IMER NEWSLETTER NR. 2/2007

IMER NEWSLETTER

Monday, 26 February 2007

Newsletter Nr. 2 / 2007

Content:

  • The 14 Nordic Migration Researchers Conference: Call for papers and workshop
  • IMER/Bergen – Exploring Diversity Seminars: Jonathon Moses
  • Eurosphere successfully kicked off
  • Mette Andersson(Imer/Bergen), receives funding for two new projects
  • ESF awards 2006 European Latsis Prize to Professor Rainer Bauböck
  • 12th International Metropolis Conference: ”Migration, Economic Growth and Social Cohesion”
  • ESA_HERMES: second and updated call for papers
  • COMPAS Annual Conference 2007: Call for Papers
  • Call for invited papers: International Conference on Survey Methods in Multinational, Multiregional and Multicultural Contexts
  • Call for papers for a special issue of UNESCO’s International Journal on Multicultural Studies (IJMS)
  • Announcing the MPI Data Hub and the New ACS Data Tool
  • Culcom: scholarships to researchers and students
  • Centre for the Study of Equality and Multiculturalism/ Vacant PhD and post-doc fellowships
  • Publications

The 14 Nordic Migration Researchers Conference:

Call for papers and workshop

“Borders and Boundaries”

Time: 14-16 November 2007
Place: Bergen, Norway

Time: November 14-16, 2007
Place: Bergen, Norway

Announcement and Call for Papers and Workshops

The 14th Nordic Migration Researcher Conference will be hosted by IMER/Unifob Global at the University of Bergen. The theme for the Nordic Migration Researcher Conference points to issues of sovereignty, demarcation, distinction, exclusion and discrimination, but also to issues of transience, communication across distinction, and acceptance. Aspects of ‘the global turn’ and the Europeanization of Europe, not least as manifest in migration and migrant populations, have brought border and boundary issues to the forefront not only in social science and humanities scholarship, but also placed them with exceptional prominence on the political agenda.

The conference will be organized in plenaries, subplenaries, and workshops.
For each of the three days, the plenaries will focus around a specific topic. The following topics have been defined:

Transnationalism and the relevance of borders

Specifically, the relevance of state/European borders in our attempts to understand migratory movements and migrant population ‘integration’. What reshapings of the sovereignty regimes do we see, and why? Do we see a development towards a sociology of mobility? Or do we see a re-nationalization within Europe? Borders, boundaries and identity construction are crucial issues here.

*Adrian Favell, University of California, Los Angeles(invited)
*John Urry, Lancaster University, UK

Mobility and gender

Increasingly, there has been a stronger and much needed focus on gender within studies in international migration and ethnic relations. This plenary will deal with, and tie together, some ways in which gender constructions are tied to imaginaries of community, and gendered distinctions in agency and the quality of life;

Speakers:
*Uli Linke, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA
*Laura Augustin, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Liverpool, UK

Globalizing idioms and human rights

Increasingly, globalizing and essentializing idioms, especially religious and ethnic ones, have been seen as major impediments to reasoned resolutions to conflicts and controversies. These idioms have been largely contrasted with human rights perspectives. The plenary will explore these issues, with particular attention also to the essentializing dimensions in the human rights discourses.

Speakers:
*Anne Norton, University of Pennsylvania, USA
*Michael Ignatieff, University of Toronto, Canada (confirmation pending)

The Organizers welcome proposals for sub-plenaries and workshops. The sub-plenaries will generally be short lectures, intended to be of interest to a set of workshops. Proposals to arrange workshops are welcome. In addition, the organisers will arrange workshops so that all participants who want to give workshop contributions will have an opportunity to do so.

Submission of abstracts: 15th May
Submission of workshop proposals and subplenaries: 1st April

Abstracts will only be accepted through online submission.
Workshop proposals can be directed to Kjersti Skjervheim

For questions about the academic program contact Knut Hidle or Yngve Lithman

For general queries, comments or proposals please contact Kjersti Skjervheim

For more information please visit the conference web page

The web pages will be continuously developed and updated and the registration site will open soon.

