Call for papers FIFTH CHALLENGE TRAINING SCHOOL Migration, Visas and Asylum: Social, legal, political and economic issues

Venue: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Place du Congrès 1, B-1000 Brussels – Conference Room

Dates: 18 & 19 April 2008

The Centre of European Policy Studies (CEPS) is organising the Fifth CHALLENGE Training School on«Migration, Visas and Asylum: Social, Legal, Political and Economic Issues».The event will take place at CEPS on the 18 & 19 April 2008. You may find attached to this e-mail the detailed Call for Papers. CEPS invites submission of Proposals for Papers addressing the conference’s theme no later than 21 February 2008.

Since Maastricht, the issue of a common EU policy on the movement of third-country nationals into and across the EU has made its way steadily up the political agenda. The issue finds itself high on the priority lists of nearly all EU Council presidencies and forms part of the Strategic Objectives of the Barroso Commission. Yet the ‘migration dossier’ is highly complex as it comprises a considerable number of different facets, making it nearly impossible to find a «one size fits all» approach. It is a cross-cutting policy that touches on many areas: social policy, diversity and social cohesion, economy and employment, demography, education, security and border control, human rights and human dignity, external affairs and development, to name just a few. On top of all, it is an issue deeply rooted in the national sphere and nation states have been keen on maintaining their sovereignty over these questions.

After the European Union had been assigned competence to play a role in this field, it has exerted a significant activity. Its current rationale is framed in a policy labelled the «Global Approach to Migration» and steps are well underway in the realization of this policy. At the same time, the first phase of a common EU asylum policy has been finalized and its second phase is already at the door step. Similarly, in the field of economic migration, the Commission has tabled its first legislative proposals, keeping its timetable set in the 2005 Policy Plan on Legal Migration. Yet again, due to its cross-cutting nature, also at EU level, «migration» is addressed in many ways and by many actors, providing an ever changing picture. While it appears in one document as a necessary component to achieve the Lisbon Strategy objectives and may be cheered in another as a source of inspiration for the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, it is simultaneously perceived as a threat by the EU’s counter-terrorism and security policies urging for measure to control mobility more effectively. This may be seen by some as contradictory or as a further proof of incoherency of EU policies. On the other hand, one may perceive this incoherency a merely a mirror of the immense complexity of mobility and diversity in a «globalising» world.

Either way, the «immigration dossier» provides ample room for academic assessment and reflection. Yet in order to understand the phenomenon and its implication as well as the efforts undertaken to «respond», to «manage» or to «control» it better, interdisciplinarity appears indispensable. This two-day training school seeks to address the various issues and questions related to «migrations» exactly from such an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective focusing on theories, concepts, laws, discourses, practices, actors, implications (social, legal, political, economic, etc.). CEPS invites submission of Proposals for Paperscovering any of the related issues and questions.

For more information about the JHA Section at CEPS you may visit: http://www.ceps.eu/Article.php?article_id=16

Download the call for papers at PDF format

FIFTH CHALLENGE TRAINING SCHOOL Migration, Visas and Asylum: Social, legal, political and economic issues