MGSoG/UNU-MERIT Migration Seminar

While South-North migration tends to receive a lot of attention, forced migration within the Global South is seldom placed in the spotlight. This is despite the numbers: 85% of the world’s refugees find refuge in developing countries. In Africa, for instance, Uganda alone counts 1.4 million refugees in its territory. 

Migration and its relationship to culture and identity are among the difficult and intertwined topics on which many are reluctant to write on them for several reasons, the most important of which is that being objective in such research is beset by many difficulties and obstacles, the first of which is the difficulty separating the researcher himself from the context.

Dr. Toman Barsbai, University of Bristol 

Many migrant workers face exploitative working conditions, resulting from the highly asymmetric power relationship with their employers and their inability to enforce contracts

Investment migration programmes—which offer residence permits or citizenship in return for a financial transaction or passive investment—have become increasingly popular in high-income immigration destinations over the past 15 years.

The EU has been investing significantly in economic development in West Africa, however, the scope of this economic support often goes beyond the mere improvement of the region’s social and economic well-being, as the EU has been using its assistance also to negotiate cooperation with countries of origin or transit on migration governance.

In the latter decades of the 20th century, the Netherlands was forced to confront evidence of racist violence and discrimination within its European borders.

About the speaker: 

Chloe Sydney is a Researcher at the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). Much of her research has focused on the relationship between internal displacement and cross-border movements.

We would like to invite you to our next UNU-MERIT & MACIMIDE Migration Seminar, taking place on Wednesday, 16 November. Our first speaker for the month of November is Prof. Maggi Leung from the University of Amsterdam. In the presentation, entitled Welcoming spaces in peripherised regions: Shrinkage + demographic changes = better futures?, Prof. Leung will present the objectives, conceptual foundation, and preliminary finding of the Welcoming Spaces (WS) programme, funded by the Horizon 2020 scheme of the European Commission. 

On Wednesday, 30 November, we will have the second Migration Seminar for the month November, convened by UNU-MERIT & MACIMIDE (Maastricht University). Our speaker is Dr Sevgi Temizisler, who is an Associate Researcher at the Brussels School of Governance, the Centre for Digitalisation, Democracy, and Innovation (CD2I) at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Belgium. In the presentation, entitled Politicisation of migration and its impacts on European integration, Dr Temizisler will present the outcomes of her doctoral thesis, which investigated how migration issues were politicised during the ‘refugee crisis’ in different countries and the implications for European integration. 

Dr. Raphaela Schweiger, Yale & Robert Bosch Stiftung 

Raphaela Schweiger will speak about her new book ‘Beyond states: The Global Compact for Migration and the role of non-state actors and cities‘, and her take on the evolution and future of global migration governance.