Category Archives: Migration

IMER Webinar 24.09: Explaining Variation in Refugee Recognition Rates: the Role of Institutional Architectures

Two asylum seekers fleeing persecution from the same country may end up in a very different situation if refuge is sought in country A or in country B. Expected discrepancies may have dire consequences for both asylum seekers and the ability of the international protection apparatus to protect them.

In this webinar, Pierre-Georges Van Wolleghem, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Comparative Politics, UiB, will discuss the reasons why refugee recognition rates vary from country to country. Drawing on quantitative data, he posits that variation in recognition rates stems from the procedural diversity of Refugee Status Determination (RSD) structures, i.e. the legal and administrative machinery that transform asylum claims into positive or negative outcomes.

 

 Pierre-Georges Van Wolleghem is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Comparative Politics, UiB, and executive scientific coordinator of PROTECT (Horizon 2020).  Van Wolleghem works on European Union migration policies. His research interests include social policies, quantitative methods, and impact evaluation.

 

 

Time: Thursday 24th of September 2020, 12.30 – 13.30

Join us on Zoom

Meeting ID: 619 6209 0787

Password: 6UykduQ%

IMER Webinar 11.06: Migrant Parents’ Experience with Leisure and Outdoor Play in Norway

In Norway, there is an institutionalized emphasis on the importance of outdoor life and play. This is embedded in public provision for children and in dominant understandings of how families should use leisure time and how children should play. In this seminar, Raquel Herrero-Arias, PhD candidate at the department of Health Promotion, UiB, will discuss her co-authored article (currently under review) on the experiences of Southern European migrant parents with professional advice on family leisure and outdoor play. It focuses on how migrant parents respond to associate discourses of risks in their encounters with kindergarten professionals and community health nurses. Raquel will discuss how migrant parents navigated risk discourse in these encounters in many ways either by contesting, accepting professional intervention, or falsifying compliance.

Raquel Herrero-Arias is a PhD candidate at the department of Health Promotion, UiB. She holds a Master’s Degree in Gender Studies, and an Erasmus Mundus Master in Social Work with Families and Children. Her doctoral project explores the experiences of parenting among Southern European migrant parents in Norway.

 

 

 

Time: Thursday 11th of June 2020, 11.00 – 12.00

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 641 6856 7153

Password: IMER11.06

IMER Webinar 29.05: The Promise of Babette’s Feast: Facilitated Encounters between Locals and Refugees in Norway

There is a deep-rooted cultural belief that encounters between strangers in local settings can bring about social change. Mette Strømsø, a researcher at the Sociology Department UiB, brings this aspect to the forefront in her study of local community initiatives established in the wake of the refugee influx in 2015.  Mette will present her co-authored article with Susanne Bygnes whereby they strive to unpack the promise, inherent contradictions and transformative potential of the facilitated encounters in local communities where newcomers settled. The reference to Karen Blixen’s short story Babette’s feast indicate the cultural resonance of the promise in the facilitated encounters between newcomers and permanent residents.

Mette Strømsø is a researcher for IMEX at the department of Sociology, UiB. She holds a PhD in Human Geography. Her research interests fall at the intersection of political geography and social and cultural geography, with a focus on everyday nationhood and especially the reconciliation between nation and diversity.

 

 

 

Time: Friday 29th of May 2020, 11.00 – 12.00

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IMER Webinar 28.04: Corona Prevention and Impacts on Syrian Refugees in Jordan

Jordan has enacted some of the world’s strongest lockdown and quarantine measures. These measures have been received quite well domestically, but their impact on the country’s most vulnerable refugees is only beginning to be understood.

The majority of Syrian refugees in Jordan live in urban areas in addition to a significant number also residing in camps. As living conditions are linked to the effectiveness of prevention measures, different populations may experience different outcomes.

In this webinar, Sarah Tobin will explore the situation of the Syrian refugees in Jordan, while also examining the political consequences of the pandemic response in the country.

Sarah Tobin is a senior researcher at Chr. Michelsen Institute. Her latest research projects examine questions of religious and economic life and identity construction with Syrian refugees in Jordanian camps of Za’atari, Azraq, and Cyber City.

 

 

Time: Tuesday 28th of April 2020, 11.00 – 12.00

Join us on Zoom

IMER Lunch Seminar 25.02: Aspirations among Women seeking Asylum in Norway: A Longitudinal Perspective from the Asylum Centre and Onwards

Since the refugee reception crisis in 2015, asylum seekers and refugees have often been at the centre of public and scholarly debate. However, the focus has frequently been on the problems they bring about for host countries. Less attention has been placed on asylum seekers’ aspirations, dreams and plans after arrival. Yet these are meaningful to study given that aspirations can have a significant impact on people’s future trajectories and hence, the ways they incorporate into their new homes. Furthermore, desire, despite having a strong agentic nature, is deeply entangled in the social structures and discourses that newcomers are surrounded by.

In this seminar, Zubia Willmann, will be presenting her article in which she explores how the aspirations of women who came to Norway as asylum seekers change over time, the elements that may be involved in such changes as well as how these women go about pursuing their aspirations. She draws on intermittent fieldwork for one and a half years (2017-2019) in which she followed women seeking asylum in Norway, from the stages in which they lived in asylum centres to the early stages of settlement in a Norwegian municipality.

A light lunch will be served! All welcome.

