Call for Papers for 2015 Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual International Conference, 1-4 September, University of Exeter (UK)
Exploring the Migration Industries
Organiser: Sophie Cranston, Loughborough University
Sponsor: Population Geography Research Group
In this ‘age of migration’ (Castles and Millar 2009) research on migration tends to focus on why migrants leave home and what happens to them when they arrive. However, two recent developments in studies of migration challenge this conceptualisation. First, from a mobilities perspective we challenge such sedendarist understandings and see migration as being like a journey where we explore how migrant identity is produced on the move (Cresswell 2006). Second, from a more structuralist approach, we have begun to explore the commercialisation of migration— how migration is mediated by businesses as diverse as brokers, security companies, transporters, non-governmental organisations, recruitment agencies and international human resource management (Gammeltoft-Hansen and Sorenson 2013). We can see research on the migration industries as looking at the provision of services that facilitate, constrain and assist international migration, the central role that industries play in shaping and constraining contemporary mobility patterns and mobile identities.
This session is aimed at those wishing to present research that advances our understanding of the operation of the migration industries from a variety of perspectives. This could include research that looks at:
• Theoretical perspectives on migration industries;
• Empirical examples of migration industries;
• Explanations between different types of migration industries;
• The relationship between the state and migration industries;
• How migration industries mediate patterns of mobility;
• How migration industries shape experiences of mobility.
References:
Castles, S., and M. J. Miller. 2009. The age of migration : international population movements in the modern world. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Cresswell, T. 2006. On the move: Mobility in Modern Western World. New York; London: Taylor Francis Group.
Gammeltoft-Hansen, T. and N. Nyberg Sorenson. Eds. 2013. The Migration Industry and the Commercialization of International Migration. London: Routledge
Instructions for Authors
If you are interested in presenting a paper in this please email a paper abstract of 200-300 words to Sophie Cranston (Loughborough University); [log in to unmask] by Wednesday the 11th of February.
|