Tag: IMISCOE

CFP IMISCOE: Studying Migration in the Digital Era (Canada)

ConferencesCall for papers: IMISCOE Annual Conference: Studying Migration in the Digital Era: Innovation, Regulation, Ethics, and Rights, 10-12 March 2027, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada. Deadline: 26 June 2026.

Across the globe, states and international organizations are increasingly deploying advanced digital technologies (ADTs), from biometric registration systems and AI-driven risk assessments to mobile applications mediating access to services, as instruments of migration management. While these tools promise efficiency and innovation, they also raise urgent ethical and political questions about surveillance, accountability, the rights of migrants and refugees, and intersectional forms of discrimination based on gender, race and class. Similarly, app-based platform work, algorithmic decision-making, and the externalization of environmental costs resulting from hosting energy-intensive data centres have many implications for migrant labour and mobility.

At the same time, digitalization is reshaping the research process itself. Migration scholars are navigating new opportunities and challenges in data collection, storage, and analysis. From digital ethnography and big data analytics to participatory and community-based approaches designed to counteract power asymmetries, ADTs are reconstituting the field of migration studies. These developments call for reflexive and interdisciplinary dialogue that brings together diverse perspectives and methods to critically engage with digital transformations, grounded in migrants’ lived realities.

For the 2027 IMISCOE Spring Conference, organizers invite migration scholars from all disciplinary backgrounds, geographical regions, and career stages to submit paper proposals that critically interrogate the digital transformations shaping both migration governance and the practice of migration research. Specifically, the program will focus on two interrelated dimensions:

First, organizers welcome contributions that examine how ADTs are impacting migration governance and human rights. They seek to discuss the deployment of advanced technologies in border management, the influence of algorithmic decision-making on migration narratives, and the impact of these tools on the rights and lived experiences of migrants and refugees.

Second, the conference seeks to explore how digitalization is reshaping research methods and ethics. They invite reflections on the opportunities and challenges of digital data collection, the ethics of conducting research in the digital era, and the ways in which ADTs are reconstituting the scientific work on migration.

CFP Lived Transnationalism Symposium (Germany)

ConferencesCall for Papers: Symposium and PhD Training: Lived transnationalism in times of violent conflict – Cross-border connections and mobilities of people, goods and capital, 27-28 March 2023, Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies, Bonn, Germany. Deadline: 31 January 2023.

Violent conflicts set people into motion and change existing social relations. More specifically, large-scale wars and localised conflicts not only force people to flee from violence but transform pre-existing mobility patterns, often rupturing the rhythms and routes of movement. As a consequence, new forms of social practises across international borders and of ‘transnational living’ are established. This two-day symposium, which is co-organised by the IMISCOE Standing Committee on Migrant Transnationalism (MITRA) and the BMBF-funded project Forced Migration and Refugee Studies: Networking and Knowledge Transfer (FFVT), seeks to unpack how transnational mobilities and connectivities come into being and change under the conditions of violent conflicts, and how they shape the lives of those who are transnationally (dis)entangled.

IMISCOE PHD School: Migration, Racism, Discrimination (Belgium)

Study Abroad2023 IMISCOE PhD School: Critical Reflections on Migration Studies, Racism and Discrimination, 24-28 April 2023, Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, Belgium (on-site). Deadline: 8 January 2023.

Migration studies has, for long, largely ignored the study of racism. Recent calls for the decolonization of the university and Black Lives Matter 2020 led to the gradual entry of the study of race, racism and colonialism into the migration studies field. Whilst developed apart in the past, mainstream migration studies and race critical studies (from postcolonial, to decolonial, to critical race studies, Black studies and more) are slowly starting to dialogue. This IMISCOE PhD school aims at bringing together PhD researchers with experienced scholars, activists, practitioners, and artists to explore how the more mainstream social sciences on migration, racism and discrimination and race critical studies can learn from each other and (im)possibly integrate, and how we can contribute to more racial justice.

Event organized by: Brussels Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Migration and Minorities (BIRMM, Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Centre for Ethnic and Migration Studies (CEDEM, Université de Liège), Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR, Ghent University), & The Network on Migration and Global Mobility (University of Antwerp).

CFP IMISCOE: Migration & Inequalities (Poland & online)

ConferencesCall for papers: 20th IMISCOE Annual Conference: Migration and Inequalities: In Search of Answers and Solutions, 3-6 July 2023, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland (and online). Deadline: 5 December 2022.

Inequalities invariably intertwine with migration. On the micro-scale, socio-economic inequalities shape the propensity to migrate. On a macro-scale, South-North and East-West dynamics act as migration drivers. Recent mobility-related debates include inequalities as developmental outcomes of migration, as an implication of social and economic remittances, and as an issue to be addressed by public policies. Inequality-related challenges are also discussed in the context of gender, ethnic and racial disparities, urban segregation, or labour market segmentation in receiving countries. Inequalities intertwine with migration knowledge production. Postcolonial power relations determine who gets to define the research agenda, who receives research funding and, consequently, who gets to theorise migration knowledge.

There is a growing need for scientific and political discussion on new inequalities and challenges for the future, such as the demographic, climate and technological changes, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the mass forced migration following conflicts such as the current war in Ukraine. As an efficient public response is still lacking, research and academic debates are much needed to support political decision-making processes. The focus on inequalities of the 2023 IMISCOE Annual Conference can facilitate the strengthening of topics in IMISCOE debates, from different methodological approaches (quantitative and qualitative) and various disciplinary focuses (including but not limited to economics, sociology, demography, political science, anthropology, law, history and geography).

Call for New Editors, Comparative Migration Studies 2022

Professional OpportunitiesCall for New Editors of Comparative Migration Studies (an IMISCOE journal). Deadline: 15 July 2022.