Zubia Willmann is a currently a PhD candidate at VID Specialized University, Stavanger with a project exploring how women seeking asylum in Norway go about starting their life in their new home. She has an interdisciplinary background, her main fields of interest being migration studies but also gender and religion studies among others. She has been recently a visiting scholar at the Migration and Diversity Centre at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. Zubia is also a member of the IMER Junior Scholars Network.

Time: Tuesday 25th of February 2020, 12.30 – 13.30

Place: Rosenbergsgaten 39, Seminar room 112, first floor 

PhD Relay – 17.09.2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earlier this week, IMER organized a PhD relay where PhD candidates from various disciplines and across departments were offered the opportunity to discuss their research and receive feedback from IMER board members. The session aimed at furthering dialogue between senior and junior researchers working on migration.

Participants:

IMER Board Members and Affiliated Researchers

Members from IMER Junior Scholars Network

  • Amany Selim, Department of Sociology, “Political Activism in the Context of Recent Displacement: Exploring Trajectories of Political Engagement among Syrian Activists in Europe. A Case of Two Cities”
  • Anders Rubing, SKOK, “Infrastructures of Resilience and Security”
  • Ann Cathrin Corrales-Øverlid, Department of Foreign Languages, “A Culinary  Quest: Peruvian Women Entrepreneurs in Southern California Negotiating Home and Belonging”
  • Cathrine Talleraas, CMI/PRIO, Institutionalising Transnationalism: The National Welfare System’s Encounter with People who lead Transnational Lives”
  • Kari Hagatun, Department of Education,The Educational Situation for Roma Pupils in Norway: Silenced Narratives on Schooling and Future”
  • Joanna Spyra, Department of Archeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion,“Madness as Resistance: Disciplining Sexual Behavior of Jewish Immigrant Women in Argentina in the Interwar Period”

We are indebted to Kari Anne Drangsland, the PhD representative on IMER board, for her efforts in planning and organising the event.

We are grateful to everyone who could attend and participate!

Call for Papers – One-day Conference for Junior Scholars of Migration and Ethnic Relations

The IMER Junior scholar network is organizing a one day conference for junior scholars working on topics related to international migration & ethnic relations.

The conference will take place at the University of Bergen, on December 6th, 2019. 

To read the full call, please click here

To register, please, fill in the online registration form

IMER/DIGSSCORE Lunch Seminar 10.09: Immigrant Narratives from a Psychological Strength Perspective: The Use of a Survey as a Tool for voicing and humanizing Experiences

Torreiro-Casal will describe findings from an online survey developed by UC Davis students using a psychological strength-based perspective. Monica will describe cultural constructs, migration experiences and immigrant’s perceptions on current anti-migrant rhetoric. The rational for using this survey will be discussed as well as the relevance of collecting qualitative data. Further, Monica will describe the current analysis of data and purpose of codifying themes from those narratives. The analysis of these narratives so far has helped to identify immigrant’s strengths and psychological protective factors. These findings contribute to voice counter narratives to the current political climate in the USA. 

Lunch will be served on first-come first-served basis.

 

 Dr. Monica Torreiro-Casal holds a PhD in counseling psychology from Northeastern University, Boston, MA. Currently, Monica is affiliated with the Chicano/a studies Department at the University of California in Davis where she teaches and researches on mental health-related issues with vulnerable communities. Her research focuses on collecting narratives (survey, interviews, art/media) and conducting qualitative research to document the undocumented narratives of marginalized individuals.

The event is organized by IMER and DIGSSCORE.

For more info, please click here

Time: Tuesday 10th of September 2019, 12.00 – 13.00

Place: The Corner Room, DIGGSCORE, Rosenbergsgaten 35 

IMER Seminar 21.03: The Patriarchal Management of what to keep and what to give of oneself in the Making of Lebanon’s Diasporic Modernity

Diasporic culture is the culture of Lebanese modernity. Like all modernities, it involves a splitting of the subject between a driven self and a homely self. This can be a painful split of the self, and in some instances, it can be dealt with through a splitting of the married couple rather than a splitting of the self. In this process, it is men who aim to monpolize the possession of what is worthy of being kept and what can be allowed to be given away. The paper examines ethnographically how this logic is integral to the making of diasporic culture.

Light refreshments will be served after the seminar!

 Ghassan Hage is the University of Melbourne’s Future Generation Professor of Anthropology and Social Theory and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

The event is organized by IMER, SKOK, and the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen.

Time: Thursday 21th of March 2019, 14.15 – 16.00

Place: Seminar room, 9. floor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Fosswinckels Gate 6

 

IMER Lunch Seminar 12.03: Migratory Horizons: Expectations of Migration in Senegal and Beyond

The question of migration is a multifaceted one. It impacts upon individual and social life long before a person’s departure or the crossing of borders. Tuning in with pre- and post-departure perspectives from the African-European border zone, this seminar will argue that migration cannot be understood if addressed as a series of events or movements in the here and now. On the contrary, it must be seen in relation to the experiences and ideas that predate and at the same time reach beyond the temporal settings in which they unfold. For this IMER seminar, Knut Graw from the Institute for Anthropological Research in Africa at the Kathlieke Universiteit Leuven will elaborate on this argument in relation to Senegal as a case study.

 Knut Graw (PhD) works at the Institute for Anthropological Research in Africa (IARA) and the Interculturalism, Minorities and Migration Research Centre (IMMRC) of the University of Leuven and, as associated researcher, at Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Berlin. His current research focuses on the situation of Senegalese migrants in Southern Europe and the cultural dynamics and transfers in the African-European borderzone.