 |
Welcome to the latest COMPAS UpdatePlease 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: |
 |
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT |
|
|
No Way Out, No Way In: Undocumented migrant children and families in the UKA COMPAS report profiling the population of children without legal immigration status in the UK has been released. The report, "No Way Out, No Way In: Irregular migrant children and families in the UK", by Dr. Nando Sigona and Vanessa Hughes, examines conflicting government policies governing the protection of children's rights and immigration to the UK. It looks at the everyday experiences of children and families and highlights their lack of access to public services such as health care and education. The report was launched on Monday 25th June in the House of Lords.
View the report |
|
|
FORTHCOMING EVENTS |
|
|
Migration Journeys
COMPAS Seminar Series Michaelmas Term 2012 Convened by the COMPAS Flows and Dynamics cluster The field of migration studies has tended to explore the causes and outcomes of migration to the neglect of the conditions and practice of movement itself. The literature has looked at what drives migration and the decision to move, and placed emphasis on what happens afterwards in terms of integration, exclusion and so on. This 8-week series will consider what happens 'in between' this 'before and after' - migrants' journeys - which has received much less analytical attention, in contrast to the quite extensive literary, biographical and film exploration of such journeys. All are welcome to attend and there is no need to register. Podcasts will be available shortly after each seminar. Please add your comments to our Facebook discussion around the seminars. |
|
|
Turkish Migration in Europe: Projecting the next 50 years
7 - 9 December 2012 Turkey’s population doubled over the past half century to 74 million. Turkey is expected to surpass Germany to become the second-most populous country in Europe (after Russia) by 2020. With almost 4 million Turkish citizens abroad, mostly in Europe, there are fears of more migration from Turkey. Turks continue to migrate, now favouring destinatins such as Russia and the Middle East. Despite Turkey becoming a net immigration country there are significant fears of Turkish migration. This conference examines current and potential future Turkish migration in Europe over the next half century. |
|
|
COMPAS Breakfast BriefingsTopical, cutting edge research on migration and migration related issues is provided in an accessible format for policy makers and other research users. The third COMPAS Breakfast Briefing series will run September 2012 - June 2013. Full series details will be available soon. Podcasts of previous presentations are available. Next Briefing: 17 September (tbc) |
|
|
PREVIOUS EVENTS |
|
|
Everyday Multiculturalism
COMPAS Seminar Series Trinity Term 2012 Whereas multiculturalism has been steadily ‘downgraded’ on the policy agenda both in the UK and other parts of Europe during the 2000s, social life at neighbourhood level is increasingly characterised by an everyday negotiation of categorical boundaries such as migration histories, religions, migrant statuses, and socio-economic disparities. This series focused on emerging empirical research and methodologies that engage with such localised, intercultural processes. The presentations were based on findings from a range of different settings, including London, northern England, the Netherlands and Germany, and also focused on new 'zones of encounter' that go beyond the traditional inner-city perspective. Podcasts of the series will be available soon. |
|
|
Reshaping the United Kingdom: Migration and the New Agendas in the Social SciencesTwo events identifying and analysing the emergent agendas for the social sciences in the UK have been held. "Migration Temporalities" on May 29 asked: What are the key emerging themes from the existing literature on temporalities and time that can be developed as part of a theoretically and politically engaged migration research agenda? "The economics of migration and migration policy: Towards a future research agenda", held on May 22, focused on various questions, including: What are the implications of research on migration for policy debates and policy-making at national and supra-national level? What new research questions arise from immigration policy developments in different countries? How useful are theories and concepts developed for analysing immigration in high-income countries for analysing immigration in middle- and low-income countries? |
|
|
Migrants at WorkThis conference, 22 -23 June, brought together distinguished experts from a range of jurisdictions to examine the intersections between migration and labour law. The conference featured over 25 speakers, including Bridget Anderson and Martin Ruhs, COMPAS. |
|
|
NEWS & NOTICES |
|
|
Bridget Anderson as expert witness at Tribunal 12Bridget Anderson participated as an expert witness at Tribunal 12 on May 12, 2012 in Stockholm, Sweden. The event presented information to a group of high profile academics and activists on issues relating to human rights violations in Europe. This was explored with a particular focus on border control, the asylum process, undocumented migrants, and detention and deportation. It took the form of a trial, with a jury, a panel of experts, a prosecutor, in four different sessions. |
|
|
Thursday's child has far to goScott Blinder's work featured as a video for the ESRC series "Seven Days" in which the ESRC highlighted how its funding is used to explore all areas of life. Scott's video, 'Thursday's child has far to go', deals with migration and public opinion. The UK is among the top ten destinations for migrants worldwide, and fears of our society being overwhelmed by migrants frequently surface in the immigration debate. But research shows that our perception of immigrants are more nuanced than assumed, and merely focusing on immigration as a threat is counter-productive. The average immigrant has a stronger sense of British identity than most home-born Brits – and children's experiences are crucial to migrant families staying or leaving. |
|
|
Bridget Anderson speaks on human traffickingOn 28 May Bridget Anderson spoke at an event hosted by the OSCE and the Home office on the subject of trafficking in human beings. The event was jointly hosted by the Home Office and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and aimed to follow up on the report by the OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings.
