Call for papers- workshop at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity "Openness, human-rights, and equality: When and how they have been advanced in European migration policies", Göttingen, 8-9 May 2025
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 inner-societal 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. We invite papers that assess the character and influence of such actors in specific contexts.
Contributors are encouraged to take a step beyond the empirical details of a specific topic and present bigger pictures (e.g. of developments in one country) and challenging arguments. The emphasis should be on understanding the policy processes and the roles of different, in particular progressive, actors.
We encourage applications from scholars at different stages of their careers. Costs for travel and accommodation will be covered for all speakers.
We envisage a special-issue publication of select workshop contributions, please let us know whether your suggested paper would be available for that. For the workshop itself, a sketch of about 6-10 pages will suffice.
To apply, please send an abstract of 300-500 words until 17 November to
Ulrike Bialas (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity), Jennifer Elrick (McGill University, Montréal), Karen Schönwälder (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity), Phil Triadafilopoulos (University of Toronto