Seminar Series on Forced Migration with Sandro Mezzadra

2022-10-05 - 2022-11-05

You are invited to the first Seminar Series on Forced Migration event of this academic year! We will open the Seminar Series with a talk by Prof. Sandro Mezzadra (University of Bologna), titled “Forced immobility and forced mobility during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Rethinking the notion of forced migration”. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, October 19, 2022 starting at 4pm CET (Vienna time) and will be held online. Everyone is welcome and please find the registration here. Below, you will find the abstract for the talk and attached is the poster.

The Seminar Series on Forced Migration is part of Europe-Asia Research Platform on Forced Migration at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM) and Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (CRG); and is hosted at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna.

The Seminar Series brings speakers from different disciplines to discuss topics ranging from changing regimes and forms of governance of migrants/refugees; the solidarity networks and demands for social justice as entangled with increasing inequalities, austerity politics, and racism; the institutional components regulating and managing different forms of displacement; incorporation and exclusion of refugees and migrants from labor markets and protection regimes along the lines of gender, race, religion, and work.

Please kindly forward to your colleagues, networks, institutions, and those who may be interested.

Forced immobility and forced mobility during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Rethinking the notion of forced migration

In the global conjuncture of pandemic and war, borders and mobilities continue to play key roles in the mutations of politics and society, states and capitalism. Based on a project I am currently pursuing with Brett Neilson, I will focus in particular on the shifts characterizing the management of borders and movements of migration since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. I will describe the combination of forced immobility and mobility that shapes migrant experiences in different parts of the world, well beyond the terms of the debate on forced migration, which focuses on refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons. I will also pay attention to the multiplication and further heterogenization of borders during the pandemic, and I will analyze such trend in the framework of processes of renationalization, financialization, and platformization that were in train before the outbreak. While I will tackle the question of mobility even beyond migration, focusing on logistical techniques and technologies that govern the global circulation of people and things, I will conclude harking back to movements and struggles of migration with an empirical attention to China, India, the Americas, and the Mediterranean.

Looking forward to seeing you at the event!

Best regards,

Ana Cukovic

Coordinator

Europe-Asia Research Platform on Forced Migration at University of Vienna

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