of improving our understanding of migration. The 22nd edition of the IMISCOE Annual Conference will seek to foster a pluralistic conference of epistemological dialogue and collective reflexivity that challenges the ways in which migration research is produced. The majority of research on migration has been conducted by scientific institutions and published in English, with an emphasis on immigration. The objective is to challenge conventional representations of the migration phenomenon by adopting a decentered perspective, thereby exposing the biases that contribute to an incomplete understanding of the complexities of contemporary migrations.

Geographical decentering is a necessary step in order to move away from a representation of international migration that is generally oversimplified as flows primarily from “poorer” to “richer” regions, or non-Western to Western countries. This shift facilitates a more comprehensive comprehension of the evolving patterns and dynamics of contemporary migration, including the phenomenon of forced displacement. For instance, the Ukrainian conflict has prompted a reorientation of reference points and the emergence of a novel East-West logic that has redefined the constants of migration. This has led to the emergence of a specific female socio-demographic profile and distinctive return dynamics. A historical decentering is also necessary to overcome the misconception that recent events, such as the so-called migration crisis of 2015, are “unprecedented”. It is imperative to transcend the constraints of the ahistorical crisis paradigm that pervades both the public and academic discourses on migratory movements. In the field of migration governance and public policy studies, a decentered approach to the institutions and actors involved (governmental institutions, non-governmental organisations, smugglers, migrants, etc.) also shapes the way interactions, narratives, and practices are conceived. Lastly, an epistemological decentering, strongly incorporating non-Western narratives and interpretative theories, is absolutely necessary for a more nuanced and renewed understanding of migration issues.

For the 22nd IMISCOE Annual Conference in Paris, we invite submissions of Individual Paper Proposals, Workshop Proposals, and Panel Proposals that contribute to decenter migration studies. Panels should be either fully in-person (with all participants at the venue) or fully online (with participants joining remotely). A very limited number of hybrid panels (up to a maximum of 5 sessions per timeslot) could potentially be accommodated in exceptional circumstances (health issues, visa restrictions, special care needs), when duly justified and notified to the IMISCOE Network Office prior to the finalisation of the registration process. Submissions for contributions are open from 3rd of July 2024.

Organizers

French Collaborative Institute on Migration (Institut Convergences Migrations, IC Migrations), Campus Condorcet, France

  pdf Download the flyer (1.22 MB)

Individual Paper Proposals

Paper proposals should include a 250-word abstract and the name(s), affiliation(s), and contact details of the author(s). Individual papers will be thematically clustered into panels. We strongly encourage authors to highlight the conceptual and methodological novelty of their contribution.

Submit an individual paper proposal

Panel Proposals

Panel proposals should include a 250-word abstract of the theme of the panel, together with min 3/max 5 thematically consistent and related 250-word paper abstracts. Submissions should also include the names, affiliations and contact details of the chair(s), discussant(s) and author(s) of each paper.

Submit a panel proposal

Workshop Proposals

Proposals can also be submitted for workshops. This can be, for example, book workshops, policy workshops or roundtables focusing on specific topics, with the aim of discussing research or outlining future research agendas. Submissions for workshops should include a maximum of 400-word abstract as well as the names, affiliations and contact details of the organizer(s) and workshop participants (up to 10 participants, excluding the workshop chairs).

Submit a workshop proposal

Paper, panel, and workshop proposals will have to be linked to a Specific IMISCOE Standing Committee or to the Open Section. Please check the description of all IMISCOE Standing Committees and select the one more aligned to the topic of your proposal. Please note that the Open Section should only be used for proposals which do not have a direct thematic link with any IMISCOE Standing Committee.

• SC Education and Social Inequality
• SC Families, Welfare, Care and the Life Course
• SC Forced Migration and Refugees
• SC Gender and Sexuality in Migration Research
• SC Migration, Migrants and Labour Markets
• SC Methodological Approaches and Tools in Migration Research
• SC Migrant Transnationalism
• SC Migration, Citizenship and Political Participation
• SC Migration Politics and Governance
• SC Race, Racism and Discrimination
• SC Reflexivities in Migration Studies
• SC Superdiversity, Migration and Cultural Change

Conditions/requirements

The deadline for submitting proposals is 23rd of September 2024 (23:59 CEST). All submissions should be made online via this page (see the buttons above). When submitting proposals, applicants must choose their intended mode of participation: ON-SITE in Paris-Aubervilliers or ONLINE. Please note that the 2025 Annual Conference is not envisaged to be fully blended: panels and workshops running throughout the conference days will be expected to take place either fully on-site or fully online. A very limited number of hybrid panels (up to a maximum of 5 sessions per timeslot) could potentially be accommodated in exceptional circumstances (health issues, visa restrictions, special care needs), when duly justified and notified to the IMISCOE Network Office prior to the finalisation of the registration process. Applicants will be informed about the acceptance of their submission towards mid-end of January 2025. Applicants may be the lead presenter of only one accepted paper in the conference and may appear up to a maximum of 3 times in any other active role (as chair, discussant and/or workshop organiser/participant). The conference may be fully online if any other exceptional situation imposes it.

