Could you tell us a few words about the institutions and colleagues involved in the organisation of the 2026 IMISCOE Forum?
The 2026 IMISCOE Forum is the result of a collaborative effort between IMISCOE, the Faculty of Languages, Arts and Social Sciences (FLASH) at Ibn Zohr University, the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Immigration (GRITIM-UPF) at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and the Euro-Mediterranean Research Network on Migration (EuroMedMig), which provides support.
The Forum will be hosted by the Faculty of Languages, Arts and Social Sciences (FLASH) at Ibn Zohr University in Agadir, southern Morocco. The Faculty has developed a growing research profile in the field of Afro-European migration and mobility and is actively engaged in a range of international and national research initiatives. These include projects supported through Horizon Europe and Erasmus+, nationally funded research projects, as well as individual and collaborative research initiatives addressing migration, mobility, intercultural encounters, and related issues.
GRITIM-UPF is a key partner in the organisation of the Forum. Based within the Department of Political and Social Sciences at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) in Barcelona, Catalonia, GRITIM-UPF is an interdisciplinary research group that brings together scholars from diverse academic backgrounds. The group’s work focuses on immigration, human mobility, and the social and political transformations associated with migration. A centrepiece of its academic research scope is the Mediterranean region. The Euro-Mediterranean Research Network on Migration (EuroMedMig) was officially launched during the 15th IMISCOE Annual Conference in 2018 and operates as an academically recognised IMISCOE Regional Network. Having initially started as an Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Network, EuroMedMig currently coordinates the prestigious MSCA PhD Network. Through this initiative, it is actively training the first dedicated community of doctoral researchers specialising in migration and Mediterranean studies.
The collaboration between these institutions reflects a broader commitment to fostering dialogue and knowledge exchange across the Afro-European Mediterranean. It also represents an effort to expand the engagement of African institutions and scholars with IMISCOE, yielding greater opportunities for collaboration, knowledge exchange, and the development of research networks that connect African and European perspectives on migration and mobility.
The conference topic is “Promoting Afro-European Mediterranean Dialogue: Shifting Geographies of Migration”. What can you tell us about this theme?
African migration is far more complex and diverse than the arrows on a Frontex map might suggest. Even migration from Africa towards Europe is not as linear or unidirectional as it is often portrayed. The changing geographies of Afro-European migration are reshaping mobility not only across the Mediterranean, but also through new routes, destinations, forms of movement, and spaces of connection across the continent. This complexity and fluidity challenge established theories, paradigms, and assumptions about migration and mobility. Understanding these transformations requires sustained dialogue between African and European scholars, as well as between academia and wider stakeholders, including policymakers, practitioners, and civil society organisations. Guided by the epistemic EuroMedMig principles of avoiding Eurocentrism, reductionism, and generalisation, the Forum seeks to provide precisely such a space for conversation. It represents a dedicated effort to facilitate critical, open, and collaborative knowledge production on the shifting geographies of Afro-European migration. In doing so, it opens up opportunities to question established perspectives, exchange situated knowledge, and develop new ways of understanding mobility between Africa and Europe.
What about the conference programme?
The Forum programme brings together a rich and diverse range of spaces for dialogue, exchange, and collaboration, ensuring a balanced representation of geographies, academic disciplines, and participant profiles. This includes:
PhD Event: A pre-programme event dedicated to PhD candidates from the IMISCOE PhD Network, the EuroMedMig PhD Network, other PhD candidates participating in the Forum, and local PhD candidates. Among the objectives of the event is to connect IMISCOE and local PhD candidates and explore pathways for collaboration.
Keynote Lecture: The Forum will kick off with a lecture by Professor Myriam Cherti, a Moroccan migration scholar at the University of Oxford, UK.
19 panels: The programme includes 19 panels that reflect on a diverse range of migration issues, focusing mainly on (1) power, policy and control; (2) rethinking frameworks and routes; (3) identity, inequality and everyday life; (4) culture, narratives, life stories and policies; and (5) alternative epistemologies and decolonial approaches.
10 workshops: The workshops offer a more focused, participatory space for collaborative thinking, methodological conversations, and engaging in difficult conversations that do not always fit a traditional panel format. The workshops address various issues, including (1) governance and geopolitics; (2) death, loss, harm and accountability; and (3) research methods and ethics.
3 plenaries: The Forum will also feature three plenary sessions addressing key questions in contemporary migration research and policy. The first will examine research partnerships between Africa and Europe, focusing on collaboration, knowledge production, and the power dynamics that shape international research. The second will explore the relationship between documentaries, cinema, memory, and migration, highlighting how visual storytelling can document experiences of mobility, displacement, and belonging. The closing plenary will bring together African and European institutional perspectives to discuss migration governance, policy priorities, and the evolving relationship between Africa and Europe.
