Call for Papers
15-16 of June 2016, Malmö, Sweden www.mia-conference.se
Deadline for abstracts extended to 15th of February!
In the current era of increasing securitisation of border controls and restrictive asylum and migration politics, the journey to and within the EU is a life-threatening endeavour that has taken uncountable numbers of lives over the last decades. The bordering processes are not limited to the crossing of nation-state borders but also operate in everyday lives inside and across borders. Through processes of exclusion as well as processes of subordinated and differentiated inclusion, borders permeate all aspects of the welfare state, the labour market, and everyday lives. At the same time, there are numerous struggles by migrants who in different ways contest border regimes and racialised practices of policing., These developments are taking place in a context of hyper-polarisation of political reactions. Racist and fascist discourses feed into ideas of fear and emergency, parallel with a renewed growth of humanitarian and activist responses aimed at resisting migration control and challenging these discourses.
This conference is organised by a network of researchers, located in Sweden, focusing on processes of irregularisation, irregularity, migration and migrants’ social and political struggles. Many scholars in the network have a strong commitment to building bridges between the academy and civil society activism around these issues. Locally in Malmö, where the conference is taking place, there is a growing activism among antiracist and migration rights networks engaging in postcolonial and intersectional debates. People themselves subject to different forms of migration control are increasingly involved in these networks. To link the conference to these contexts we invite activists (irrespective of their academic affiliations) as well as researchers in order to create a space for mutually enriching knowledge exchange.
We welcome a broad range of papers that critically address issues of border control as well as issues of activism and irregularisation of migrants. We especially encourage papers addressing issues such as, but not exclusive to:
- Politics of resistance: Emerging subjectivities in migrants’ struggles
- Processes and contestations of irregularisation at various scales
- Struggles around mobility, temporality and space
- Connecting struggles – feminism, LGBTQ rights, anti-racism, labour and asylum rights
- Critical perspectives on and beyond citizenship, asylum and human rights
- Intersections of racism, borders and migration control
- Intersections of gender, sexuality, borders and migration control
- Deservingness and victimisation in migration discourses
- Irregularisation and precarious labour
- The business of “migration management”: states, corporations and civil society, boundaries and overlaps
How to submit
Please send an abstract to miaconference16@gmail.com before 15 February 2016. There is limited travel funding available for primarily master students and PhDs. Please mention in the email if you are in need of funding and how much.
(A social event will take place on the 14th in the evening for those arriving that day.)
— Deadline for abstracts extended to 15th of February! —
Confirmed keynote speakers:
Bridget Anderson (Oxford University)
Liz Fekete (Institute of Race Relations)
Mercedes Jiménez (University of Algarve)
About the conference
The conference is arranged by the Forte (1) Network “Irregular Migration and Irregular Migrants” and marks the final stage of a five year long journey of knowledge-sharing, analysing and developing this rather new field in a Swedish context.
The conference is hosted by GPS – Department of Global Political Studies and MIM – Malmö Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare, both at Malmö University.
(1) Swedish research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare.
Organising committee
Pouran Djampour (Department of Social Work, Malmö University)
Jacob Lind (Global Political Studies, Malmö University)
Vanna Nordling (School of Social Work, Lund University)
Maja Sager (Department of Gender Studies, Lund University)
Emma Söderman (School of Social Work, Lund University)
Ioanna Tsoni (Global Political Studies, Malmö University)