The “Vitrine” is a section that wraps up every Bulletin. This is a space dedicated for any member institute or people from the IMISCOE Network who are interested in sharing what they have been up to lately with the community. If you or your institute have a project you’re leading or that you are a part of, and what to be featured here, please send a brief description (max 100 words) and a link to allow the readers to further their curiosity to
Today’s Vitrine entails a variety of projects from a multitude of Member Institutes. We gladly received inputs from a variety of places, showcasing the pulsing activity of the network! We go from the GRITM-UPF, Swedish Research Council, ICMPD, MONASH, MACIMIDE, University of Sussex, CIES-Iscte, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice all the way to ERC!
EUMedMi: “Mapping European Mediterranean Migration Studies”
The IMISCOE Regional Euro-Mediterranean Research Network on Migration (EuroMedMig) coordinated by the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Immigration at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona (GRITIM-UPF), and composed of 19 Steering Committee members from both rims of the Mediterranean, is an independent interdisciplinary research network on migration and diversity in the Mediterranean, and seeks to be a platform promoting multilateral knowledge production, promotion and exchange. EuroMedMig is currently developing activities within a three-year (2019-2022) Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Network Program (Ref. 611260-EPP-1-2019-1-ES-EPPJMO-NETWORK) entitled “Mapping European Mediterranean Migration Studies” (Acronym: #EUMedMi). As part of its #EUMedMi activities, EuroMedMig will organize a Ph.D. Summer School entitled "Mediterranean Migration Studies: Theoretical and Empirical Research Agenda" to be held at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona in July 2021. This initiative has been supported by IMISCOE. EuroMedMig is welcoming submissions to its EuroMedMig Working Paper Series. Please feel free to share this call as widely as possible. Here is our brochure and website for more info. You can also follow us on Twitter.
"Managing the Unreliability of Migration Control: A Study of Biometrics and EU Information Technology Systems in Sweden "
Anna Bredström, funded by Swedish Research Council
This project examines the utilization of biometrics and EU information technology systems in migration management, in the areas of asylum (EURODAC); borders (SIS II) and visas (VIS). The project builds on field research conducted on behalf of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). That study revealed that authorities place great trust in biometric data, yet paradoxically, it also showed that the systems suffers from numerous insecurities and a lack of transparency.
The proposed project extend this earlier research by further probing its biopolitical implications posing three key research questions: (1) How do biometric technologies and the concerned EU IT systems enact identities along the lines of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age and ability?; (2) What patterns emerge around how Swedish migration and police authorities meet insecurities?; (3) How do the systems affect the everyday life of migrants living in Sweden and their travels to and across Europe?
Qualitative observations and interviews are employed to examine how migration and police authorities use and interpret the technologies; and interviews with migrants aim to grasp how the technologies impact on their lives. The use of biometrics promises greater reliability in the establishment of identity. However, given the complexity of migration and migrants’ vulnerability, the project serves the crucial purpose of probing the key ethical issues that are at stake in today’s technological development.
Projekt ”Madams and Maids : A Narrative Investigation of Domestic Work, Racism and History”
Paula Mählck, funded by Swedish Research Council
This research focus on a highly vulnerable group, Tanzanian women domestic workers in private households. The households are characterized by extreme economic wealth and sometimes diplomatic immunity. The project also focuses on Scandinavian expatriate women who are residing in Tanzania on their partner’s (most often their husband’s) visa, thus living under graded citizenship and being economically dependent on their partners. This makes expatriate women also vulnerable, however at a different position. In the proposed project the narrative inquiry is the phenomenon under study as well as the method.
The aim is to investigate the narratives of employment relations between expatriate Scandinavian women employers and Tanzanian women domestic workers, and how this influences their social identity models and communication around work. An important part of the aim is also to investigate the changes and continuities between contemporary employment relations articulated by the women involved and the employment relations that were practiced during the system of indentured labor in East Africa during the period 1820s - 1940s. The system was introduced by colonial settlers after slavery was abolished and is known as a system of ‘hidden slavery’.
