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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: |
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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS |
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European Migrant Integration AcademyCOMPAS, in partnership with Fieri and the International Labour Organisation's Training Centre, has started work on the European Migrant Integration Academy project. This aims to catalogue examples of best practice for social integration projects inn European Cities. This research will culminate in an Academy, a 10-day training course, for public officials and other local stakeholders, where experiences are shared in order to raise standards and successes of integration practices across Europe. |
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Joint project by COMPAS and CPC: Tried and Trusted?Professor Bridget Anderson has been awarded an ESRC Cross-Investment Award for a joint project with Professor Derek McGhee, Centre for Population Change, entitled "Tried and Trusted? The Role of NGOs in Asylum seeker and Irregular Migrant Voluntary Returns". The project, beginning in January 2013, will look at the various ways in which migrants 'voluntarily return' to their states of citizenship. It will also examine the role of local, regional and national level NGOs and statutory organisations as advisors and facilitators of voluntary return. |
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Migrants with no recourse to public fundsThe Nuffield Foundation has funded an eighteen month study, to be conducted by Sarah Spencer, starting in April. The study will investigate the reasons for, and implications of, variations in the approaches taken by local authority Social Services departments in England in relation to migrant children and families. It will gather evidence through a survey of local authorities and advice agencies, and interviews with social services staff and migrants in eight case study areas. |
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Continued funding for the Migration Observatory
We are pleased to announce that the Migration Observatory, one of COMPAS' flagship projects, has been successful in raising external funds to continue its work beyond June 2013. |
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS |
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International Migration and Human Rights: Critical Research and Policy PerspectivesCOMPAS Seminar Series Hilary 2013
Thursdays 14:00 - 15:30, starting 17 January Convened by: Martin Ruhs, COMPAS and the Department for Continuing Education, and Cathryn Costello, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford and COMPAS Associate This seminar series questions the relationship between international migration and human rights commitments. Some migration issues are commonly framed in terms of human rights. Human rights norms and ideals are frequently invoked to challenge states’ harsh treatment of migrants. Yet, in other contexts, state sovereignty appears to be given great sway, and the connections between international migration and human rights are less apparent. The series aims to re-examine familiar issues in a new light, and open up new frontiers in the interaction between international migration and human rights. 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, and follow our live tweets (#COMPASseminars) during the seminars. |
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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 runs September 2012 - June 2013.
Podcasts of previous presentations are available. |
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Within and beyond citizenship: Lived experiences of contemporary membershipThe symposium will investigate the interplay between forms and modes of contemporary membership, migration governance (both immigration and emigration), and the politics of belonging. This is the first of two international symposia investigating the relationship between legal status, rights and belonging. The symposia are jointly organised by the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford with the School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, COMPAS, and the Oxford Institute of Social Policy, University of Oxford. |
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Migration Film Showings: Migrant Lives and Stories
Convened by Mette Berg |
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Latin American and Caribbean migration research workshop
Monday 11 March 2013, 10:00 - 13:00 In recent years research on Latin American migration flows towards Europe and, more recently, the reversal of such flows in the wake of the economic crisis, has proliferated. This event brings together researchers to share ideas and research interests and to bring out interconnections, contrasts and points of comparison within our research.
The workshop will be of relevant for researchers and doctoral students, based in Oxford, who work on and who are interested in Latin American and Caribbean migration issues, to discuss possibilities for collaboration and networking within and beyond Oxford. |
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The Oxford Migration Studies Society Conference: Theory and Practice4 May 2013 This conference will explore different approaches to understanding migration as a fundamental part of today’s world, highlight the way practice can inform theory, and discuss how academic theory can be used in real-world situations to understand the importance of migration. The Society encourages the submission of papers about migration in any region of the world and which use various methodologies. 200 word submission abstracts are due on Saturday, 9 February 2013 at oxford.mss@gmail.com. Include in the subject heading: Conference Submission, your name, title of your paper. |
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Rethinking Diaspora
1 - 2 July, 2013 This conference is jointly organized by COMPAS and the Oxford Diasporas Programme (ODP). It will focus on fundamental dynamics relating to the formation, maintenance, and impacts of diaspora. This conference aims to integrate humanities and social science perspectives in order to investigate the impacts of these dynamics of diaspora. Limited places at this conference will be advertised in due course. |
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PREVIOUS EVENTS |
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COMPAS Breakfast BriefingsPrevious Breakfast Briefings held in the current series are: 19 October: What works in integration? 16 November: What is the evidence about migrant living conditions in the private rented sector and how could they be improved?
December 14: What future for undocumented migrant children in the UK? |
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Migration JourneysCOMPAS Seminar Series Michaelmas Term 2012 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 series considered 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. |
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Migration Film Showings: JourneysThis educational film series explored migration journeys alongside our seminar series this term.
