Security Insecurity and Migration in Europe

Organised by IMEPO (Hellenic Migration Policy Institute) and the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Leicester.

Venue: University of Leicester, 18-19 September 2009 

The end of the Cold War division of Europe and the recent enlargement of the European Union (EU) have generated new, complex forms of population movement and have reconfigured refugee and asylum issues. The forces that determine these movements are powerful (for example, growing disparities in the level of prosperity and human security experienced by different societies), and in the current economic climate, the ability to modify them is limited. The national states and supra-national institutions of Europe have been presented with massive challenges as they have sought to grapple with the evolution of new forms of mobility and migration within and into the EU and its western satellites. These unfolded against the continuing redefinition of relations with the non-European world. These complex and shifting forms of population movement both questioned established notions of identity and citizenship and created challenges for different scales of governance in both sending and receiving states in the light of emerging divergences between the interests of migrants and states trying to control their entry as well as between governments, NGOs and civil society.

After the events of the 9/11 security concerns are high on national and international agendas, including in the context of the movement of people.   Migration issues, having often been framed in terms of security concerns, they have simultaneously given rise to issues of insecurity: on the one hand, security of borders, political, societal and economic security/insecurity in the host country; while on the other hand, concerns about human security, that is social, legal, economic and other conditions of (in)security for EU citizens and for migrants who enter or have entered Europe.  In terms of state security, migration is a core target of increasingly globally networked surveillance capabilities. In terms of human security, it exposes the gap between the protections that migrants formally enjoy under international law and the realities they experience as they travel and work across different countries and hence a human rights deficit.

Hence, irregular migration poses difficult challenges for states as well as exposing migrants to insecurity and vulnerability. This conference will discuss both the concerns of states in this respect and the need to protect the fundamental rights of migrants. Against this background, the conference aims to explore a number of related themes:

o    The dilemmas involved in framing policy-making on migration in Europe.

o    The implications of the securitisation of migration and migrants.

o    The extent to which irregular migration constitutes a real or perceived threat to state security and human security.

o    Migration, economic in/securities and the informalisation of European labour markets.

o    Migration, societal in/securities and rise of racism and xenophobia in Europe.

o    The living conditions and security needs of migrants in European countries.

o    Processes of inclusion/exclusion.

o    Gender and Migration.

o    Role of social capital in negotiating spaces of control.

o    Human trafficking as a threat to security; who is insecure?

o    Politics of diversity and multiculturalism.

o    Migrants as objects of globally networked surveillance.

o    The implications of state structures and institutional capabilities for the migration-security balance sheet.

Organisation: Registration fee: £130 (this includes conference package including papers presented at the conference, coffee breaks and lunches, reception and conference dinner). Student subsidized fee: £95. Further information can be obtained from Ms Jane Russell. Email jer13@leicester.ac.uk 

Proposals for papers with one page abstract should be sent by 30 May 2009 to Dr. Lazaridis. Email  gl36@leicester.ac.uk