Seminar

On World Refugee Day, Lumière is collaborating with Refugee Project Maastricht to cast some light on today’s most pressing refugee issues. 

Background 

Floods are a common environmental hazard, often causing loss of lives, economic losses and livelihood impacts around the globe. At the same time, the recently published 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that such extreme events will further increase in both frequency and severity in the coming decades. Recent flood events (incl. those in Europe in 2021) have revealed significant gaps in (i) our understanding of the multiple risks and impacts of such extreme events, (ii) the awareness and risk perception of the population, (iii) early warning, preparedness and emergency response, (iv) risk insurance and ways how insurance and finance instruments can support building back better, (v) adaptation and transformation needs, as well as (vi) cross-border and multi-level governance. In order to meet these challenges and build societal resilience towards climate extremes, increased collaboration and exchange of experiences as well as innovative solutions are urgently needed. 

On 20 September 2022, UNU will host “Comprehensive Innovation for Sustainable Development“, a BIG IDEAS Dialogue with Dr Bartel Van de Walle, Director of the UNU Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT). This event will be held via Zoom webinar at 18:00 JST (UTC+9). 

Abstract: 

A novel European policy concerning irregular migration is the implementation of information campaigns in popular sending countries. Recent literature suggests a certain effectiveness of these campaigns, revealing that triggering anxiety in the target audience enhances the impact of the information provided. This presentation challenges these findings by focusing on the role of a more moral mediator: the perceived credibility of the information’s sender. Building on dual-process theories of information processing, I expect that the mediator’s anxiety and credibility enhance the impact of information provision on awareness raising and attitude formation but through different mechanisms, so they may strategically replace one another. Disentangling the independent and interdependent effects, I implemented an experimental implicit mediation design with two randomized treatments in a real political information campaign targeting 2,500 Nigerian students. The results support the expectations. The absence of an additional effect for joint implementation of both mediators suggests a tactical replaceability. This causal field evidence contributes to understanding the different mechanisms of information processing in campaign settings. 

You are cordially invited to a UNU Migration Network research dissemination event on Return Processes and Return Governance. The event will offer an opportunity to discuss the policy findings and implications of two recently completed doctoral projects that focus on return decision-making, return policies, post-return experiences and the role of familial and formal support therein. 

Hosted by the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health & Development (AIGHD) and the 
Joep Lange Institute (JLI), the Joep Lange Chair and Fellows Symposium brings together leading experts around a specific topic showcasing cutting-edge research. This year’s symposium will provide a platform to address the timely topic of Migration and Health. 

MIDEQ and the UN University Centre for Policy Research (UNU-CPR) are hosting – “From promises to practice: towards the effective implementation of the Global Compact Migration.” 

“Piloting Skills Mobility Partnerships: Lessons learned from the MATCH project and the way forward” will take place on 17^th of November 2022 in Brussels, from 9:30 to 17:30, in a hybrid format! 

The ITEM annual conference in Groningen will focus on the impact of border regions on security, health and energy supply for the inhabitants of Europe’s internal borders. The current social developments in the fields of energy, health and safety still show that in order to tackle barriers, it is important to work together with partners on both sides of the border to arrive at the right casuistry, a joint concrete agenda and a structural approach. The current discussion around energy and the cross-border aspects involved require stronger inter-governmental governance (multilevel governance). 

Transdisciplinarity: Independent Academic Initiative (link) (in collaboration with Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology, and Center for Migration Studies at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan) invites all interested to webinar on Climate Change and Human Migration presented within a series of seminars entitled “Resilience in the context of permanent crisis” (link).