COMPAS: Latest News

Call for Papers: Turkish Migration in Europe

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:18:00 +0000

TurkMiS is one of three partners organising the international conference "Turkish Migration in Europe: Projecting the next 50 years." TurkMiS (the Turkish Migration Studies Group, COMPAS), together with the Regent's Centre for Transnational Studies and the London Centre for Social Studies, is calling for papers and session proposals for the conference. The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, 15 May 2012. The conference aims at elaborating the patterns of Turkish migration, future prospects, and potential challenges in a changing Europe. It also aims to open up the discussion by including the internal and international migration nexus as well as diverse and potentially competing destination countries as part of the broader Turkish transnational migration experience. Hence it aims to bring new perspectives on mobility and possibilities of (re-)configuration of policies. Topics of interest include:

types of migration (emigration, circular, return migration, internal, secondary, and forced etc.)
types of migrants and mobility (highly skilled, workers, students, refugees, tourists/visitors, children, women etc.)
destination countries including comparison between EU, Russia and MENA countries;
mobility of faith groups and their networks
cultural, political, religious, ethnic transnational networks, diaspora ties, professional networks; transnational practices
economics of human mobility, migration and development, remittances
migration systems, links with international trade
entrepreneurship, immigrant businesses
brain drain; education and migration
comparison of Turkish migration with migration to Turkey
migration and social change in sending in receiving countries
migration and integration policy challenges and management
civic/political participation
migration projections, also in relation to Turkey’s EU membership prospects
research methodologies
migrant literature and literature on migration
discrimination, xenophobia
labour market participation and experiences
households and families
second and third generations
identity and citizenship
conflicts and crises

For more information, including chairs and the agenda, please visit www.turkishmigration.net

Van Hear and Walker speak in Lebanon

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:52:00 +0000

Nick van Hear and Iain Walker recently presented at the Lebanese American University's conference on diasporas. The conference "Relationship between Diasporas and Their 'Homelands' and Their Impact on the State, National Identities, and Peace and Conflict" was held at the Lebanese American University on 2-4 February 2012. Nick Van Hear was a keynote speaker at this conference and Iain Walker presented on "One diaspora, two homelands? Comorians and Hadramis in the western Indian ocean”. The conference saw the gathering of a number of international scholars and prominent academics active in the migration field.

COMPAS seeking to recruit experienced researcher

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:02:00 +0000

COMPAS is seeking to recruit an experienced researcher in transdisciplinary diaspora studies. This is a Marie Curie Fellowship post.

Applications are invited for this 13-24 month full-time post on the The Marie Curie Initial Training Network “Diasporic Constructions of Home and Belonging” (CoHaB)

The post holder will be funded by COMPAS for the first 12 months and the Marie Curie fellowship for the following 12 months. They will develop a post-doctoral programme of research that complements the work of COMPAS and the ITN network.

The programme of work in CoHaB works at the interface of social sciences and humanities and we welcome candidates from a wide range of academic disciplinary backgrounds. The successful candidate will be expected to develop work that links to one or other (or both) of two clusters of research at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford: ‘flows and dynamics’ and ‘urban change and settlement’.

For further details and how to apply, please visit COMPAS vacancies.

Please note that applications must be made electronically via the University of Oxford.

Bridget Anderson speaks on illegality and definition

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:58:00 +0000

On 5 December Bridget Anderson presented the paper "Troubling Illegality: the ("illegal") immigrant in law and public debate" at a German conference. Hosted by the Johannes Kepler University, Linz the conference "Un(ter)dokumentiert Arbeiten in Europa" (Undocumented work in Europe) sought to explore how undocumented migrant work can be understood as a social as well as political phenomenon. Bridget's paper "Troubling Illegality: the ("illegal") immigrant in law and public debate" argues that researching and conceptualising "illegality" goes far beyond the establishment of just good and robust definitions, but must also include serious look at the politics of immigration.

Franck Düvell will advise on new border checks research

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:58:00 +0000

Franck Düvell has been invited as special advisor to the project ‘Treatment of third-country nationals at the EU’s external borders: Surveying border checks at selected border crossing points’. The project is conducted by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD). The project focuses on the land border crossing points between Poland and the Ukraine, Slovakia and the Ukraine, Hungary and Serbia, Bulgaria and Turkey, Greece and Turkey, as well as between Spain and Morocco. It also looks at the airports Heathrow, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris/CdG. Whilst arrivals on the external air and land borders are thoroughly controlled the controllers are not normally surveyed; thus this project contributes to improving the balance between the two.

Migration Studies: A new journal is launched

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:30:00 +0000

Current and former COMPAS researchers, in conjunction with researchers in other institutions, have just launched a new multi-disciplinary refereed journal to be published by Oxford University Press - Migration Studies. The journal will publish work that significantly advances understanding of the determinants, processes and impacts of human migration in all its manifestations. The journal will published for the first time in the Spring of 2013. It is edited by Alan Gamlen of the Victoria University Wellington, formerly a doctoral student at COMPAS. The Associate Editors are Carlos Vargas-Silva and Nando Sigona (both from COMPAS), Alex Betts (RSC), Thomas Lacroix of the University of Poitiers and Emanuela Paoletti of the Office of the UNHCR.

