Ulrike Bialas provides insights into how age classifications affect the lives of young asylum seekers. Eleonora Milazzo tells us what solidarity between EU Member States means in practice.
Welcome back! You’re listening to the first episode of the 5th season of IMISCOE’s Migration Podcast.
If you’re listening for the first time: IMISCOE is the largest European network of scholars in the area of migration and integration, with 69 member institutes and over 1400 scholars from all over the world. And this is the network’s podcast, where we hear migration researchers talk about their latest research and why it matters.
As in the past seasons, we have an amazing team of interviewers who are migration scholars themselves. And this season, you’ll hear more episodes with them talking to 2 or more researchers who are working on similar themes, together.
The conversation you'll hear is about concepts in migration governance that are often taken for granted – but when you dig a bit deeper, or wider, like the researchers in this episode have done, it’s clear that not everyone has the same idea of what they really mean or their implications in practice.
You’ll hear Liberty Chee speaking to Eleonora Milazzo, who has been working on what exactly “solidarity” means between European Union Member States when it comes to the asylum system. We may have a sense that so far, it’s been “failing”, but what does solidarity really mean in practice?
Ulrike Bialas also joins the conversation, to talk about her research on how age classification determines the lives of young asylum seekers in Germany. How do they experience this legal focus on age, especially when many do not actually have documents that can prove their dates of birth and may not know them, anyways.
I also found the practical challenges of conducting their research, that both Elenora and Ulrike talk about, particularly interesting. Just a last note: both of them talk about research to do with migration governance in Europe, and both mention “the Dublin System”. In case you need a refresher: the Dublin System is made up of several procedures that determine responsibility for assessing asylum claims in EU Member States.
Further readings:
Bialas, Ulrike. 2023. Forever 17: Coming of Age in the German Asylum System. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Bialas, Ulrike. 2023. "Ambiguous Ages, Ambivalent Youths: How Asylum Seekers in Germany Navigate Age Categorization." Migration Politics 2, no. 1: 003.
Bialas, Ulrike. 2024. "Who is a minor? Age assessments of refugees in Germany and the classificatory multiplicity of the state." Ethnic and Racial Studies: 1-23.
Bialas, Ulrike, Johanna M. Lukate, and Steven Vertovec. 2024. "Contested categories in the context of international migration: introduction to the special issue." Ethnic and Racial Studies: 1-23.
Milazzo, E. (2024). Refugee Protection and Solidarity. The Duties of EU Member States. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/refugee-protection-and-solidarity-9780192885715?cc=be&lang=en&
Also have a look at the Migration Research to Policy Co-Lab https://migrationresearchtopolicy.eu/