MPI-MMG in Dialogue

The European Union’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum is a long-awaited answer to the refugee problem to some – and a disastrous demolition of refugee rights to others. Its supporters presented the Pact as a historical agreement that comes to address long-standing shortcomings and imbalances in terms of solidarity and responsibility sharing. In the words of responsible EU-Commissioner Ylva Johansson, the priority now is “Implementation, implementation, implementation!”: a task that is largely in the hands of the Member States.  more

In our highly interconnected and globalized world, people often pursue their aspirations across multiple places. Yet in public and scholarly debates, particularly within migration and diversity research, aspirations are often taken-for-granted as the realm of younger, mobile generations as those who hold the greatest potential for shaping the future. On 11 October, Megha Amrith (MPI-MMG), Iza Kavedžija (University of Cambridge), Daniel Miller (University College London) and Dora Sampaio (MPI-MMG Alumna, Utrecht University) discussed key results. more

Popular support for diversity is often underestimated and, so far, insufficiently understood. The Diversity Assent (DivA) Project at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity addresses this gap. On 28 June, Max-Planck researchers Eloisa Harris and Karen Schönwälder discussed key results with Nan Zhang and Andreas Zick from Mannheim and Bielefeld Universities. more

Stimulated by Vertovec’s Superdiversity: Migration and Social Complexity, this ‘In Dialogue’ event considers the concept of superdiversity alongside a look at diversification processes and their effects across contexts worldwide. more

At this In Dialogue event, Dekel Peretz and Sami Everett, both involved in a current project of this institute on “Muslim-Jewish encounter, diversity & distance in urban Europe“ discuss their experiences alongside Nonna Mayer, Professor of Sociology at Sciences Po Paris and renown expert of extreme right and racist movements, and Riem Spielhaus, Professor of Islamic Studies in Göttingen and much-cited expert on Muslim life in Germany. more

The panel discussed the results of the ZOMiDi research project, which investigated how and why civil society organizations change in response to migration and societal diversity. Do organizations that focus on differences respond in similar ways to the challenges linked with migration? What ‘best practices’ for organizational change can they offer? more

How do the empires of the past continue to exist today? And what is forgotten when bygone empires are so adamantly remembered? For the past five-and-a-half years, the Max Planck Research Group,“Empires of Memory: The Cultural Politics of Historicity in Former Habsburg and Ottoman Cities,” has investigated these questions by examining the cities of central Europe, the Balkans, Anatolia, and beyond. The “In Dialogue” event “Sanitizing Imperial Pasts” will present selected results from this research in order to explore how bygone empires continue to shape our world today. The discussion is moderated by Jelena Radovanović, a researcher of the Max Planck Research Group “Empires of Memory“. more

In this panel discussion, Steven Vertovec, Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, and Christine Lang, former MPI MMG researcher and currently at the Institute of Geography and the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) at Osnabrück University, discussed the past and presence of nation states and their migration/integration policies, and whether migration research should indeed be reoriented by detaching itself from the nation-state. The discussion is moderated by Karen Schönwälder, research group leader at MPI-MMG. more