Conference registration fees*

*These new registration fees that have been adjusted for inflation were approved by the IMISCOE Board of Directors on the 3rd of July 2023.

17-19/4 2024 CfP 2024 IMISCOE Spring Conference

IMISCOE (International Migration Research Network) is the largest interdisciplinary network of scholars in the field of migration. 2024 IMISCOE Spring Conference April 17-19 2024 Hybrid event in Istanbul & online Postcolonial migrations – heritages, specificities, mobilizations MiReKoç (Migration Research Center at Koç University), Koç University (Istanbul, Turkey) is organising the 2024 IMISCOE Spring conference on 17-19 April 2024 on the topic of “Mobilities and Immobilities in an Era of Polycrisis” The Migration Research Center at Koç University (MiReKoç) is proud to announce that it will host the IMISCOE 2024 Spring Conference in Istanbul on 17-19 April 2024. The conference also celebrates MiReKoc’s 20th anniversary. The call for papers can be found below.   Call for Papers Crises generate complex, nuanced and multi-directional actions within the mobility spectrum, such as emigration, return, forced displacement, or immobility. Against the backdrop of emerging and protracted armed conflicts, ever increasing impact of climate change, continuing global economic downturn, and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, this conference seeks to examine interrelated and compounded crises with a view on their relation to mobilities. The distinctive feature of the contemporary polycrisis situations is their unprecedented scale, multitude, speed, and overlapping natures, which further exacerbates their intersection with migration. This conference aims to provide a space for scholars and researchers to explore this intersection between polycrisis and (im)mobilities with a specific focus on four interrelated crises situations: political, economic, health-related, and environmental. Political, economic, health-related, and environmental crises rarely develop in an one-sided manner. Instead, they are triggered by one categorical event, which triggers others, leading to multiple, compounded crisis situations. These situations impact migration trends, decisions, capabilities, and livelihoods of migrant communities. Initial aspirations and decisions to migrate are constructed at the intersection of local and individual realities; by sociocultural, political, and economic transformations ‘back home’; and by the structural constraints of globalization. Although the diverse motivations for migration are established in protracted temporalities, combination of extreme crises may function as a trigger or a tipping point for mobility or make an immobility situation even more severe.  Elaborating on the term “polycrisis”, this international conference proposes to explore the impact of the multiple and overlapping crises on migration and mobility by focusing particularly on four crisis axes: politics, economics, health, and climate. Research that accounts for these multiple and overlapping crises will provide deeper insights into their impacts on migration and mobility. The conference aims to bring together researchers from various disciplines and geographies with different methodological approaches to discuss these pressing issues. It seeks to foster a research agenda that embeds migration and mobility within current social transformations, while acknowledging the multiple crises we are going through. The conference aims to create a space for future-oriented dialogue and exchange among scholars.  The conference will consider paper submissions focusing on but not limited to, the following topics: Polycrisis, mobility/immobility, and stages of migration:  Mobility/Immobility and Polycrisis Migration aspirations Settled immigrant populations Return decisions  Perspectives on political crises:  Emerging and protracted conflict situations with far reaching impact  Regional perspectives from Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, among others  Migration diplomacy and the instrumentalization of migration crises Rising xenophobia and democracies in crisis  The language of crisis and its implications for migration policies  Migration within the context of global economic and financial crises:  Inflation/increase in living costs  Demographic developments  Unemployment/labour market integration  Shifting economic activities/patterns (e.g. gig economy, digital nomadism, etc.) Migration and health in a rapidly changing world:  Revisiting mobility discussions following the COVID-19 pandemic  Right to healthcare; migrant and refugee health in transit and upon arrival Migration and transnationalism on health-related decisions/practices  Environmental and climate change induced migration:  Food security and migration  Direct/indirect slow onset processes Rapid onset disasters  more information Conditions/Requirements This conference will be hybrid in nature and presenters can join online or in person. The deadline for submissions is September 18, 2023. Decisions will be sent by October 23, 2023. Paper submissions must include a title, abstract (max. 350 words) and a short biography (max. 250 words). To apply, please fill in this form.  The conference organizers intend to publish an edited volume and a special issue from the conference proceedings. We are looking forward to having 3 fruitful inspiring days and we hope to see each other online and in person IMISCOE (International Migration Research Network) is the largest interdisciplinary network of scholars in the field of migration. Follow We hope you enjoyed receiving this message. However, if you’d rather not receive future e-mails of this sort from IMISCOE please unsubscribe here. Centre for Ethnic and Migration Studies (CEDEM) Batiment B31, Boite 24 Place des Orateurs 3 Liege, B-4000 Belgium Difficult to read? Access this newsletter in a browser.