Compas

Welcome to the latest COMPAS Update

Please find below the latest COMPAS Update on all our recent research activities, events and publications, as well as plans for the future.

This email contains hyperlinks which are highlighted in blue and will open in new windows. If you have difficulty following the links, please visit our online version at:
http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/publications/updates/
 

Happy New Year from COMPAS

We would like to send our best wishes for the new year to all our colleagues and friends. 

COMPAS in the past few years has been successful in raising over £3 million in new research funds, in addition to the core support we are currently given by the ESRC. Based on this we have now agreed with the University and our parent department of Anthropology, a future funding programme for the centre that will take us up to 2015 and hopefully beyond. We will be launching our 2011-2015 work programme in the spring of this year and look forward to working with colleagues inside and outside academia in this time.

Michael Keith, COMPAS Director

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

Citizenship and Integration in the UK

In 2008, 156,015 applications for British citizenship were made, with 129,375 applications granted (Home Office, 2009). Despite these numbers, we still lack comprehensive evidence on the experiences of those recent arrivals to the UK who have applied to become British citizens either through the ‘Life in the UK’ test route or through the ESOL with Citizenship course route.

This project, over the course of this year, will therefore investigate the experiences of recent arrivals to the UK, review academic and policy literature on integration processes; with a view to developing further indicators to assess progress of integration policies and inform debates on future measures. Visit the project webpage for more information.
 

The Impact of Diasporas

Diasporas are one of the most controversial manifestations of increased globalisation. The connection between migrants and people who have stayed at home has profound effects on societies in the country of origin and the country of destination, as well as on the diasporas themselves. The programme is funded by the Leverhulme Trust for five years from 1 January 2011.

COMPAS staff head up several projects and research themes within the Oxford Leverhulme Diasporas Programme, under the leadership of Robin Cohen, International Migration Institute (IMI).

The programme consists of 11 projects organised around three fundamental dynamics relating to the formation, maintenance, and impacts of diasporas. Click here for more information on the project.

Concordia Discors

Concordia Discors: Understanding Conflict and Integration Outcomes of Inter-Group Relations and Integration Policies in selected Neighbourhoods of Five European Cities is a European trans-national project funded by the European Integration Fund and led by the Forum of International and European Research on Immigration (FIERI) in Italy. COMPAS is responsible for the UK research part of this project.

Concordia Discors intends to investigate intergroup relations at neighbourhood level, with the aim of producing a deep, strongly empirically-based and directly policy-relevant understanding of integration and conflict processes in European city neighbourhoods, including an understanding of success factors of integration policies and conflict prevention measures at neighbourhood level. Click here for more information on the project.

 

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Public Opinion, Media and the Politics of Migration

Seminar Series Trinity 2010
Convened by Scott Walker and Rob McNeil

Thursdays 14.00 - 15.30, From 20th January to 10th March
To be held at the Pauling Centre, 58a Banbury Road, Oxford

Click here for the full programme. 

COMPAS Breakfast Briefings

Topical, cutting edge research on migration and migration related issues is provided in an accessible format for policy makers and other research users. These events are by invitation only, however we will upload podcasts of the presentation in due course. We have already run three successful briefings in the series so far on: the cap on overseas students, migrant labour and migration trends and data.

Starting in February  the next three Breakfast Briefings will cover 'The Big Society and migration', alternatives to child detention and the meaning of migration for the "white working class" in the UK?

The Migration Observatory at Oxford

COMPAS is currently setting up The Migration Observatory, a multi-media platform that will provide user-friendly access to authoritative data, analysis and research evidence on migrants and migration issues in the UK, set in an international context. The Migration Observatory will be formally launched at an event to be held at the end of March 2011.

RECENT EVENTS

Super-diversity and the ethnographic field

What challenges do increasingly diverse and complex neighbourhoods pose to ethnographic research? How may we develop methodological tools to deal with such changing realities? What are the practical, epistemological, ethical and political issues involved? Ethnography, both in the anthropological and sociological traditions, has tended to prefer long-term immersion in discrete, bounded ethnic communities. This model is increasingly contested in the context of super-diversity.

On 16 December 2010, a workshop was held to discuss new approaches and methodologies to address current demographic and societal changes that in the UK and elsewhere have led to the emergence of super-diverse neighbourhoods in global cities and unprecedented churn and demographic diversity in traditionally more stable areas. Discussion will be followed up in a larger event later in the year.

COMPAS Photo Competition 2010

'LIFE IN MOTION'

This image by Bharat Patel, entitled 'Waiting'  won first prize. Click on the above link to view the other winning and shortlisted entries. 

Social Externalities Workshop 2 - Economy and Culture

This workshop follows on from a very successful colloquium held in Beijing in October 2010, and it foreshadows a third workshop in London this June. The workshop, held in January 2011, in Delhi, is part of a developing research network funded by the ESRC that interrogates the dynamics of the ‘Rising Powers’ in China, India and Africa. Further information on the project and the workshops.

