Openness, human rights, and equality: When and how they have been advanced in European migration policies

⧉ download schedule
⧉ download flyer

Scholars disagree what trends dominate current migration and immigrant policies: Some emphasize securitization and exclusion, others see a mix of expansive and restrictive migration policies, a growing influence of human rights norms in the medium term, an increasing normalisation of societal diversity. Are these contradictory assessments of policy trends, or are we looking at policy mixes we need to understand better? And is there one answer across European countries or several?

Arguably, the study of migration policies, in the sense of the governance of movement, and the study of policies governing innersocietal diversity often develop in separation from each other. At the same time, it is generally acknowledged that both are connected. Can we manage to see them together and ask how specific migration policies combine with the governance of internal diversity, and what drives this? In this sense, our workshop title is meant in a broader sense to encompass migration and immigrant policy.

In addressing these questions, the workshop turns attention to those advocating openness, human rights and equality, and to their influence on policy developments. For once, the focus should not be on threats to freedom and human rights, on restrictive trends and anti-immigrant actors, but on opposite trends and actors.

Speakers will include: Claudia Finotelli, James Hampshire, Alexander Kustov, Kamil Matuszcyk, Frederik von Harbou, Mara Junge, Karin Borevi, Jennifer Elrick, Phil Triadafilopoulos, Karen Schönwälder

Limited audience spots available. If interested, please contact Jie Zhang zhang@mmg.mpg.de.