CfP: Multilayered Governance: More Coherence for the International Migration Regime? Deadline 31/01/2016

University of Bern (Switzerland)
Wednesday, 27 April and Thursday, 28 April 2016

This two-day workshop, to be held at University of Bern (Switzerland), examines how current migration challenges could be resolved through the concept of multilayered governance (MLG). As counterproject to constitutionalism and statehood, MLG transforms through constructivist “layering” and “blurring” hegemonies such as (host) state control. By adding layers (regional, supranational, multilateral) to the national ones, MLG re-engages with reciprocity, invites plural values and construes flexible structures. It is thus well-equipped to screen international migration law, which has been criticized for substance lacking architecture. It asks how to re-arrange State-society relations by empowering non-state actors and reduces ambivalences among regulatory goals of migration, which are liberalization, rights protection and risk management. The conference will transpose the research agenda of MLG to the field of international migration law and discuss why constructing coherence for a regime as highly divided and as deeply complex as migration remains challenging.

What are the advantages/deficits of contouring the international migration system in terms of MLG? Does MLG encourage bypassing security-biased norms in favor of development-friendly, market-oriented or rights-based approaches?

This call looks for papers combining a migration-specific analysis, which can be based on empirical research, with governance theory. We strongly encourage papers with an interdisciplinary approach linking any of the following disciplines: law, economics, international relations, sociology, geography, anthropology.

Paper Submission Procedure
Senior and junior scholars (including PhD students) are invited to participate in the call for papers. Papers will be selected on the basis of the submitted abstracts. The abstracts must not exceed 800 words and have to be submitted by email to marion.panizzon@oefre.unibe.ch and philip.hanke@oefre.unibe.ch.

Deadline for submission of abstracts has expired, but we are still accepting submissions on a rolling basis until 31 January 2016.

Call for Papers (PDF)