Bridget spoke as an expert on enhancing the role of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, the prevention of trafficking for the purpose of domestic servitude, the human rights impact of anti-trafficking policy and legislation. |
|
|
Franck Düvell speaks on Georgian Day of DiasporaOn invitation of the Ministry for Diaspora Issues of Georgia Franck Düvell attended the Day of Diaspora in Georgia on 27 May 2012. The conference was addressed by delegations of diaspora relations and immigration authorities from India, Israel, Italy, Armenia, Greece, and Switzerland that manage either diasporic affairs or their integration. Franck talked on the challenges of migration, integration and diaspora issues which he conceptualised as an issue of managing social, political and cultural change. |
|
|
Ruhs addresses the future of EU labour immigration policy
On May 15 Martin Ruhs gave a keynote address on the future of EU labour immigration policy at the Bruno Kreisky Forum in Vienna. The event was organised by Global Utmaning and the Swedish Embassy. |
|
|
COMPAS BlogThe COMPAS Blog provides information and discussion points about work taking place at COMPAS. It allows our researchers to share what they thinking about, working on, and reactions to migration issues taking place globally. Recent topics have included 'An Exclusive Party?', 'Sticks and stones...', 'Everyday Multiculturalism', 'New Family Rules v Integration', 'Are there such people as migrants?' |
|
|
COMPAS Social MediaCOMPAS offers an interactive element to its website via our Facebook page. This involves general updates about events, a discussion forum for our seminar series and posts about COMPAS news and publications. Do visit and 'like' the COMPAS facebook page. Please let us know whether this online forum is worthwhile and what you would like from it. COMPAS is also available to follow on Twitter as compas_oxford. |
|
|
PUBLICATIONS |
|
|
Equality for All? The Relationship Between Immigration Status and the Allocation of Rights in the United KingdomBy Sarah Spencer and Jason Pobjoy Successive UK governments have expressed a commitment to “equality for all”. In this article the authors assess the extent to which such claims of inclusivity ring true for migrants living in the United Kingdom. The authors argue that international and regional human rights law pertaining to non-discrimintation and equality provide a structured framework to consider the extent to which any differential treatment between citizens and migrants, or between different categories of migrants, can be justified. |
|
|
Forcing the Issue: Migration Crises and the Uneasy Dialogue between Refugee Research and PolicyRefugee studies are often said to be a product of the policy world, shaped by global power relations and in particular by the interests of the global north. This article attempts to refine this view by exploring the relationship between refugees and forced migration as ‘real world’ phenomena and refugee or forced migration studies as a field of enquiry. |
|
|
Health and access to health care of migrants in the UKThis briefing, first published in 2010, for the Race Equality Foundation, has recently been updated. The briefing outlines some important issues for the health of migrants in the UK today. It also suggests ways in which research, policy and practice might address barriers to health, well-being and health care in meeting the needs of migrants. |
|
|
Franck publishes two articles in Population, Space and PlaceTransit Migration: A Blurred and Politicised Concept This article examines the emergence and construction of the concept of transit migration and the political framework and discourses that brought about the concept. It analyses how this reinforces the EU’s efforts to externalise its migration policy and integrate non-EU countries into a comprehensive migration control policy. It also critically surveys the state of the art, analyses causes and conditions of transit migration, identifies its geography and discusses some methodological and analytical pitfalls and difficulties of researching transit migration. Critical Approaches to Transit Migration This article traces the origins of the label ‘transit migration’ to discussions of what was called ‘new migration’ in the early 1990s. These migrations related to the particular