CVEK

There is not a single migration; there are multiple migrations – experiences, practices and institutions leading to various forms and consequences of modern trans-state mobility. Conference focused at migrating men, women, and children as subjects through whose acts, experiences and narratives migrations can be grasped. At the same time, state officers, social workers, and migrants´ employers were no less relevant as acting subjects. Multiple experiences and meanings of migrations are negotiated in everyday interactions at state offices, social centers and work places. Mobility or up rootedness is an equivalent state of existence to a settled life; both are co-existent in the ambivalent symbiosis. In the social sciences, the settler’s perspective is being preferred and considered the norm. Organizers of the conference were looking for ways to creatively deal with this ambivalence instead of disregarding it. We see the role of social scientists in attempting to de-construct and falsify politics and practices that are rooted unconsciously in nationalized legal norms and the perspective of the settler. 

Organizers aspired to create a lively discussion environment for any scholars who have been active in migration research, not just on the European scale. Keynote speakers brought fresh ideas that were discussed by Ph.D. students and other scholars. We aspired to bring multiple views and by doing this to reinforce critical thinking about migrations in the contemporary world. 

Conference has been divided into two parts: 

1. Theorizing Migration

This session was focused on theoretical reflections of migration processes and their interpretations. The 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. 

2. Researching Migration

Researching migration is a practical as well as epistemological and political issue. The session posed several research methods in order to articulate the possibilities of different approaches. Special emphasis was put on the vitality of the interdisciplinary approach in studying migration and on demonstrations of innovative research approaches. A reviewed volume of the conference papers is being published in English language.

Program of the conference:

Csaba Szaló: Transnational Migrations: Cross-Border Ties, Homes, and Theories, 
Jaanika Kingumets: Journey on Forefront: Diversifying Perceptions on Time and Space in International Migration
Radka Klvaňová: Conceptualizing Inclusion/Exclusion of Migrants in a Transnational Perspective: Ways of Belonging and Non-belonging in a Transnational Social Field
Any Correia Freitas and Philippe Lacour: Reconsidering the “Discoursive Turn” in Social Sciences and Immigration Research
Václav Štětka: Imaginary Homelands: Diasporic Media Spaces and Consumption Practices
Lydia Morris: Managing Migration: Civic Stratification and Migrants´ Rights 
Alice Szczepaniková:  The Practice of Everyday Depoliticization: Relations of Power and Gendered Performances in NGO assistance to Refugees
Mojgan Rahbari: The Marginalized Integration Accounts of Foreign-trained Professional Migrants in Canada: an Analysis of Structural and Institutional Barriers to Integration
Heikki Kerkkanen: Cultural Governmentality in Finnish Integration Policy

Graeme Hugo: Circular Migration and Development: An Asia-Pacific Perspective
Damir Josipovič: Statistical Adaptation to Migration Data: The Post-socialist Perspective
Michal Růžička: Roma Migrations in Post-socialist Czecho-Slovakia
Stefan Rother: “Transnational Political Spaces”: Political Activism of Philippine Labor Migrants in Hong Kong
Wojciech Janicki: New European Post-national Society: Questioning Internal-international Migration Dichotomy