The journal Comparative Migration Studies (CMS) invites applications for several new members of the Editorial Board. In particular, CMS invites non-European scholars working on migration and (migration-related) diversity from various disciplines, including sociology, demography, anthropology, political sciences, law, geography and economics.

Comparative Migration Studies is an international peer-reviewed journal that has been selected for inclusion in the Web of Science. CMS is associated with the IMISCOE Research Network. CMS distinguishes itself as a journal on three elements:

  • An explicit comparative orientation. They believe that a focus on comparative research can promote the theoretical development of migration studies. This can involve various types of comparative studies (between countries, groups, levels, historical periods).
  • A wide disciplinary angle. CMS aims to develop a wide disciplinary angle, such as political science, economics, law, history, demography, social geography, sociology, cultural studies, literature, psychology and anthropology.
  • An open access journal. They believe open access nowadays is the best way to get the widest possible exposure for the work published in our journal. Publishing your articles with CMS means that other scholars will have easy access to your work and will be more likely to actually read it and refer to it. Open access publishing is not without costs.

In order to develop the journal further, and to make sure that all relevant disciplines and methodological traditions are well represented, the editorial board will be expanded. They invite applications from scholars from various disciplines:

  • working in the field of migration studies
  • special interest in comparative research
  • quantitative research background

Being a member of the editorial board means that you will be involved in policymaking regarding the journal and that as editor you will be in charge of reviewing articles that are in your area of expertise (on average, a couple of hours per month).

CFP IMISCOE: Migration & Time (Norway)

ConferencesCall for papers: 19th IMISCOE Conference: Migration & Time: Temporalities of Mobility, Governance, and Resistance, June 29-July 1, 2022, Oslo, Norway. Deadline: 15 December 2021.

Migration is intertwined with time in myriad ways and at multiple scales. In individual lives, migration propels change over time and entails engagement with personal pasts and futures. Time and temporalities are structuring migration experiences, when refugees are granted temporary protection, labour migrants are offered temporary employment and rights of residency, and undocumented migrants are living with uncertainties for the future. The governance of migration is also the governance of migrants’ relations to and experiences of time. Governance of migration happens in time – sometimes in the form of rapid changes in times of “crisis”, but perhaps also through postponement when the urgency has passed.

Attention to time and temporalities illuminates processes of othering and patterns of inequalities, as well as forms of resistance and adaptations to policies and institutions. The rapid changes in laws, regulations, policies and practices of migration also have repercussions on the topics, theoretical approaches, and methodologies of migration scholars. These and other perspectives on time and migration have flourished as part of the emerging ‘temporal turn’ in migration studies. The theme ‘migration and time’ brings out disciplinary, methodological and theoretical diversity of migration research with a shared focus.

CFP Migration Studies

“Publication

Competitive call for book proposals on Migration studies, for IMISCOE’s book series with Springer. Deadline: 31 October, 2021.

The IMISCOE Network has launched a Competitive Call 2021 for ground-breaking new manuscripts (whether authored or edited). The Call is Open Topic in the broad and inter-disciplinary field of Migration Studies. The participation is open to both new and established scholars in the field of Migrations Studies while the main criterion is the excellence of the proposal. Authors/Editors who are within the first 5 years from their PhDs are especially encouraged to apply. The best book proposal will be offered a total Open Access fee waiver. All other proposals submitted under the call can be considered for publication under the standard conditions of the series. Authors or editors submitting under this Call should plan to have their full manuscript ready by the end of 2022.

Established to promote research emanating from the IMISCOE Research Network, the IMISCOE publication series has since become one of the main migration related publication series in Europe and beyond, with over 110 titles published since its launch in 2006. It presents empirical and theoretical scholarship addressing issues of migration management and migrant integration in Europe, from different disciplinary perspectives, and with a special interest in new and innovative topics and methods of research. Authored by experts in the field, the works provide a rich reference source for scholars, students, and stakeholders.

PHD Summer School in Mediterranean Migration Studies (Spain)

Study AbroadPh.D. Summer School in Mediterranean Migration Studies, Pompeu Fabra University, Ciutadella Campus, Barcelona, Spain, June 28-July 3, 2021. Deadline: January 4, 2021.

The main objective of this IMISCOE Summer School is to provide an intensive course promoting Mediterranean Migration Studies, whilst engaging students through multi-dynamic activities including lectures, roundtables, documentary screening as well as PhD. Workshops. Further, multi-disciplinarity, multi-topics, multi-methodologies and multi-sited coverage will be ensured, one important way this will be done is through the inclusion of narratives from the South providing new views, voices, and perspectives.

Who can apply: Ph.D. students in the early stage of their Ph.D., who are still designing their research proposal on Mediterranean Migration.

This is an initiative of the EuroMedMig IMISCOE Regional Network funded by IMISCOE.

CFP IMISCOE: Crossing Borders, Connecting Cultures (Luxembourg)

ConferencesCall for papers: IMISCOE (International Migration, Integration, and Social Cohesion) 17th Annual Conference: Crossing Borders, Connecting Cultures, June 30-July 2, 2020, Luxembourg. Deadline: 1 December 2019.

This conference proposes to zoom deeper into people’s migration experiences by foregrounding how migration is connected to culture. We will explore the nexus of migration and culture in more depth asking how migration is lived, experienced, mediated, and reflected through everyday cultural and artistic practice. Thereby we seek to deepen our understanding of the complexity and diversity of migration experiences on the one hand, and the possibilities of connecting different migrant experiences and groups of people on the other.

In line with the theme ‘Crossing borders, connecting cultures’, preferred proposals shall feature:

  • Theories, concepts and methods in migration research
  • Cultures and cultural practice in migration research
  • Borders and borders experiences in migration research