IMER/Bergen – Exploring Diversity seminars:

Jonathon Moses

Time: Wednesday 28th February. 16.00-18.00
Place: Stein Rokkans Hus, Unifob Global, 5th floor, Seminarroom

” International Migration: Globalization’s Last Frontier “

“There is growing frustration with the unjust distribution of our globe’s economic and political bounty. Can greater migration can be seen as a real and effective alternative for righting international wrongs?

Jonathon W. Moses is Professor at the Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and technology, Trondheim. In 2006 Jonathon Moses published “International Migration: Globalization’s Last Frontier”. For more information on the book or Prof. Jonathon Moses please see his homepage

Eurosphere successfully kicked off

On Februar 14th the EU-financed research-project Eurosphere coordinated by Imer/Unifob Global at the University of Bergen successfully kicked off.

For more information about the kick off conference read here.

Follow the development of the Eurosphere project on the Eurosphere webportal: www.eurosphere.uib.no

Mette Andersson (Imer/Bergen), receives funding for two new projects

Co-director at Imer/UiB, Mette Andersson has received funding for two new projects.

The one is a NORFACE – project entitled: ‘The Architecture of Contemporary Religious Transmission’ and is led by Roger Hewitt from the Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths College, University of London. Mette Andersson(Imer/UiB), Ingrid Gogolin (Hamburg University) and Caroline Knowles (Goldsmiths College, London) make up the project partners. Anders Vassenden(UiB) will work together with Mette Andersson on the Norwegian part of the project. The Norface project will run for 20 months.

The other project Mette Andersson has received funding from is named: ”Transnasjonale nettverk – nasjonale demokratier. Politisk mobilisering og engasjement blant unge med innvandrerbakgrunn”. Mette Andersson(UiB) is leading the project and Christine M. Jacobsen(The Rokkan centre), Jon Rogstad (ISF), Viggo Vestel (Nova) and one PhD student are participating in the project. The project is funded through the Norwegian Research Council’s programme for Imer-related research and will run for three years.

Updates and news on these projects will be accessible at the Imer/Bergen webpages and Imer Newsletter.

ESF awards 2006 European Latsis Prize to Professor Rainer Bauböck

The European Science Foundation (ESF) awarded this year’s European Latsis Prize to Professor Rainer Bauböck from the Institute of European Integration Research in Austria for his contribution and in-depth research on migration issues.

The European Latsis Prize, valued at 100,000 Swiss francs (€65,000) is financed by the Geneva-based Latsis Foundation and awarded by the ESF to an individual or group who, in the opinion of their peers, has made the greatest contribution to a particular field of European research. The chosen field for the 2006 prize was Immigration and Social Cohesion in Modern Societies. Read more here

12th International Metropolis Conference:

”Migration, Economic Growth and Social Cohesion”

Time: 8-12 October 2007
Place: Melbourne, Australia

The Metropolis conference is the largest annual event on migration and diversity, and this year’s International Metropolis Conference is expected to attract more than 500 researchers, policy-makers and non-governmental organizations.

Workshop proposals on topics related to migration and diversity are invited from researchers, policy-makers, NGOs and other interested delegates. Workshop proposals will be adjudicated according to several criteria, including the strength of the proposal, best fit with conference themes, overall structure of the workshop, and representation of a broad range of perspectives from various countries, sectors and backgrounds.

This year’s proposed workshop themes include:

  • The conditions for social cohesion in diverse societies
  • Measuring social cohesion indicators
  • Constructing social cohesion in society
  • Comparative approaches to multicultural policies
  • Minorities in society at a time of racial profiling and anti-terrorist legislation
  • Responses to irregular migration
  • Comparative policies to attract new settlers to regional locations
  • Recognition of migrants’ overseas professional qualifications
  • Future research agendas for people movement
  • Comparative skilled migration programs
  • The impact of the ‘cherry picking’ of skilled workers on poorer sending countries
  • Comparative Asia Pacific/European/North American migration patterns
  • Gaining economic advantage through migration
  • Migration in a borderless world – its security implications

Proposals must be submitted using the workshop proposal form.