Week 2 (18/10): In this world, Michael Winterbottom (2002) |
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The injustices of high- versus low-skilled temporary labour migration programs: With evidence from Canada
23 October 2012, Patti Tamara Lenard, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa A podcast of this talk will be available soon. |
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Turkish Migration Studies Group eventsA TurkMiS workshop was held on 29 October 2012. Four speakers discussed issues including the impact of immigration regulations on the Turkish and South Asian student labour force in London, marriage migration, military-industrial actors in the changing Turkish borderscape, and invisible immigrants in Istanbul/Turkey and Tijuana/Mexico. The conference "Turkish Migration in Europe: Projecting the next 50 years" was held on 7-9 December. This conference examines current and potential future Turkish migration in Europe over the next half century. About 150 papers were presented addressing issues ranging from Turkey’s emigration potential, marriage emigration and immigration to Turkey to Turkey’s migration policy reform, citizenship law and hybrid identities. The conference papers will be published in various ways, so please visit the TurkMiS webpage for further announcements. |
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NEWS & NOTICES |
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COMPAS Photo CompetitionThis year's photography competition theme was 'New Lives and Dreams'. We looked for images that depict the impact that migration has on people’s lived experiences, both in terms of hopes and reasons for moving, as well as the effect that migration has on life in work, communities and homes. The winning image was submitted by Sheida Faroozi, and a further 11 runners up were chosen. |
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The Migration Observatory comments on the latest CensusNew data from the 2011 Census were made public on 11 December 2012 by the Office of National Statistics. This release of data included the first 2011 Census information on the characteristics of the migrant population of England and Wales as of 2011. The Migration Observatory assembled a suite of materials including analysis and a series of interactive maps and charts. |
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Changes to COMPAS staff
New Starters: |
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Next steps for COMPAS PhD studentsStephanie J. Silverman has joined the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in residence. Melanie Griffiths is taking up a 18 month Associate Research Fellowship at the University of Exeter. She will be working with Dr Nicholas Gill on a research project looking at asylum appeals in the UK. |
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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: It’s about time, The economics of forced migration, Reflecting on migrant journeys, The Iraqi diaspora in Germany and its role in reconstruction in Iraq, Immigrants, Asylum Seekers, and Ethnic and Religious Minorities in the Leveson Report, Five principles of integration: policies and inclusion, New guidance on integration from an unexpected source |
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COMPAS podcastsA large number of COMPAS podcasts are now available, from previous Seminar Series, Breakfast Briefings, and one-off events. Visit the COMPAS feed on the University of Oxford podcasting page or the COMPAS iTunesU feed to listen. |
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COMPAS Social Media and Virtual Open DayCOMPAS held it's first virtual open session on Monday 14 January, answering questions about the Migration Studies course application process. COMPAS 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. |
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PUBLICATIONS |
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Ntsambu, the Foul Smell of Home: Food, Commensality and Identity in the Comoros and in the Diasporaby Iain Walker, Food and Foodways: Explorations in the History and Culture of Human Nourishment, Volume 20, Issue 3-4, 2012 Commensality and foodstuffs are important markers of identity and belonging on the Comorian island of Ngazidja and among Comorians in diasporas, creating pathways for inclusion and exclusion. In Ngazidja, where food differences are minimal, commensality creates cohesion; in the diaspora, food differences are more important and it is the foodstuffs themselves that are invoked to mark identities. In this article Iain explores how foods and commensality create and sustain Comorian identities and how both sharing and the denial of sharing creates and transcends boundaries. |
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"Regrettable but Necessary?" A Historical and Theoretical Study of the Rise of the U.K. Immigration Detention Estate and Its Oppositionby Stephanie J. Silverman, Politics & Policy, Volume 40, Issue 6, pp 1131–1157, December 2012 This article explores both the official history of immigration detention in the United Kingdom as well as a lesser-known narrative of challenges to the practice. After outlining the legislative development of the U.K. detention estate, the study uses original research to demonstrate that Parliament, the courts, and civil society have historically been sites of disagreement with both the supposedly benign nature of immigration detention as well as its promulgation as an ancillary tool to immigration control. |
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Advancing Human Righs and Equality: Assessing the Role of Commissions in the UK and Irelandby Sarah Spencer and Colin Harvey, Fordham International Law Journal, Volume 35, Nr 6, November 2012 The article explores the work of statutory human rights and equality bodies in Britain, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Scotland, and offers an analysis of the factors that have an impact on their operation. |
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The Social, Political and Historical Contours of DeportationEdited by Bridget Anderson, with Matthew J Gibney and Emmanuela Paoletti from the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, this book examines the historical, institutional and social dimensions of the relationship between deportation and citizenship in liberal democracies. It develops an analytical framework that identifies and critically appraises grassroots and sub national responses to migration policy in liberal democratic societies, and considers how groups form after deportation and the employment of citizenship in this particular context. |
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New COMPAS Working PapersA number of new COMPAS working papers have been produced: "Migrant Britain, sustainable Germany: Explaining differences in the international migration of health professionals", by Kirsten Hoesch, University of Münster challenges the assumption that demographic change will produce an increasing international migration of health professionals because of a growing demand for medical services in OECD countries. Based on the analysis of the German and the British cases she shows that structural characteristics of national health sectors are more appropriate to explain patterns of migration. "'And they lived happily ever after'? Ecuadorian’s re-socialisation in the Spanish labour market through regularisation of immigration status", by Charlotte Fiala, analyses how the immigration state re-socialises persons or workers into migrant beings within the framework of regularisation programmes, under theoretical approaches of structure-agency. The analysis builds on fieldwork with Ecuadorian migrants conducted during the 2005 regularisation programme in Spain. Stephanie Silverman's Working Paper, "Return to the Isle of Man: The Implications of Internment for Understanding Immigration Detention in the UK", seeks to explore the outcomes of the three modern periods of internment in the UK, presenting a historical overview of the First World War, Second World War, and Gulf War, and to draw connections between them and the development of the contemporary immigration detention estate. |
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