Film Screening: In addition, the Forum will feature a screening of the recent film RESCUE, directed by Sine Plambech. This special event is organised as an ad hoc activity of Plenary Roundtable 2, “Documentaries, Cinema, Memory, and Migrations”, chaired by R. Zapata-Barrero. The film is a research-based documentary project that follows the stories of migrants, militias, and rescuers at sea. It examines the political challenges, everyday practices, human fates, and humanitarian dilemmas in the Mediterranean.
Screening Details:
Date: Evening of 28 October
Location: Cinema Sahara (free admission), central Agadir.
Walking from the tourist area to Cinema Sahara offers a chance to experience a different side of Agadir. The route passes through two distinctive neighbourhoods: Cité Suisse—with its white concrete, open spaces, and geometric modernist architecture reflecting the ambition of a city rebuilt after the 1960 earthquake—and Talborjt, featuring compact streets, local shops, and vibrant, mixed-use buildings. Together, they beautifully capture Agadir’s unique balance between architectural modernity and lived urban life.
We also want to get to know you as migration scholars/research group and your involvement in IMISCOE.
We are a group of migration scholars based at the Faculty of Languages, Arts and Social Sciences at Ibn Zohr University. The research focuses primarily on South–South mobility, migration and memory, and migration governance and regimes. In recent years, we have developed a particular interest in the implications of EU border externalisation for transit and destination countries such as Morocco, examining how European migration policies interact with local and regional mobility dynamics, governance structures, and migration experiences.
Engagement with IMISCOE began when Ricard Zapata-Barrero, the IMISCOE Chair of External Affairs, participated in the 3rd International Conference, “Mediterranean Crossings: Rotating the Politics of Migration in the Mediterranean Space” (November 2024). This initial encounter opened the door to broader discussions about academic and institutional collaboration between the host research community and IMISCOE.
Since then, these discussions have developed into a shared interest in strengthening institutional relations with IMISCOE. Such a relationship offers a valuable opportunity to create mutually beneficial connections between researchers and institutions working on migration in Africa and Europe, while also contributing more actively to the development of migration research networks across the African continent.
The participating research group and individual scholars are fully committed to deepening engagement with IMISCOE through joint research, academic events, researcher mobility, PhD and early-career researcher initiatives, and broader exchanges between African and European migration scholars. A stronger institutional connection will provide a durable framework for developing these activities in a sustained and mutually beneficial manner.
Coming back to the IMISCOE Forum that you are organising this year, what do you hope colleagues will most appreciate during the event?
The place: The Forum does not take place in a traditional European conference hub, nor in the country’s capital or a conventional institutional centre. Instead, it is hosted by a small institution in southern, peripheral Morocco. This location is significant. Morocco is a key space of transit and settlement for African migrants seeking to reach Europe, while southern Morocco constitutes an important gateway within these wider mobility routes. Holding the Forum here therefore shifts the geographical and intellectual point of reference. Being here changes the conversation: it brings questions of mobility, borders, transit, settlement, and Afro-European relations closer to the spaces and communities in which they are lived and negotiated.
Diversity of Voices: The Forum programme includes a significant number of panels, workshops, roundtables, and other activities. Each brings different theoretical and methodological perspectives to issues of migration and mobility. Therefore, the issues the Forum addresses are highly diverse, ranging from diplomacy, security, death, grief, art, poetry, and football to many others. The hope is that participants will encounter and engage with themes and issues that they would not otherwise encounter in their respective research areas or disciplines. Most importantly, the aim is to do justice to these themes and issues and stimulate future research.
A New Start: The hope is that this Forum will be more than a one-time event. It is seen as the beginning of a longer process, a space from which new ideas, research collaborations, co-authored publications, joint projects, and lasting institutional partnerships can emerge. The ambition is for the conversations initiated here to continue well beyond the Forum itself, generating new forms of cooperation and new directions for migration research across Africa and Europe.
Do you have any tips for conference participants to enjoy their stay in Agadir?
Agadir is the gateway to southern Morocco and a major cultural and economic centre of the Souss-Massa region. It is also located at the heart of the Amazigh cultural landscape, with deep historical and contemporary ties to the Indigenous Amazigh communities of southern Morocco. Much of the city’s traditional architecture was destroyed in the devastating 1960 earthquake, which profoundly reshaped Agadir and led to the development of the modern city that exists today. Visitors interested in exploring the region’s Amazigh heritage can gain a sense of its cultural and architectural traditions through a visit to the Amazigh Museum in Agadir, as well as by travelling to nearby places such as Tiznit, known for its silver craftsmanship, or exploring the historic Igoudar (collective granaries) found across the surrounding Souss region. Agadir is also known for its relaxed pace of life, mild climate, and beautiful beaches. Visitors can enjoy a leisurely evening along Agadir Beach, taking in the Atlantic atmosphere, or head north to Taghazout to watch surfers and experience the spectacular sunset. The region also offers a distinctive culinary experience, including traditional goat-meat tagine and, when in season, fresh octopus and other locally sourced seafood.