Dear All
A quick reminder of our CfP on this highly topical subject.
Should you wish to be considered for a paper presentation at this session, please email an abstract of no more than 250 words to Dr Adam Warren and Dr Elizabeth Mavroudi (details below) no later than Tuesday 5th February.
In recent years, the UK’s immigration system has been extensively reformed by the Coalition government with the intention of both stimulating the economy and curbing ‘abuses’ by potential migrants. In particular, new categories of highly skilled migrants (such as ‘Exceptional Talent’, ‘Investor’ and Entrepreneur’) were created to support the UK in its aim of attracting the ‘best and the brightest’ (David Cameron, October 2011). Similar measures have been undertaken in the US, Australia and Canada, countries of the Global North seek to compete in the global marketplace. Yet, in spite of the topicality of this subject and the personal mobilities involved, there has been surprisingly little scholarly research into the impact of these changes on the future migration and career decision-making processes of highly skilled migrants, as postgraduate students or as employees in the workplace (Mavroudi and Warren, 2012, in press). Specifically, there is scope for further work by geographers on how select groups of migrants negotiate changes in immigration policy, as states seek to facilitate ease of movement for the highly skilled whilst at the same time imposing restrictions on migration, thus creating a juxtaposition between open and closed borders (Hollifield 2004). In addition, there is a need to more closely examine where these borders exist, within new geographical spaces or at frontiers that extend beyond a country’s official boundaries. This session therefore wishes to engage with the new spaces of immigration policy, negotiated by highly skilled migrants, which exist within and across borders.
This session will take a broad view of highly skilled migration, to include those with a tertiary qualification or equivalent (Koser and Salt, 1997), and will aim to explore the critical role that geographers can play in researching this topic across various (inter)national frontiers.
Themes could include (but are not limited to) the following:
• Highly skilled migrant negotiation of host country immigration policy (particularly in relation to recent changes)
• New classifications of highly skilled migrants
• Intra-, inter- and extra-territorial restrictions on highly skilled migration
• New spaces and borders of immigration policy control and management
• Highly skilled migration and surveillance
• Highly skilled migration and inclusion/exclusion
• Immigration policy and impacts on identity, career decision making and future mobilities
• Hollifield’s ‘liberal paradox’, and how it affects highly skilled migration.
We are delighted to announce that Eleonore Kofman, Professor of Gender, Migration and Citizenship at Middlesex University, has agreed to act as discussant for this session.
Contact: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
Best wishes
Adam
Dr Adam Warren
Department of Geography
Loughborough University
UK
|