Call for Papers: International Conference on Migration, Irregularisation and Activism: Challenging Contemporary Border Regimes, Racism and Subordination
15-16 of June 2016, Malmö, Sweden, www.mia-conference.se
Confirmed keynote speakers: Bridget Anderson (Oxford University), Liz Fekete (Institute of Race Relations) and Mercedes Jiménez (University of Algarve)
In the current era of increasing securitisation of border controls and restrictive asylum and migration politics, thejourney 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:
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Politics of resistance: Emerging subjectivities in migrants’ struggles
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• Processes and contestations of irregularisation at various scales
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• Struggles around mobility, temporality and space
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• Connecting struggles – feminism, LGBTQ rights, anti-racism, labour and asylum rights
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• Critical perspectives on and beyond citizenship, asylum and human rights
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• Intersections of racism, borders and migration control
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• Intersections of gender, sexuality, borders and migration control
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• Deservingness and victimisation in migration discourses
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• Irregularisation and precarious labour
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• The business of “migration management”: states, corporations and civil society, boundaries and overlaps
How to submit
Please send an abstract to miaconference16@gmail.combefore 15 January 2016. There is limited travel fundingavailable for primarily master students and PhDs. Please mention in the email if you are in need of funding and how much.
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