Activities

This Workshop brings together scholars of interdisciplinary backgrounds who work on topics related to forced migration with a particular focus on political mobilisation dynamics. Originating from social movement research, mobilisation denotes sustained collective initiatives to bring about or prevent social or political change, operating outside – yet in close interaction with – formal political institutions, whose orientation and leadership they may directly challenge (Khoshneviss & Benford 2017). Political mobilisation focuses on strategic action by individuals or groups towards extending their support base for aims that are directed towards social change (Mayer 1991). The mobilising actors often are ‘authentic’ groups – those affected by discrimination or injustice (Roose 2013; Shadmehr 2014). The angle of mobilisation research hence allows for studies on the agency of individuals and groups under existential pressure, the exploration of the range and limitations of social and/or political engagement, and the change ensuing movements bring about. It also allows for examining cases where actors make efforts to mobilise groups they consider as being affected from injustice to include them in a social movement (Roose 2013).

This workshop addresses the critique of categories and the debates about them in development research and considers their relevance and utility for forced migration studies (FMS). For this purpose, three critically discussed categories in recent years are used as examples: “global South and global North”, “new actors – self-empowerment and emancipation of marginalised groups”, and “digitalisation”. For better contextualisation, the workshop will be accompanied by a keynote lecture on categorisations in development and FMS.

Taking a comparative perspective, this 2-days workshop aims at recognising trajectories and patterns as well as interdependencies but also notorious blind spots or hegemonic practices of knowledge production and subsequently the identification of new research questions in the field of forced migration and displacement processes from around the globe.

The Turkey Migration Studies Network (TurkMiS) workshop “Advances, Recent Trends and Knowledge Gaps in Forced Migration and Refugee Research in and on Turkey”, was the 10th Anniversary Event of TurkMiS and the 15th International Workshop. It took stock of the achievements of the last decade of knowledge production on refugees in Turkey.

As part of the FFVT-workshop series "Displacement, Immobility and Human Rights", the CHREN is hosting a panel to discuss the results of the European Parliament's "Frontex Scrutiny Working Group".

Participation is open and free of charge, no prior registration is required.

This workshop provided a platform for representatives of academic and policy-oriented forced migration and refugee networks to engage in a dialogue to explore, discuss and critically reflect on questions of structural and content-related cooperation among networks and in international cooperation projects in the field from Southern, Eastern and Northern perspectives. The objective was to identify opportunities and obstacles and to come up with practical steps that we, as a community, can take to work towards more participatory and co-creative approaches in international knowledge cooperation.

In this workshop, the German Network for Forced Migration Studies (NWFF) and FFVT invited networks from around the world working on issues related to forced migration and refugees to come together to find ways to strengthen the development of international partnerships in this field. This first workshop addressed questions about structural and organisational cooperation among the networks.

With this workshop-series, the intersection of displacement, immobility and human rights will be assessed from different dimensions, localities, and including multiple perspectives.

Participation is open and free of charge, no prior registration is required.

As part of the FFVT project, the CHREN organizes a workshop on January 8th of 2021. In this workshop, the new proposals for an EU Migration and Asylum Pact by the EU Commission and the achievements of the German EU Council Presidency in this regard, were discussed in two panels. For the first panel, Prof. Dr. Petra Bendel and Dr. Lorenz Wiese invited Anuscheh Farahat (CHREN), Gerald Knaus (European Stability Initiative) and Daniel Thym (University of Konstanz / SVR), and for the second panel, Luise Amtsberg (MdB, Die Grünen), Lena Düpont (MdEP, CDU), Cornelia Ernst (MdEP, Die Linke), and Birgit Sippel (MdEP, SPD).

In a world of almost 80 million displaced people according to official numbers, forced migration has become a major issue of global development just as much as of humanitarian and political concern. Achieving the global goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations in 2015 will not be possible unless the plight of millions of refugees and the needs of their hosting communities—most of which are located in low- and middle-income countries—are addressed in a more sustainable manner than in the past. Protracted violent conflicts have made secure return a distant prospect in most of today’s major refugee situations. At the same time, resettlement into third countries has also remained a privilege for only a fraction of those displaced. Under these conditions, important international documents, such as the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) adopted by UN member states in 2016, call for a paradigm shift: Instead of keeping refugees in camps, countries are called upon to promote the local integration of displaced people. Several refugee hosting countries, most notably in Africa and the Middle East, have begun to implement this new approach.

As part of the FFVT project, the CHREN organizes a first workshop on July 9th and 10th of 2020. In this workshop, distinguished scientists and politicians address current challenges at the global, European and national levels of asylum, migration, governance and human rights: “Where do the Global Compacts on Migration and Refugees lead to?“ “What ought to be done about the Common European Asylum system?“ “What can reasonably be expected from the German EU Council Presidency, starting in July, in the area of migration and refugees – and in view of Corona?”

1st Workshop on International Research Cooperation of “Forced Migration and Refugee Studies: Networking and Knowledge Transfer” (FFVT)

FFVT aspires to establish sustainable international partnerships with strategically relevant institutions in the medium term. The aim of this first workshop is to initiate a discussion process on how more international visibility of research on refugees and forced migration in Germany can be achieved. Goals and corresponding strategies will be discussed.

The workshop has the aim to explore the intersection of the two research fields „Peace & Conflict Research“ and „Forced Migratin and Refugee Studies“ and to identify areas for future collaboration.