You will find this, information about conference themes and other details at the conference web pages.

The deadline to submit a workshop proposal is extended to March 15th, 2007!

ESA_HERMES: Second and updated call for papers

HERMES* will organize a research stream at ESA:

“European Researchers in Migration and Ethnic Studies:
CONTEMPORARY METHODS IN MIGRATION RESEARCH”

European Sociological Association 8th Conference

Time: 3-6 September 2007
Place: Glasgow

Immigration has become one of the core issues in the exploration of current societal and political changes in Europe. The inclusion of immigrants to the receiving society does not only take place through labour migration but also through the immigrants’ participation in civil society and beyond. Immigrants can influence the creation of a more democratic civil society by participation through their own civic engagements, such as associational activities in their local community. For further information, please see here.

We invite abstracts on the following themes:

Module 1. The combination of qualitative and quantitative methods in
immigration studies
Module 2. Interpreting qualitative data in immigration studies
Module 3. Getting grounded in immigration studies
Module 4. Conceptualising immigration studies
Module 5. Comparative approaches as research tools

Abstracts (200 words maximum) will only be accepted through completion of the online submission form available at the conference website: www.esa8thconference.com

Deadline abstracts: 28th February 2007.
Decisions on acceptance will be conveyed by 15th April 2007.

Convenors:
Sanna Saksela
Centre for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism CEREN/Swedish School of Social Science,
P.O. Box 16,
FIN-00014 University of Helsinki.
E-mail: sanna.saksela@helsinki.fi
Sonia Pires,
European University Institute,
Italy.
Email: sonia.pires@iue.it

For further information of HERMES, please click here.

COMPAS Annual Conference 2007: Call for Papers

Between ‘Parallel Lives’ and ‘Community Cohesion’
Toward new models of immigration, integration and multiculturalism

Time: 5-6 July 2007
Place: University of Oxford

COMPAS invites proposals for papers that are relevant to the themes of workshops being held at the COMPAS Annual Conference in July 2007.

Papers of the highest quality and which most closely correspond with the following conference workshop themes will be selected:

The radicalisation of immigrant and ethnic minority youth
Many young people experience acute levels of social alienation due to structural and social inequalities; and youth are often blamed for segregating themselves, for being involved in criminality and for radicalisation. This workshop will investigate the meaning of youth alienation and youth radicalism.

Transnationalism and integration: a zero-sum game?
The “more transnational” migrants are, the “less integrated” they must be, and vice versa. This workshop will interrogate this assumption by way of new research evidence and theoretical reflection.

Faith and cohesion in the city
What does recent research tell us about the relevance of faith in relation to factors that promote or impede community cohesion? This workshop will move forward the debate on faith and cohesion and discuss the relevance for policy development.

Local experiences of “super diversity”
This workshop will look at the “micropolitics of everyday interaction” in the context of “superdiverse” urban neighbourhoods. It will focus on the responses of both local residents and institutions to an increased diversification of their neighbourhoods, and discuss the methdological and theoretical challenges for research in such “superdiverse” contexts.

For more details on the overall conference theme, workshops and the call for papers please see the conference web page .

Please do not send full papers. Extended abstracts of proposed papers (max. 500 words) are due by March 26th , 2007.

All abstracts and conference enquiries should be sent to Alison Stibbe

Call for invited papers:

International Conference on Survey Methods in Multinational, Multiregional and Multicultural Contexts.

Time: 25-29 June 2008
Place: Berlin, Germany

As part of an ongoing effort to promote quality in multipopulation surveys and to raise the level of methodological expertise in various applied fields of comparative survey research, an International Conference on Survey Methods in Multinational, Multiregional and Multicultural Contexts will be held June 25 – 29, 2008 in Berlin, Germany.

