Call for Papers: Interdisciplinary workshop on 'The Marketization of Migration Management'
Abstract submission deadline: 19 April 2013
Several studies confirm a growing economy and market-based governance arising in the enactment, and as a result, of efforts to control and manage migration flows. Migration management has become a foreign policy issue in its own right and agreements are signed to outsource both migration control and refugee protection to states willing to commercialise their sovereign territory, waters, and/or authorities. The implementation and associated practices of market-based migration management are modifying institutions and social relations on a global scale with profound implications for the human beings involved.
The aim of this workshop is to theorise new practices of migration management, linking the internationalisation of migration management to general theories of marketization and neoliberal governance. We believe that the markets-optic is enabling both in combining trends that have hitherto been treated as separate and in linking the study of migration management to critical thinking developed within e.g. international political economy, transnational network theory, and anthropological theory of neoliberalism..
Proposed papers should be based on empirical cases analyzing one or more markets for migration management; should discuss ways to conceptualize and theorize market-based logics in this context, and how the workings of the markets are altering conventional conceptions in migration theory (e.g. push/pull, motivation, decision making, impact, forced/voluntary, transnationalism). Possible questions include how the operations of governments have been transferred to non-governmental entities, the extent to which markets and businesses are becoming more concentrated in terms of market share, what main factors competition revolves around, how competitive or segmented they are, how prices are formed, and last, but not least, the human, political and legal implications of these developments. The workshop welcomes papers from across social science disciplines to explore these themes and aims to combine both top-down and bottom-up approaches in conceptualising markets for migration management.
Prospective participants should submit title and abstract to Ninna Nyberg Sørensen at nns@diis.dk and Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen at tgh@diis.dk by 15 April 2013.
Participation in the workshop is free of charge, but participants are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation costs. Limited travel and accommodation funds are available for Southern scholars.
The present workshop is the third of three state of the art workshops organised by the interdisciplinary research network on Migration Industry and Markets for Managing Migration (The MIMM Network). The overall aim of the network is to examine the various interconnections, synergies and potential clashes between the migration industry and markets. On the one hand, developments in migration control have spurred a rapidly growing migration industry that profits from providing services to employers and migrants. On the other hand, this industry has itself become an important market agent in driving migration management policies. This trend not only challenges the traditional dichotomy between and roles of states and non-state actors, but also prompts government agencies, commercial enterprises, NGOs, and others to reorganize themselves in relation to the industry and market structures.
The MIMM Network is coordinated by the Danish Institute for International Studies and funded by the Danish Council for Independent ResearchïSocial Sciences. Core members of the Network are Alexander Betts; Didier Bigo; Jean-Pierre Cassarino; Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen; Elspeth Guild; Ruben Hernandez-Leon; Felicitas Hillman; Ton Van Naerssen; Ernst Spaan; and Ninna Nyberg Sørensen
DIIS Experts
