[Discussion] CONF./CFP- Migration Issues in Central Asia & E. Europe, Geneva, Sept/Oct 2004

[sule tarakcioglu]

CONF./CFP- Migration Issues in Central Asia & E. Europe, Geneva,
Sept/Oct 2004

9th International Metropolis Conference
27 September =AD 1 October 2004, Geneva, Switzerland
http://www.metropolis2004.ch

Workshop Invitation:
Managing Migration and Migrant Communities: Views from Sending Countries
in Post-socialist Europe and Central Asia

The next annual conference of Metropolis =AD the international forum for
research and policy on migration issues =AD will be convened later this
year in Geneva (see http://www.metropolis2004.ch). As with previous
Metropolis conferences, this promises to be a significant event bringing
together several hundred policy-makers, civil servants at all levels of
government, and leading academics from around the world.

Key to every annual Metropolis conference are the workshops, where
individuals have the opportunity to meet in smaller groups, hear the
latest research findings and discuss policy developments across a range
of contexts. We write to invite you to make a brief presentation at a
Workshop that we are organizing at the conference, described on the
following page. Among governments in both migrant-sending and
migrant-receiving countries, international agencies and research
institutions, we have recently witnessed an extraordinary growth of
interest in ways of managing migration for development, poverty
reduction and post-conflict reconstruction. Given the range of
Metropolis participants (especially set amongst the international
agencies located in Geneva), this Workshop will likely attract a highly
knowledgeable set of participants who will make for a significant and
stimulating discussion.

We must point out, however, that neither the conference organizers nor
we at our research centre in Oxford can provide the funds for you to
attend the conference. We are hoping that your own institution might
provide these in order for you to make a presentation at this important
venue.

We hope you can accept our invitation, and please do not hesitate to ask
us any question you may have in advance. We look forward to hearing from
you at your earliest opportunity.

COMPAS (Centre on Migration, Policy and Development), University of
Oxford, UK

Managing Migration and Migrant Communities: Views from Sending Countries
in Post-socialist Europe and Central Asia

METROPOLIS CONFERENCE 2004
September 27 - October 1, Geneva

This workshop will gather together research and policy experts working
on post-socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe, and Central
Asia. They will examine the agency of central and particularly local
governments whose migration and development strategies involve not only
raising funds among the diasporas but also managing and creating
migration flows. This workshop will study development policies and their
implementation, as affected by, or impacting upon, international
migration. The focus will be on the successes and failures of home
countries in capturing the developmental potential of either temporary
or permanent migration.

The principal aim is to delineate possibilities for integrative
management which inserts a development perspective into migration
policies and strengthens post-socialist contexts as conducive for the
implementation of sustainable development strategies. This will include
an examination of country and region specific contexts as well as of
overall tendencies in the post-socialist democratic transition in view
of Europeanisation and globalisation processes.

Sending countries' policies and research on migration have rarely been
linked to developmental processes in these countries. A number of
obstacles prevent these links and they will be discussed in the context
of a wide range of socio-economic and political transformations. To name
but a few the lack of promising economic development, uneven
democratisation, stifling elites and weak non-governmental bodies have
prevented positive impacts on migration for development. It remains
unclear how do specific logics of post-socialist transformations embody
a vision of integrating migration and development. How have the
governmental and non-governmental institutions in the home country
hindered or created both intended and unintended financial,
socio-economic and political capital and knowledge that could mobilise
migrants for home country development?

Specific questions will also address the ways in which governments deal
with development and migration issues in the course of democratisation,
liberalisation of markets, peace or conflict processes, economic and
political decentralisation; particular rural-urban dynamics, the growing
feminisation of migration, (the possibility of) increased return
migrations, and the multiple effects of brain drain. Particular
attention will be paid to migration legislation, local and national
economic reforms and business programs, labour exchange programs, social
policies, regional and cross-border cooperation, as well as to
strategies employed by governments and NGOs as catalysts in the
re-involvement of temporary migrants and emigres through integration in
virtual or face-to-face networks.

Chairs/discussants:

Frank Pieke, COMPAS, University of Oxford
IOM Representative, Geneva

Organisers:

Dimitrina Mihaylova and Frank Pieke
COMPAS (Centre on Migration, Policy and Society)
University of Oxford
58 Banbury Road, Oxford OX1 3JA
United Kingdom
Tel. 0044 1865 27 47 11
Fax: 0044 1865 27 47 18

E-mail:
Dimitrina.Mihaylova@linacre.ox.ac.uk
Frank.Pieke@compas.ox.ac.uk

Distrib. by: Central-Eurasia-L - Announcement List for Central Eurasian
Studies