This conference will bring together researchers and survey practitioners concerned with survey methodology and practice in comparative contexts. It will provide a unique opportunity to discuss and present research that contributes to our understanding of survey needs and methods in cross-cultural and cross-national contexts. Conference contributions will help document current best practices and stimulate new ideas for further research and development.

We invite all interested researchers and practitioners to submit abstracts to be considered for Invited Papers.

Deadline abstracts: Friday March 2nd , 2007.

Read call for invited papers and submit abstracts here

Call for papers:

For a special issue of UNESCO’s International Journal on Multicultural Studies (IJMS).

The special thematic issue of the IJMS entitled Citizenship tests in a post-national era will focus on the role of citizenship tests as an aspect of integration policies in industrial countries of immigration. Citizenship tests which have recently emerged in a variety of countries seem, at first glance, to support the thesis that multiculturalism has recently been superseded by a new turn to assimilation. This thematic issue will scrutinize new developments in the acquisition of citizenship and attempt to determine whether this is actually the case. We aim to relate the conditions and functions of citizenship tests to large-scale transformations of statehood and national identity in these industrial countries of immigration and to ask why tests, which can be seen as a strategy for nation state building, are being introduced at a time when many aspects of the nation state system are being dismantled.

Proposals for papers on aspects of this issue are invited. For more information click here

Announcing the MPI Data Hub and the New ACS Data Tool

The MPI Data Hub – a one-stop center for US and global data on migration and immigrant integration.

The MPI Data Hub builds upon and expands research and data tools previously located on the Migration Information Source. The Source has compiled to-date stock, flow, citizenship, asylum, and historical data for 17 countries, as well as extensive data from the US Census Bureau and Department of Homeland Security that cover numbers and characteristics of immigrant populations residing in and arriving to the United States every year. These tools will form the heart of the new Data Hub.

For more information please click here

Culcom:

Scholarships to researchers and students

Cultural Complexity in the new Norway(Culcom) announce available grants for researchers and students. In addition there are also available scholarships for completions of PhD project descriptions.

Application deadline: March 15th 2007

Find out more – click here

Centre for the Study of Equality and Multiculturalism

Vacant PhD and post-doc fellowships

There are two vacant PhD fellowships on rights and cultural identity and discrimination against minorities, and one post-doc fellowship on migration and the welfare state at the newly established Centre for the Study of Equality and Multiculturalism at the University of Copenhagen.

For more information click here

Publications:

Daae-Qvale, Margrethe (2006) Solidaritet til besvær? Norsk fagbevegelses innvandrings- og integreringspolitikk. Masterthesis, Department of Archaeology, Conservation and Historical Studies. University of Oslo. Read more here

Nils Holtug and Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen (eds.)(2006), Egalitarianism. New Essays on the Nature and Value of Equality, Oxford University Press. Read more here

Ødegaard, Cecilie. (2007). A Quest for Progress: Migration, Work and Gender in the Peruvian Andes. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen. Read more here

Nilsson, Anna.(2007) The problem of partial migration : the case of the blue tit. Doctoral dissertation – Lunds Universitet.

Craig, Ronald.(2007) Systemic discrimination in employment and the promotion of ethnic equality. Leiden : Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.

Aranda, Elizabeth M. (2007) Emotional bridges to Puerto Rico : migration, return migration, and the struggles of incorporation. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Athena S. Leoussi and Steven Grosby(eds.)(2007) Nationalism and ethnosymbolism history, culture and ethnicity in the formation of nationas. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press

Antoine Pécoud and Paul de Guchteneire(eds.)(2007) Migration Without Borders: An Investigation into the Free Movement of People, Berghahn Books/UNESCO. Read more here

Matthias Koenig and Paul de Guchteneire(eds.)(2007). Democracy and Human Rights in Multicultural Societies, Ashgate/UNESCO. Read more here