CFP: IMISCOE WORKSHOP ON ‘REFUGEES IN EUROPEAN LOCALITIES’

The second Workshop of the IMISCOE Research Initiative “Refugees in European Localities: Reception, Perceptions and Policies” will take place in Amsterdam on March 3-5, 2016.

The IMISCOE Research Initiative “Refugees in European Localities: Reception, Perceptions and Policies” was established in August 2014 under the roof of the IMISCOE research network. The goal of our initiative is to reveal the commonalities and differences of refugee reception processes throughout countries and regions of the European Union. We are aiming to provide a systematic and comparative research on the process of arrival on the local level, including management strategies of the local administration, the development of public discourses and on reflections of the reception situation from the migrants’ perspective.

So far we held two conference panels on IMISCOE conferences and one research workshop, which took place at the Technical University of Chemnitz in March 2015. With this Call for Papers, we invite existing and new members to join us at our second research workshop in March 2016 at the University of Amsterdam, which will be devoted to the following issue:

Even though legislation governing asylum in Europe has by and large become part of EU law, there are still significant differences between the member states in how they implement the law, how and at which level of government policies are organized and executed, and with which mandate and amount of discretion, and who are the targets of which policies (refugees, asylum seekers or rejected applicants). Aside from admission policies and their implementation, many other factors determine the incorporation process of asylum seekers and refugees. The nature of labour and housing markets, the educational system, the welfare system, and other public provisions all affect this process.

It is the aim of this workshop to collect country reports which comprehensively chart these policies and practices. A common format will be provided.  In keeping with the Research Initiative’s focus each report should contain a municipal case study. The issues addressed in the case study are the author’s choice.

These reports serve two purposes. First they form the basis for a discussion on the main commonalities and divergences between national approaches and experiences. Each report will be reflected upon by a discussant with the aim to identify cutting edge issues for research. The second envisaged output of the workshop is an edited volume for the IMISCOE research series. Each report serves as the basis for an individual chapter. The commentaries provided by the discussants may also find their way into the volume.

This call is first and foremost aimed at early-career researchers. Small subsidies towards their travel expenses can be made available. Established members of the IMISCOE network are invited to act as discussants. We are especially inviting those senior researcher who are willing, interested and have the appropriate institutional affiliation to support a research proposal in the framework of Horizon 2020.

If you are interested to participate in the workshop, please indicate and detail your interest via e-mail to the workshop conveners: Prof. Dr Birgit Glorius (TU Chemnitz) at birgit.glorius@phil.tu-chemnitz.de and Dr Jeroen Doomernik (University of Amsterdam) at j.m.j.doomernik@uva.nl by 30th of September.