RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2017, London 29 August- 1 September, 2017
2nd CfP: Negotiating Brexit: migrant spatialities and identities in a changing Europe
Session conveners: Kate Botterill (Edinburgh Napier University), David McCollum (University of St Andrews), Naomi Tyrrell (Plymouth University), Andrew Wooff (Edinburgh Napier University).
Sponsored by the Population Geography Research Group
On June 23rd 2016, Britain voted to leave the European Union (EU). While immigration was only one of the factors in the vote to leave, the referendum on Britain’s membership has exposed divisions within communities across the UK over the pace and scope of demographic and political change (Harris and Charlton, 2016). Moreover, a spike in racial hate crime across the UK against migrants following the vote has raised concerns for the security and wellbeing of EU and non-EU migrants. Beyond the UK, the geopolitical tremors of the Brexit vote still resonate and there are wide-ranging implications for migration patterns and processes at a range of scales and locations (Portes and Forte, 2016). Furthermore, the discourse of a ‘migration crisis’ following population displacement and refugee arrivals in the EU continues to shape perceptions and experiences of migrant bodies and has generated diverse responses within communities across Europe (Ansems de Vries et al. 2016; Freeman, 2016).
Migrants have been the subject of much of these debates, yet their perspectives and experiences of negotiating everyday life in this context remain unexplored. This session aims to decolonize the debate on Brexit and international migration by facilitating an interdisciplinary, critical dialogue welcoming, in particular, participatory approaches that co-produce geographical knowledges. We seek contributions that explore how international migrants (EU and non-EU) are affected by Brexit. Urgent questions arise that require critical contributions from geography: How is the process of Brexit shaping migrant identities and relationships? What are the transitional issues for migrants in terms of negotiating asylum, residency and citizenship? How has the vote impacted on the emotional geographies of home and motivations for return migration? What are the implications for migrant transnational practices and mobilities in a post-Brexit world?
We welcome theoretical and empirical contributions from a range of disciplines, particularly those that prioritise migrant voices on the experiences and impacts of Brexit for current, return and potential migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the EU.
Themes could include:
· Critical perspectives on the ‘migration crisis’
· Refugee, asylum and forced mobilities
· Geographies of labour migration
· Children and young people’s mobility, including international student mobility
· Transnational families, networks and practices
· Migrant securities, including policing of migrants and migrants as victims of hate crime
· Emotional, affective and embodied impacts
· Migrant belonging and shifting geographies of home
· National identity, nationalism and geopolitics at the border
Please send abstracts (200 word) to Kate Botterill ([log in to unmask]) by February 8th 2017.
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