CVEK

International conference Migrations, rethinking contemporary migration events in Telč, organized in June 24 – 26, 2010 has been already a second conference in a row and followed after the successful conference in Telč in 2008. Conference in 2008 focused on theoretical reflections of migration processes and their interpretations, changes in understanding of what exactly does belong into this realm as well as possible consequences of theoretical thinking about migration policy and migration research were discussed. Conference also analyzed several research methods in order to articulate the possibilities of different approaches and special emphasis was put on the vitality of the interdisciplinary approach in studying migration and on demonstrations of innovative research approaches.

Conference Migrations, rethinking contemporary migration events developed previous topics specifically in two areas:   

Knowledge Production in Migration Studies

In this rather theoretical session conference focused on the practices that, speaking of migrations, transform an event into a research topic and interests that stand behind it. The production and circulation of knowledge on migration has a differing logic in the areas of politics, public life and the academic world. The crucial question has been what types of migration are discursively produced as a normal and deviating social process and how different discursive fields interfere.

Migrations Policymaking

Theoretical concepts and research findings are re-defined in the political sphere and thus shape contemporary migration events. Political players have usually only slight understanding for broader than a national perspective. To be part of the administration of the nation state also means in some way believing in this “real fiction” or at the very least acting pragmatically in line with it. The essential impact on migrating people’s living conditions enlightens the ethical aspects of migrations policymaking.

Keynote speakers of the 2010 conference were:  

Prof. Asa Kasher

Asa Kasher is the Laura Schwarz-Kipp Professor Emeritus of Professional Ethics and Philosophy of Practice and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Tel Aviv University in Israel. He is co-author of the Israel Defense Forces Code of Ethics, “The Spirit of the IDF: Values and Basic Principles,” 1994. His research covers a broad range of topics in philosophy and ethics, including military ethics and medical ethics, and philosophy of language, as well as issues of Jewish identity. He wrote an influential defense of Israel’s ‘law of return’, justifying it as a form of affirmative action, following periods in which Jews were not allowed to immigrate to many countries. In 2000, Professor Kasher was awarded the Israel Prize for his work in philosophy and ethics.

Prof. Endre Sik

Endre Sik is a professor at the ELTE University, Department of Minority Studies, the director of the Centre for Refugee and Migration Studies at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and of the National Focal Point of the European Union Centre for Monitoring Race and Xenophobia. For ten years he was the chairman of Refuge – Association for Helping Migrants. He served as the president of the Hungarian Sociological Association, of the Sociology Committee of the National Research Fund. He is a project manager at TÁRKI Research Institute Inc. His main fields of research are: migration, Diaspora; xenophobia, labor market, informal economy, households’ economic behavior; social network capital.

Further information can be downloaded at http://ivris.fss.muni.cz/migrations

Conference took place in Convict of Holy Angels