The project duration is two years. It will be placed at the Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society, REMESO, Linköping Univ. The applicant has extensive experience in researching gender relations and racism in East Africa.
Migrants and solidarities: Negotiating deservingness in welfare micropublics
(Mette Louise Berg, UCL, Anders Neergaard, Swedish part, funded by NordFors)
This three-year research project will break new ground by exploring the fundamental welfare question of who is constituted as deserving of services and who is not. Solidarities, or ideas about whom we are responsible to and in what ways, are fundamentally shaped by notions of deservingness. These serve to draw boundaries between those migrants who have access to the care, services, and support of the welfare state, or are believed to have access, and those who are excluded, e.g. because they are deemed as not belonging or are seen as responsible for their own neediness.
We focus on local welfare spaces where entitlement is negotiated, and compare across six
case-studies in Denmark, Sweden, and the UK respectively. We focus specifically on how deservingness is constituted according to migrants generational status, e.g., as children, working-age adults, or elderly; and according to where migrants settle, e.g., in private or social housing, in major cities or in rural areas. We aim for a deep and nuanced understanding of how deservingness is given social texture, and how different forms of solidarities are practiced, in encounters between migrants, frontline workers, and a wide range of civil society actors who offer and provide support for recent migrants.
Anders Neergaard Mette Louise Berg
PERCEPTIONS - Understand the Impact of Novel Technologies, Social Media, and Perceptions in Countries Abroad on Migration Flows and the Security of the EU & Provide Validated Counter Approaches, Tools and Practices (H2020, 2019 - 2023) by ICMPD
Field: Security
The PERCEPTIONS project aims to identify and understand narratives, imaginations and (mis-)perceptions of the EU – held outside of Europe – and the way they are distributed via various channels. Furthermore, it investigates how the information flow might be distorted and how false narratives might lead to security threats.
ICMPD’s Research unit will conduct and support both desk and empirical research in countries under study (Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Germany, UK). Baseline research will examine the existing knowledge base regarding perceptions of the EU outside the EU, as well as existing measures, policies and legal frameworks in place to address potential risks. This includes in particular qualitative semi-structured interviews with practitioners on images and narratives (potential) migrants have of Europe, as well as focus groups with policy makers and civil society stakeholders on their needs and experiences, including security challenges.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 833870.
Websites:
Twitter: @PERCEPTIONS_EU
The Monash Migration and Inclusion Centre, Network of Excellence: Regional Liveable Diversity
Field: The Transformation of social, cultural, and economic life in regional areas
This network draws together extensive research expertise from the Monash Migration and Inclusion Centre and international partners from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, Ryerson University, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, and the University of Bologna. The Network of Excellence (NoE): Regional Liveable Diversity will develop effective strategies to support policies on the inclusion of diversifying regional communities.
Drawing on comparative insights on regional readiness from across Australia, Canada, Italy, The Netherlands, and Germany, this network promises to offer a global picture of how migration and diversity shapes social, political and economic life at a regional/provincial level. This knowledge can then be applied to solve practical problems and challenges presented by the diversification of regional areas.
MiLife Status by MACIMIDE
Field: relationship between migrant naturalisation and integration
Migrant Life Course and Legal Status Transition (MiLifeStatus) is a five year research project (2016-2021) which studies the relation between migrant naturalisation and integration. By investigating the relevance of citizenship within the individual life course of an immigrant, MiLifeStatus analyses why, how, and for whom legal status transitions matter and, especially, how variation in policies between countries impacts on this relation. The research will focus on integration in socioeconomic domains, such as labor market performance, as well as living conditions, health status, out-migration, and education among first and second-generation immigrants.
