Annual Acitivity report IMISCOE Year 5- 1April 2006-31 March 2007

In August 2008 we submitted our fifth annual report to the European Commission. In this report we look back at our efforts and activities in the period 1 April 2007-31 March 2008.

New research projects

A substantial number of research proposals were approved and started in which individual IMISCOE partners are included, in which multiple IMISCOE partners are included and finally proposals developed within IMISCOE and led by IMISCOE partners:

New research projects including individual IMISCOE Partners:

MIPEX (INTI Programme-on the integration laws in European countries)
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INFOCON (FP7 Programme- to promote a better understanding of how Civil Society Organisations representing Transnational Communities can work on preventing and resolving conflicts in Europe and worldwide )
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TRANS-NET (FP7 Programme-on transnationalisation, migration and transformation)
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GEMMA (FP7 Programme- on enhancing evidence-based policymaking in gender and migration)
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New research projects including multiple IMISCOE partners

Environmental CHange and FORced migration – EACH-FOR
This is a FP6-funded project that will run in 2007 and 2008. The project’s general objectives are to support European policies, research and the civil society with detailed and aggregated forced migration data and forecasts, while also cooperating with other migration- and environment degradation-related institutions. EACH-FOR includes nine project partners from seven EU countries. Particularly innovative is the integration of researchers from natural sciences and humanities at universities and other research institutions as well as enterprises in the consultancy sector.
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Finding a Place for Islam in Europe: Cultural Interactions between Muslim Immigrants and Receiving Societies -EURISLAM
This FP7-funded international comparative project will analyse the relation between socio-cultural integration of Muslim immigrant populations in Europe and different traditions of national identity, citizenship and church state relations. Through this analysis, the project hopes to contribute to a common European approach to integration and immigration that overcomes the national differences of the concerning Member States. EURISLAM will be coordinated by Jean Tillie of IMISCOE partner IMES. The other participants are: Ruud Koopmans, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB); Marco Giugni, Université de Genève; Paul Statham, University of Bristol; Dirk Jacobs, Université Libre de Bruxelles and Manlio Cinalli, Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, Paris. The expected starting date of the project is 1 January 2009, with an anticipated run of three years.
Undocumented Migration: Counting the Uncountable Data and Trends Across Europe –CLANDESTINO
Clandestino is a FP6-funded project involving three IMISCOE partners. Its aim is to provide an inventory of data and estimates on undocumented migration in selected EU countries. Researchers will analyse these data comparatively, discuss the ethical and methodological issues involved in the collection of such data and propose new methods for evaluating and classifying data. The project thus responds to the need for more reliable and systematic data on undocumented migration in Europe. Well-founded research is essential to ensure that migration policy initiatives do not have unintended or even counterproductive effects on current or future undocumented migration flows.
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Developed within IMISCOE and led by IMISCOE partners

Health and Social Care for Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Europe – HOME
The recent increase in the numbers of migrants in Europe has generated a growing volume of research on their state of health and the need to adapt care services to their needs. Scientific progress in this field, however, is held up by a lack of interdisciplinary and international collaboration. This action will bring together an international group of experts to consolidate and review work carried out so far, identify blind spots and persistent problems and recommend ways forward. The action will produce state-of-the art reports on the most urgent themes and will organise workshops, conferences, joint publications and training activities to discuss and disseminate its findings. The action is chaired by Prof. David Ingleby (ERCOMER).
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New dataset on migration between Africa and Europe – MAFE
Migrations entre l’Afrique et l’Europe aims to produce a new dataset on migration between Africa and Europe by carrying out surveys in both sending and receiving countries. Researchers from Senegal, France, Italy and Spain, as well as the NGO Enda Tiers Monde and the Associations de Ressortissants Sénégalais (CSSSE) are brought together in this project. IMISCOE partners FIERI, INED and SCMR are directly involved.
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Interethnic tolerance and neighbourhoods – GEITONIES
The international project Generating Interethnic Tolerance and Neighbourhood Integration in European Urban Spaces examines the representations and daily interactions that affect social and ethnic groups at the neighbourhood level. Funded in the European Commission FP7, this project involves IMISCOE partners CEG (University of Lisbon as project coordinator), IMES (University of Amsterdam), ISR (Austrian Academy of Science Austria), University of Deusto (Spain) and CMR (University of Warsaw)
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Promoting Comparative Quantitative Research in the Field of Migration and Integration in Europe – PROMINSTAT
In March 2007, a consortium led and coordinated by ICMPD and involving altogether eighteen research institutions (of which seven are members or Associated Members of IMISCOE) will start work on this 30-month research project on statistical data sources on migration and integration in Europe. One of the main aims in the PROMINSTAT project is to build a comprehensive online database containing dataset descriptions of datasets relevant to the study of migration. In addition, the project will provide analyses of the national data collection system in each of the 27 countries. The project is funded under the 6th Framework Programme.
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Publications

Many conferences and workshops were organised resulting in various publications and special editions of journals as for example the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 33, Issue 7 (2007) on the Second Generation (>>>) and Volume 33, Issue 6 (2007) Governing of Islam in Europe: Essays on Governance of Religious Diversity (>>>).

