Topic:
Recently, there has been a proliferation of representations of refugees, asylum seekers and irregular migrants waiting at land, sea as well as air border crossings headed towards Europe. These groups are often framed in highly emotive language that associates them with threats, or portrayed as either tragic or miserable, or as the exemplary citizen. There has also been an increase in emphasis on normative concepts such as ‘safe, orderly and regular migration’ in contemporary migration debates and policies; over and above already established ones such as ‘integration’. Often, we also find inherent presumptions that structural disparities between Europe and Africa can be resolved by addressing the root causes of migration and displacement via research and practice without necessarily addressing the causes of oppression. Conversations about African migrants tend to portray Europe as the main host continent for the majority of African migrants in spite of the greater numerical significance of internal and cross-border migration within and across the countries of the global South. All these developments point to the need for ongoing reflection and in particular the need to address northern-centric views in social science and public debate.
Workshop:
This call invites abstract submissions to participate in an online workshop as part of the African Academy for Migration Research Virtual Institute on Knowledge Politics and Production. The workshop is hosted by the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) at the University of the Witwatersrand and Department of Political Science at the University of Vienna in partnership with the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) and the AntiRacism Working Group of the IMISCOE International Migration Research Network. The workshop aims to engage with the question, what can (and should) migration academics and practitioners do to engage in these discussions and debates in a meaningful way? The ‘reflexive turn’ in migration research has engaged with the politics and ethics of knowledge production processes that involve vulnerable groups. While the ‘reflexive turn’ offered a paradigm shift in thinking about these questions by way of epistemological and conceptual reflections, migration research has now also started to engage more with decolonial perspectives. While decolonisation itself is not a new notion, it has been largely at the margins of migration research in Europe. We have seen an increasing attempt to focus on decolonising migration research, especially in the wake of the Black Lives Matter mobilisations.
Application:
Send an e-mail to rethinking@migration.org.za by October 20, midnight (your time zone) with the following information:
- Name
- Title and abstract of proposed contribution (300 words)
- Short bio: university affiliation, title, research interests, time-zone where you are currently based
- Write in the subject line of the e-mail: Rethinking Migration Workshop
We will notify those invited to participate on the basis of accepted abstracts by October 30.
All papers are due by November 30. We envisage essay length papers (ranging from 3000 to 5000 words) that are a basis for discussion and exchange among the participants. Workshop contributions will go towards the compilation of an edited volume that engages scholarship on knowledge politics in the field of migration.
