Conference : Controlling migrations in Europe. Challenges to Human Rights and the Rule of Law.

The Observatory of Criminal System and Human Rights (University of Barcelona), in cooperation with the Centre of European Policy Studies, the European Association for Research on Transformation and the University of Utherch, is pleased to invite you to the Conference on«Controlling migrations in Europe. Challenges to Human Rights and the Rule of Law».The event will take place at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona on the 29th and 30th of May 2008.

In this Conference we will address certain aspects of contemporary policies that aim at controlling the cross-border movement of individuals, such as securitization, detention and the production of «illegality», and the way in which Human Rights and the rule of law feature (or fail to feature) in these policies. The conference will bring together civil society actors and academics to exchange views on these themes.

The language of the conference will be English and Spanish with simultaneous interpretation.

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Venue: Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), Montalegre, 5 , 08001 Barcelona.

Dates: 29-30 May 2008

PROGRAM

Thursday 29th May

16:00 WELCOME AND PRESENTATION

Josep Ramoneda (CCCB Director)

Roberto Bergalli (President of the International Scientific Committee of the OPSHR)

Sergio Carrera (CEPS Head of Section & Research Fellow)

THEMATIC SESSION I

Securitization of EU migration policies

Contemporary European migration policies are deeply influenced by the requirements of market and security. They focus simultaneously on the promotion and facilitation of regular, temporary migration related to the needs of the European labor market, as well as on the fight against «illegal» immigration. The EU has strengthened its external borders in order to face security demands. New regulations and agencies have been introduced to control migration and restrict the possibilities to migrate from certain countries. As a result, actual border control takes place far away from the geographical boundaries of the EU Member States. Where then can we draw the boundaries of their sovereignty?

16:30-18:00 Panel 1. European borders: legal, institutional and strategic controlling mechanisms

Chair: Héctor Silveira (OPSHR)

 FRONTEX view on Illegal Immigration. Gil Arias Fernández (Frontex Deputy Executive Director)

 European Parliament’s view on the EU System on Border Control and Frontex. Ignasi Guardans (European Parliament)

 The Abolition of Internal Border Checks in an Enlarged Schengen Area: Freedom of movement or a scattered web of security checks? Anaïs Faure Atger (CEPS)

18:30-20:00Panel 2. Migration policies and Human Rights

Chair: Galina Cornelise (University of Utrech)

 Borders of Migration in the liminal spaces of the EU-African borderlands. Joris Schapendonk (Nijmegen Centre for Border Research)

 Externalization of immigration control and human rights. The making off of «illegals». Jean Eric Malabre (GISTI- Groupe d’information et de soutien des immigrés)

 Placing human rights in the centre of Spanish immigration policy: challenges. Itziar Ruíz-Giménez Arrieta (President of the Spanish section of International Amnesty)

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Friday 30th May

THEMATIC SESSION II

Denied citizenship

The consequences of the tightening of border control regime affect millions of people, namely the large social segment of undocumented migrants living and working in the EU without any or hardly any legal entitlements. They are estimated to form an invisible «nation» of eight million people, who are not considered as a part of the community but that functionally represent an indispensable part of European social and economic development.

10:00-11:30 Panel 1. Otherness and denied citizenship

Chair: Alejandra Manavella (OPSHR)

 Premises of Otherness: Sacer, Alter, Utilis. Michalis Lianos(University of Rouen)

 Political implications of sonorous discourses on «immigration» in Spain. Enrique Santamaría (Autonomous University Barcelona)

 Trends in the criminalization of shadow migrants: What are reliable indicators? Peter Lock(EART)

12:00-13:30 Panel 2. Changes of migration patterns in response to the securitization of the EU-border regime

Chair: Peter Lock (EART)

 Changes of migration patterns in response to the securitization of the EU-border regime. The cases of Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. Ingrid Oswald(Humbolt University Berlin) and Ulrike Borchardt(University of Hamburg)

 Hanging in between. Factors influencing the acculturation orientation of migrants with special reference to Germany. Adelheid Iken(University of Aplied Sciences)

 Migration patterns in the successor states of the Soviet Union and their impact on European migration systems. Viktor Voronkov (Centre for Independent Social Research in Saint Petersburg -CISR)

THEMATIC SESSION III

16:00-18:30 Migrants confinement: the complicity and collapse of the Rule of Law

The confinement of migrant people is a key instrument for migration management in all EU Member States. Its existence ensures both the prevention of irregular entry and the physical or juridical expulsion of «irregular» immigrants. The practice of immigration detention as it is developing in contemporary Europe seems to be in direct contradiction with some of the basic values upon which historically (or more precisely: symbolically), modern European democracies have been built. Their implementation thus challenges concepts such as constitutionalism, human rights or democracy itself. It is arguable that the existence of «no-rights zones» such as the immigration prison supposes the acceptation and complicity of the Rule of Law. As such, immigration detention raises questions with regard to the very notion of fundamental rights of those that cross the border of the nation state without its permission.

Chair: Cristina Fernández (OPSHR)

 The EU Detention Machine. Federico Rahola(University of Genoa)

 Immigration Detention: an Agenda for Research. Galina Cornelisse(University of Utrecht)

 Immigration Detention and the Rule of Law. Daniel Wilsher(City University London)

 The «Rule of Law» as a Form of Government: Internment of Illegal Immigrants in the European Union and in France. Nicolas Fischer (École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris)

19:00- 20:30 CLOSING CONFERENCE

 Migratory policies, Rule of Law and citizenship. Javier de Lucas (University of Valencia)

Organized by: Challenge Project (Observatory of the Penal System and Human Rights, University of Barcelona (OPSHR); Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS); European Association for Research on Transformation (EART); Utrecht University) and Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB)

Scientific and Administrative Coordination: OPSHR (Héctor Silveira Gorski, Alejandra Manavella Suárez, Cristina Fernández Bessa, Alejandro Forero)

Contact: spps@ub.edu

Download the programm at PDF format

Programm Conference : Controlling migrations in Europe