Panel submission to the 21st IMISCOE Annual Conference, Lisbon (and online), 02-05 July 2024
Panel Abstract “Encounters, transitions, and struggles in refugees’ rights, policies, and studies: A call for a relational praxis in the field”
This panel calls for new research that repositions refugee’s rights, policies, and studies towards a relational praxis rooted in decolonial and transitional approaches (Quijano 2007; Escobar 2007, 2021). As Chimi (2009) has argued, forced migration studies are often North-centered, building on theories coming from Europe and with a majority of the studies focusing on refugees living in the “Global North,” despite a majority of refugees living in countries of the “Global South.” However, colonization, war, extractivism, climate change, and displacement often stem from the meddling and violence produced by the matrix of power designed by the “Global North.” Hence, this panel explores the coloniality that shapes refugees’ rights, policies, and studies impacting the exclusion of many and the production of refugees. Arguing for a relational praxis in the field, we are looking for topics that engage with the conference theme of a reflexive turn in migration studies, such as, but not limited to:
- Legacies of colonialism and living coloniality in the production/protection of refugees
- Historical approaches to the colonial logic and legacies in the international refugee regime
- Coloniality and geopolitics in application of the “refugee” label
- (Re)production of colonial legacies, power asymmetries, and inequalities in refugee production/protection
- Decolonial approaches to issues of race, gender, and inequalities in refugee production/protection
- Contestation and resistance to coloniality in refugee production/protection
- Inequality and the production of refugees
- Decolonial, transitional, and emancipatory approaches to refugee protection – imagining new ways of moving forward
- Refugee-led initiatives and resistance
Paper proposals should include a 250-words maximum abstract and the name(s), affiliation(s), and contact details of the author(s). Please send your proposals to Gabriela Mezzanotti
Panel Organizers: Gabriela Mezzanotti (University of South-Eastern Norway) , Alyssa Marie Kvalvaag (Nord University), Liliana Lyra Jubilut (UNISANTOS University, Brazil), Alessia Marzano-Paulsen (UiT- The Arctic University of Norway)