10/10/18 – Migration seminar by Katie Kuschminder

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Date/Time
Date(s) - 10/10/18
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Location
UNU-Merit, Boschstraat 24, Maastricht (Conference room 0.16-0.17)

Categories


Abstract

The  migration  policy,  securitization  and  governance  of  asylum  landscape  has  greatly  changed  in  Italy  over  the  past  five  years.  The  implementation  of  the  hotspot  approach  and  the  EU  relocation  programme  have  characterized  two  of  these  significant  changes.  This  paper  examines  how  recent  (2016-2017)  Eritrean  arrivals  in  Italy  experienced  and  respond  to  the  asylum  system.  The  analysis  reflects,  first,  on  the  multilevel  governance  of  the  interplay  between  the  institutional  level  of  the  EU,  national  policy,  and  local  municipal  policies  within  Italy.  Second,  this  paper  shows  how  Eritrean  asylum  seekers  have  been  refused  access  to  the  relocation  programme  by  local  authorities  in  Italy  and  how  Eritreans  react  to  this  bureaucracy  by  engaging  in  secondary  movements  within  Italy.  The  results  provide  an  analytical  critique  regarding  the  governance  shortcomings  of  the  relocation  programme  in  Italy  that  is  important  for  consideration  in  future  solidarity  and  responsibility  sharing  initiatives  within  the  EU.

About the speaker 

Dr. Katie Kuschminder is an Assistant Professor at Maastricht Graduate School of Governance and UNU-MERIT. She has recently completed a NWO Rubicon scholarship as a Research Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute. Her project at the EUI is a comparative analysis of Eritrean and Nigerian migrants decision making factors in Italy. 

Katie has been working in research for the past ten years and has worked on or managed migration projects for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection Irregular Migration Research Group, German Development Cooperation, IOM, and UNHCR. In previous years, Katie has taught in the MSc in Public Policy and Human Development, the Migration Management Diploma Programme, Migration Studies at the University College Maastricht, and in the Evidence-Based Policy Research Programme. Katie’s main research interests are in the areas of migration and development, return and reintegration, and irregular and transit migration