Loïc Wacquant comes to COMPAS to discuss the production of citizenship

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:21:00 +0000

On March 12 Loïc Wacquant will give visit COMPAS to give a public lecture on "The Criminal, the Pauper, and the Foreigner in the Production of Citizenship". The public lecture is given as part of the COMPAS symposium "Citizenship and Its Others". Loïc Wacquant is professor of Sociology and Research Associate at the Institute for Legal Research, Boalt Law School, University of California at Berkeley, where he is affiliated with various programs and departments. He is also a researcher at the Centre de sociologie européenne in Paris. He will be exploring the theme "The Criminal, the Pauper, and the Foreigner in the Production of Citizenship" at 18:30 - 20:00 a the Oxford Town Hall. The lecture will be followed by a reception. The social and symbolic silhouette of the modern citizen is defined through contraposition with three deviant figures: the criminal, who violates the law and imperils the physical integrity of civil society from within; the pauper, who shirks the obligation of work and corrodes the moral integrity of the wage-labor compact from within; and the foreigner, who threatens to breach the membrane of national membership from without and is suspected of being prone to turning into a criminal or a welfare recipient. These three figures have been studied by different disciplines (criminology, social welfare, sociology/ethnic studies) and by different subfields inside of each discipline.

Wacquant proposes to bring them under a single analytic framework attentive to the material and symbolic charge of policies aimed at managing problem categories. He argues that the shift from rehabilitative to punitive criminal justice, the transition from protective welfare to disciplinary workfare, and from the administrative to the penal regulation of immigration are correlated and converging changes that partake of the building of the neoliberal state and fuel the politics of resentment in the age of social insecurity and ethnic anxiety. The lecture is open to all. To attend, please register by emailing communications@compas.ox.ac.uk

Cuban diaspora in new COMPAS publication

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:15:00 +0000

A new publication by Mette Louise Berg explores the Cuban diaspora in Spain. Mette Louise Berg has published "Diasporic Generations: Memory, Politics and Nation among Cubans in Spain". It is published by Berghahn Books. The book will be launched in Oxford on February 9th. To attend, contact communications@compas.ox.ac.uk. "Diasporic Generations" by Mette Louise Berg (Departmental Lecturer, Anthropology of Migration) gives voice to diasporic Cubans living in Spain, the former colonial ruler of Cuba. By focusing on their lived experiences of displacement, the book brings to light imaginative, narrative re-creations of the nation from afar. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, the book argues that the Cuban diaspora in Spain consists of three diasporic generations, generated through distinct migratory experiences. This constitutes an important step forward in understanding the dynamics of memory-making and social differentiation within diasporas, and in appreciating why people within the same diaspora engage in different modes of transnational practices and homeland relations.

Iain Walker explores Yemen: The Resurgent Secessionism in the South

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:48:00 +0000

Iain Walker has contributed the chapter, “Yemen: The Resurgent Secessionism in the South,” in the "Ashgate Research Companion to Secession" (edited by A. Pavkovi and P. Radan).

The research companion has three aims.

1) To offer an overview of the current theoretical approaches to secession in the social sciences, international relations, legal theory, political theory and applied ethics.

2) To outline the current practice of international recognition of secession and current domestic and international laws which regulate secession.

3) To offer an account of major secessionist movements - past and present - from a comparative perspective.

In their accounts of past secessions and current secessionist movements, the contributors to this volume focus on the following four components:

the nature and source of secessionist grievances
the ideologies and techniques of secessionist mobilization
the responses of the host state or majority parties in the host state
the international response to attempts at secession.

This provides a basis for identification of at least some common patterns in the otherwise highly varied processes of secession.

Prestigious appointment reflected at COMPAS

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:02:00 +0000

Sarah Spencer has been awarded the prestigious OSI Fellowship by the Soros Foundation. To fulfil her new commitments she has stepped down as Deputy Director at COMPAS, a role that will be filled by Bridget Anderson. As of January 2012 Sarah Spencer will focus on work involved with the Open Society Institute Fellowship. She will carry on with various COMPAS work whilst on this Fellowship but has stepped down from her role as Deputy Director of COMPAS to allow herself the chance to maximise the commitment to the OSI work. Sarah was appointed the Fellowship in December 2011, along with 6 other new fellows. As an OSI fellow Sarah will Spencer will investigate the provision of essential services to irregular migrants across Europe. Her aim is to identify the economic and social imperatives that lead governments—at the national or local level—to provide access to services, which she believes will strengthen the case for inclusion at a time when these arrangements are increasingly under threat. She will look to the US experience for insights into the contentious politics of this issue. The role of Deputy Direct has been filled by COMPAS Senior Research Fellow Bridget Anderson. Nick van Hear will continue in his role as Deputy Director. COMPAS thanks Sarah for her work as Deputy Director and all that she has done for the department in this role.