Refugee protection and the European civil society

A scientific workshop on refugee protection will be held in Budapest in early May 2017 with the aim of publishing an edited volume.

Refugee protection and the European civil society
Workshop and publication

Organized by:

• Hungarian Academy of Sciences,Centre for Social Sciences;
• Central European University, Centre for Policy Studies and Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology;
• Ruhr University, Bochum Department of Sociology,
• with the support of International Sociological Association Research Committee 31 Sociology of Migration

The workshop is a follow-up event to a panel "The Mediterranean Refugee Disaster and the EU" at the 3rd Conference of International Sociological Association, 13 July 2016, Vienna.

Timeline:

• Submitting chapter proposals (800-1000 words) by 30 January 2017
• Submitting draft chapters by 1 May 2017. Participation at the workshop is solicited only with draft chapters (min. 5000 words).
• Submitting final chapters by 30 September 2017
• Submitting the book manuscript to the selected publisher by 30 December 2017

Chapter proposals and other correspondence please send to the following address: refugee.civic@tk.mta.hu.

Rationale:

Current forms of transnational forced migration have considerably shaped societies along migration routes. Media and state reactions, as well as the increased hostility and xenophobia among segments of the population, have received wide scholarly attention. Much less is known about phenomena related to refugee protection in the sense of assistance, care and solidarity towards forced migrants, immediate aid at transit and reception points (including food, housing, health services and legal assistance) as well as support for migrants' later incorporation in host societies, which have all become major terrains of civic engagement in Europe.

Different forms of institutional, collective or individual acts of refugee protection, their relation towards forced migrants themselves and their influence on larger social and political processes, have only recently become a focus of analysis. Most refugee related research in social sciences in Europe is focused on the political system of (lack of) refugee protection. Many studies relate to the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) and the unwillingness or incapacity of EU member states to agree on sharing responsibility in refugee protection. In this context, refugee-related informal and organisational networks of civil society activities attempt to fill the gap that exists between formal declarations of refugee protection (like the CEAS) and the actual national and European polities and policies.

Event convenors:

• Ludger Pries (Bochum University);
• Margit Feischmidt, Ildiko Zakarias (Hungarian Academy of Sciences);
• Celine Cantat, Prem Kumar Rajaram, Violetta Zentai (CEU)

Call for papers (Download)