Furthermore, the IMISCOE publications programme developed: numerous new publications were prepared and many new manuscripts received. A number of textbooks for educational purposes are also in preparation. Six policy briefs as well as six working papers, based on conducted research and workshops, were published on the IMISCOE website.

IMISCOE Theory Conferences

During this period also a series of high-level conferences on theory and methodology was planned to took place in the fifth year:

(Irregular) Transit Migration in Europe: Theory, Politics, Research Methodology and Ethics, Principle coordinator: Dr Franck Düvell, COMPAS, University of Oxford (April 2008)
By bringing together experts from various disciplines studying this phenomenon from both the sending, transit and receiving countries' perspectives, this event aimed to contribute to a more appropriate typology, a theory of transit migration, as well as consider ways of improving the reliability of data and methodologies.
Diaspora and Transnationalism: New Discourses, New Agents, New Institutions? Conceptual, Theoretical and Methodological Aspects, Principle coordinators: Rainer Bauboeck and Wiebke Sievers, ISR, Vienna (April 2008)
The terms transnationalism and diaspora have diffused widely over the past years. Diaspora is a very old concept, transnationalism is a relatively new one. This IMISCOE theory workshop explored the broad range of phenomena that are variously described under these rubrics with the aim of clarifying their conceptual uses, exploring their embeddedness in specific strands of social, political, cultural and historical theories, and discussing their methodological implications and possible operationalizations in various disciplines.
The Nexus Between Migration/Integration Research and Policy in a European Perspective, Principle coordinators: Peter Scholten and Rinus Penninx, U-Twente and IMES, The Netherlands (May 2008).
This conference organized a dialogue between researchers and policy-makers on the nexus between migration/integration research and policy in Europe. It aimed to contribute to the exchange of experiences on how to organize research-policy dialogues from various countries and from policy-makers as well as researchers themselves. How can critical dialogues between research and policy be organized and how can dialogues of the deaf be averted?
Theories of Migration and Social Change, Principle coordinator: Stephen Castles, COMPAS, UK (July 2008).
The purpose of the Conference is to explore theoretically and systematically how migration and social change are connected, by investigating the embeddedness of human mobility in processes of globalization and social transformation, as they affect all societies whatever their current role in migratory processes (i.e. origin, transit and destination societies) or their level of development. The aim is to move beyond recent rather simplistic discourses on ‘migration and development’ (such as the notion of ‘remittance-led development’), which are increasingly being questioned by researchers through studies which show the variety and complexity of responses to change.
Interethnic Relations: Multidisciplinary Approaches, Principle coordinators: Aitor Ibarolla and Flip Lindo, DEUSTO Spain and IMES, The Netherlands (May 2009)
The aim of the conference is to shed conceptual and theoretical light on a classic problem area of migration and integration research namely interethnic relations. The conference will approach this subject in a broad way, aiming to bring together scholars from different disciplines in the social and behavioural sciences and history, incorporating the gamut of interests pursued, and simultaneously providing focus by offering a format in which a variety of themes, perspectives and modalities of collaboration are articulated. The general themes of social integration (B5) and a longitudinal perspective (C8) will be integral in the choice of the themes and approaches of the conference.

PhD Conferences

Two more PhD conferences were held in Amsterdam and Hamburg during this year.

The Second IMISCOE PhD Conference was organised by IMES in collaboration with the TIES (The Integration of The European Second Generation) team in June 2007. Although only one email announcement was circulated among IMISCOE PhD students, more than 70 individuals applied. The maximum number of participants, however, was capped at 50, for logistical reasons. The PhD conference had several tracks: i) a 12-day track for PhD students from the TIES network, ii) a 3-day track for students interested in exploring the policy-research nexus, publication plans and labour market careers, iii) a track for PhD candidates who wanted to get feedback on their research proposals, and iv) a track sponsored by Cluster B6 for those who wanted to improve their presentation techniques. Furthermore, there were keynote presentations by Susanne Wessendorf (an advanced PhD candidate herself, from Oxford University) and Levent Soysal (from Kadir Has University, Istanbul). Most students responded enthusiastically.
The Third IMISCOE PhD Conference was organized by the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI) on February 6-8, 2008. 25 PhD students participated in this conference. In eight thematic sessions they gave presentations about their own work, and received feedback from fellow PhD students as well as senior staff. Most students evaluated this training opportunity as ‘good’ or ‘very good’. They were especially appreciative of the feedback that they received. There were also sessions on ‘managing a PhD’ and ‘applying for funding’, but these were less appreciated.