Turkish Migration Studies Group

The Turkish Migration Studies Group (TurkMiS), consisting of students and researchers involved in projects and activities related to Turkish migration met on 26th November 2010. TurkMiS aims to concentrate research conducted at Oxford University on migration from, to and through Turkey and its vicinity and related politics in the fields of migration, refugees, European affairs and international relations. The meetings aim to present what is known, to identify knowledge gaps and encourage research into these.

All Oxford based researchers, visiting academics or students in this field are welcome to email the group's convenor, Franck Duvell, for further information or to participate in TurkMiS.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Journal Articles

Berg, M., (2010) 'On the social ground beneath our feet: for a cosmopolitan anthropology. [Special issue on ‘A Cosmopolitan Anthropology?' edited by Huon Wardle and Nigel Rapport]’, Social Anthropology / Anthropologie Sociale,  18 (4), 433-40

Cangiano, A., and I. Shutes, (2011), Ageing, Demand for Care and the Role of Migrant Care Workers in the UKJournal of Population Ageing, Volume 3, Numbers 1-2, 39-57

Shutes, I., (2010) "Welfare-to-Work and the Responsiveness of Employment Provision to the Needs of Refugees", Journal of Social Policy, Vol. 40, No. 4, 1-18

Online Articles

Health for all 'whatever their need or background', Hiranthi Jayaweera, Open Democracy

Migrants who care, Alessio Cangiano, Open Democracy

Triple vulnerability: the lives of Britain's undocumented migrant children, Nando Sigona, Open Democracy

The price of cheap labour: Ending Britain's reliance on overseas workers will require far more than a cap on immigration, Bridget Anderson and Martin Ruhs, The Guardian

New COMPAS Working Papers

WP-10-82
Building Demography into Migration Research: Population Change and the Latent Demand for Migration in 21st Century Europe
Alessio Cangiano

WP-10-81
Labor Shortages and US Immigration Reform: Promises and Perils of an Independent Commission
Philip Martin and Martin Ruhs

WP-10-80
Immigration Detention in America: A History of its Expansion and a Study of its Significance
Stephanie J. Silverman

WP-10-79
Migration and Climate Change: an overview
Etienne Piguet, Antoine Pécoud and Paul de Guchteneire

WP-10-78
Being children and undocumented in the UK: A background paper
Nando Sigona and Vanessa Hughes

Global Migration Governance

A new edited volume, by Dr Alexander Betts, published by OUP is now available. Global Migration Governance focuses on the international politics of migration.

In the context of the growing politicization of migration, a debate has emerged within policy and academia on the need to develop global governance on migration to facilitate better inter-state cooperation.

COMPAS staff have contributed several chapters.

SELECTED NEWS

MigrationOxford Website Launched

The University of Oxford is a world-leader in the study of international migration, whether forced or voluntary. We are happy to announce the launch of a new website which showcases this work: MigrationOxford

MigrationOxford has been developed by three collaborating centres in the University's Social Sciences Division: the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), the International Migration Institute (IMI), and the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC).

It  provides: a downloadable calendar of migration-related events across the University, a list of all academics within the University who have an interest in international migration, overview information on migration research in Oxford, and details on the teaching programmes provided by the University.

MSc in Migration Studies

The new interdisciplinary MSc in Migration Studies at Oxford University is jointly offered by the School of Anthropology and the Department of International Development. The course draws on the intellectual resources of its two parent departments and the three world-leading migration research centres at Oxford (COMPAS, IMI and RSC). The programme allows students to explore human mobility in a historical and global perspective, and to address the complex relations between global political economy, migratory experiences, and government and social responses.

The degree consists of four components, plus a dissertation:

- international migration in the social sciences;
- key themes in international migration, including development and globalization;
- thematic and regional options;
- quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Next application is date 21st January 2011. Course information and details on how to apply

Doctoral Research at COMPAS

COMPAS welcomes expressions of interest from those keen to undertake doctoral study in the field of Migration Studies. Reflecting the nature and scope of the Centre’s work and expertise, staff at COMPAS supervise a number of graduate students admitted to a range of DPhil programmes within the University. For more information please visit the following webpage - http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/study/doctoral-research/

Wikileaks, the US Embassy Cables and Migration Issues

Franck Duvell has recently posted a survey of  Wikileak's US embassy cables for references to migration issues, see http://franckduvell.posterous.com/wikileaks-the-us-embassy-cables-and-migration

Migration Advisory Committee Reappointed

Martin Ruhs has been reappointed as a member of the UK’ Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) for a further three years. The MAC is an independent body of five academic economists talked to advise the Government on labour immigration policy. The MAC’s work and recommendations over the past three years are available here.