geopolitical context at the end of the Cold War. Though they established the pre-emptive rationale whereby concern is focused as much on potential migration as on actual movement, there have been four substantial changes since then. As the geopolitical context has changed, so have the geographies of migration, with a general shift of attention from east-west to south-north; the technological supports of migration have improved, allowing migrants easier, cheaper access to different routes; the categories of migrant have proliferated and finally similar movements may be observed all over the world though only those in the vicinity of Europe are labelled as ‘transit’. |
|
|
Exclusionary Rhetoric Expansionist Policies? Right-wing Parties and Immigration Policy-making in ItalyCOMPAS Working Paper By Elif Çetin Immigration has become an issue often framed with reference to the protection of external borders, welfare state, cultural and ethnic identity, increased risk of terrorism in most of the major receiving countries in Europe. Yet, despite restrictive immigration controls and exclusionary rhetoric in these countries, population inflows continue. This paper analyses the relation between policy debates and policy-making in migration domain, with focus on rightwing political parties in Italy. |
|
|
Imagined Immigration: The Different Meanings of “Immigrants” in Public Opinion and Policy Debates in BritainCOMPAS Working Paper Public opinion research on immigration attitudes has largely overlooked the question of how survey respondents understand the term “immigrants”. This paper investigates latent perceptions of immigrants, termed “imagined immigration”, among members of the British public. Public perceptions of immigration diverge significantly from the set of people identified as immigrants in government statistics and targeted by restrictionist policies. |
|
|
We are all foreignersBridget Anderson, together with Nandita Sharma (University of Hawaii at Manoa), and Cynthia Wright (York University, Canada), has contributed the chapter 'We are all foreigners: No Borders as a practical political project' to the book Citizenship, Migrant Activism and the Politics of Movement, edited by Peter Nyers (McMaser University) and Kim Rygiel (Wilfrid Laurier University). The book investigates the possibilities and impossibilities of migrant activism in the context of securitised sovereignties and regimes that restrict mobility. |
|
|
Who needs them? Care work, migration and public policyThe journal Cuadernos de Relaciones Laborales: Immigración, género y mercado de trabajo (Vol. 30(1) June 2012) includes Bridget Anderson's article 'Who Needs Them? Care Work, Migration and Public Policy'. The paper examines how immigration policies on migrant care workers are both pragmatic 'policy solutions' and also reflect and construct social ideas and relations about gender, layout and nation, with a particular focus on the UK. The article is available in the journal (Journal of Industrial Relations: Immigration, gender and labor market) in English. |
|
|
Transnational MarriageHiranthi Jayaweera, Iain Walker, and Nick Van Hear have contributed chapters to the newly published book "Transnational Marriage: New Perspectives from Europe and Beyond", edited by Katharine Charsley (University of Bristol). The book looks at marriages spanning borders. Hiranthi Jayaweera has written the chapter "Migration, Integration and Transnational Involvement: Muslim Family Migrants in Urban Areas in Britain", while Iain Walker has contributed work on "Marrying at Home, Marrying Away: Customary Marriages and Legal Marriages in Ngazidja and in the Diaspora". The chapter "Transnational Marriage in Conflict Settings: War, Dispersal and Marriage Among Sri Lankan Tamils" was provided by Nick Van Hear, together with Maunaguru Sidharthan (University of Edinburgh). |
|
|
Life in LimboBy Nando Sigona In conjunction with the launch of the report "No Way Out, No Way In", an article by Nando Sigona on the subject was been published in Open Democracy. The article "Life in Limbo for UK's irregular migrant children and families", examines the situation of the UK's undocumented migrants in the light of an in comparison to recent developments in the United States under the Obama administration dealing with the deportation of undocumented youths. |
|
|
|
|
|
