Call for papers: Beyond Borders: Migration and (In)Equality in Central Europe in Comparison
4. 11. 13Theme: The conference will contribute to the broad range of
issues that emerged throughout the project relating to immigration within the
larger region of Central Europe. These issues include migrants’ entry into and
rights within the job market, reunification of migrant families, education and
training of international students, migrants’ human rights in the face of state
security control, migrant sentiment of belonging to the host society as equals
and first class citizens (apolitical citizenship), and migrant health status.
All of these pressing topics of contemporary migration have to be contextualized
within the framework of ever-changing European Union legislation, the policies
of individual states, and the liberal paradox of economic freedom and political
control.
Disciplines, institutions, and individuals to whom the
invitation extends include, but are not limited to, scholars, analysts,
practitioners, state officials, migrants, and activists in the fields of
sociology, social work, anthropology, political studies, medicine, governmental
institutions, integration centers, and other non-governmental organizations.
Format: The conference will be divided into two days and
five panels (see their detailed description and the subtopics to each panel
below). Each presentation is limited to twenty minutes, and each panel will be
followed by comments from an established scholar and a practitioner or migrant
worker. There will be two morning sessions each day and two afternoon sessions
the first day. One of the afternoon sessions will be a block of three workshops
running concurrently. The sessions will be divided by coffee breaks and lunch
to provide guests with time to relax and further discuss presented topics. The
end of the first day will be closed by a series of short film screenings
followed by debate and refreshment in the center of Prague.
Submission: Proposals should be no more than 300 words.
Please indicate the panel you want to be reviewed for and the focus of your
research topic, the critical/analytical approach that you take toward the
research topic, and the significance of your research beyond the academy. In
evaluating proposals, we will give preference to those papers that are well
developed and keep a more diverse audience in mind. Financial contribution
toward travel and accommodation will be available to selected participants
coming from outside Prague. Presenters and authors will be also invited to
submit their paper for a collective peer-reviewed volume. Please indicate if
you are interested in publishing within this volume.
Send your proposal, with a short bio of no more than two pages,
to daniela.penickova@mkc.cz.
Deadline: Proposals must be received by December 1, 2013.
Speakers will be notified of the vetting committee’s decision by December 10,
2013. Confirmed speakers will be asked to provide the conference organizer with
their PowerPoint (or other software) presentation and final draft of their
papers by January 10, 2014.
Individual Panel Descriptions:
Migration, Citizenship and the Politics of Belonging
This interdisciplinary panel invites papers that investigate
the interplay between forms and modes of contemporary citizenship,
migration governance, and the politics of belonging. We would like to
explore the different experiences of citizenship by various groups of citizens
based on gender, age, migrant status, class, and ethnicity. In particular, we
are interested in work that engages with, but is not limited to, the following
questions:
- the re-conceptualization of citizenship theories
- the relationship between legal status, rights, and belonging
- the tension in policy and practice between coexisting traditions, and regimes of rights
- the intersection of legal status and race, class, and other social cleavages
- the position of citizen children of undocumented migrant parents, unaccompanied asylum seeking children, people with dual citizenship, ‘failed’ asylum seekers, and stateless people
- migrant citizenship experiences and its interaction with specific life phases, careers, or status passages.
Human Rights in the Context of State Security and Migration Control
Due to the secretive character of the functioning of state
security agencies, there is limited information about the way they influence
the rights of migrants and asylum seekers. This issue has become salient in a
number of CEE countries in relation to recent legislative changes that empower
institutions, such as the state information services, in the decision making
process on who gets to stay in the country of destination and who may be
labeled as “questionable” or “dangerous” and refused for residency. The
functioning of state security agencies also tends to constrain the role of courts
in overseeing such decisions. This panel thus invites papers that explore these
issues, in addition to:
- recent debates on legislative changes pertaining to the role of state security agencies and information services in migration control
- the role of municipal, regional, national, and international courts (such as the European Court of Human Rights and Court of Justice of the EU) in ensuring just practice of state institutions
- cases of violation of human rights by state security agencies and the public’s reaction
- other impacts and implications of the process of securitization in the EU countries
Migrant Workers Inside and Outside of the Labor Code: A Case of the Electronics Industry
This panel is centered around the observation that in spite
of the economic crisis, manufacturing, such as the electronics industry, has remained
an important economic sector of employment for migrants in the EU industrial
peripheries. We are seeking papers that discuss how specific companies in the
CEE countries have managed their migrant labor force in the context of their
business strategies and global productions. Specifically the papers may discuss
the following questions:
- What impact do the different legal arrangements used to organize flexible production have on migrant workers?
These arrangements include, but are not limited to:
- Temporary contracts
- Self-employed work
- Agency work and other kind of “non-employment” contracts
- What are the interrelations between employment in venues such as the electronics industry and migrants’ legal status?
- How has the meaning of “employment” changed in the recent decade from the perspective of migrants, temp agencies, lead contractors, or state control agencies?
- To what extent have the precarious working conditions been generalized? What ways of resistance have there been among migrant workers?
Migration and Health in the European Union
While migrants are considered comparatively healthy, they
often face particular health challenges and are vulnerable to a number of
threats to their physical and mental health. These stem from the fact that
communication between healthcare providers and migrant clients often remains
poor and health systems are not prepared to adequately respond to the need for
culturally-sensitive and responsive care. This panel invites healthcare
practitioners and analysts who can contribute to closing the gap presented by
eminent lack of data on understanding the migrant health and healthcare
conditions in the EU. The topics include, but are not limited to:
- the phenomenon known as the “healthy migrant effect” and its impact
- increasing efficacy in monitoring migrant health and occupational health
- employment of interpretative and phenomenological approaches in migrant health research
- understanding migrant communicable and non-communicable disease
- development and changes in the migrant health policies in Europe
The conference is sponsored by the EU’s program Europe for
Citizens, by the Visegrad Fund, and by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the
Czech Republic.
Call for papers (pdf) 