Migration YouTube channel by prof.dr. Melissa Siegel
Topic/field: migration topics for the general public
Description: Prof.Dr. Melissa Siegel, Professor of Migration Studies at Maastricht University and UNU-MERIT, has launched a YouTube channel dealing with migration issues. The purpose of this channel is to bring information about migration around the world to the broader public. On this channel, there are short videos explaining the basics of migration, myths and misconceptions about migration, clips “from the field” or my travels, and new evidence and research in the field of migration (which often includes guests).
This video gives a little preview of what you can expect on my channel.
Trovoada de Ideias - Linguistic and Social Inclusion of International Students from PALOP Countries in the Portuguese Higher Education by CIES-IUL, ISCTE-IUL
Research Team: Ana Raquel Matias (CIES-IUL); Paulo Feytor Pinto (APEDI, CELGA/ILTEC-UC); Teresa Seabra, Vera Rodrigues & Pedro Martins (CIES-IUL); Rosário Candeias, Bela Jardim & Teresa Santos Neves (SAS-IUL); Filomena Almeida, Romeu Ornelas, Rosário Mauritti & João Monteiro (LCT-IUL).
(Languages: Portuguese from Portugal and African Portuguese varieties, Portuguese-based African Creoles & English; Funding: FAMI-ACM).
The project is an interdisciplinary action-research intervention focusing on the need to adopt strategies and instruments to promote the inclusion of international students from Portuguese Speaking African Countries (PALOP) in Portuguese higher education institutions (HEI). The expected products of this on-going research are:
(1) A Course Unit (UC) on transversal skills in Academic Portuguese as a pluricentric language;
(2) A handbook with materials for language teachers, to be used in Portuguese HEIs;
(3) An e-learning course for students, based on both the UC and the handbook;
(4) An anthology of sociolinguistic and educational biographies of PALOP students who attended the Academic Portuguese UC;
(5) A brochure with pedagogical guidelines for professors of Portuguese HEIs;
(6) A team of mediator-mentor students from different origins, with training and guidance.
Experiences and expectations of return of new Portuguese emigrants: reintegration and mobilities
The project is led by CICS.Nova.IPLeiria, coordinated by José Carlos Marques, and co-coordinated by Pedro Góis, having as partners CES-UC, CIES-ISCTE, and funded by the FCT (PTDC/SOC-SOC/28730/2017).
The project “Experiences and expectations of return of new Portuguese emigrants: reintegration and mobility (EERNEP)” aims to study the return of Portuguese emigrants, focusing on countries of destination that had high inflows in recent years, such as the United Kingdom, France and Luxembourg. In view of the pandemic situation that occurred during the design of the survey, a set of questions were included in order to know the effect of the pandemic on the respondents' migration projects. More info on the project here. The questionnaire (in Portuguese) is available .
SOGICA - Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Claims of Asylum: "A European Human Rights Challenge"
SOGI asylum
SOGICA is a four-year (2016-2020) research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) that explores the social and legal experiences of people across Europe claiming international protection on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI). These asylum claims are often treated in an insensitive way, i.e. based on inappropriate legal, cultural and social notions. Focusing on Germany, Italy and the UK as case studies, and analysing how these claims are addressed at European level (European Union and Council of Europe) – the project offers a theoretically and empirically-grounded comparative study and determines how European asylum systems can treat more fairly SOGI claims.
Vulnerabilities under the Global Protection Regime (VULNER). How Does the Law Assess, Address, Shape and Produce the Vulnerabilities of the Protection Seekers?
Field: Asylum and vulnerability
Legal and policy instruments at global and European level increasingly emphasize the need to address the specific needs of vulnerable migrants. But what does it mean to be vulnerable? The aim of the VULNER project is to critically analyse how ‘’vulnerability’’ is addressed by asylum laws, policies and practices, and to document the vulnerabilities experienced by migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. The research is conducted in selected countries (Belgium, Germany, Italy, Norway, Uganda, South Africa, Lebanon, Canada), by an international consortium of 9 research institutions led by Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. The team at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice will lead the country study on Italy, and the case study of human trafficking. This project has received funding from the European Union‘s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870845.
