14-15 November 2019
Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
The conference addresses different meanings and concrete practices of solidarity, participation, and politics and their effects in the context of global mobility and ethnic relations. Today, the overall question of migration has become extremely politicized and views concerning it are polarized. In particular, populism and far-right activism manipulate the issue to promote ethno-nationalist agendas across the globe. These developments have fed into policies that rely on violence at the borders, abjection of people on the move and the negligence of their human rights. Predominant responses among states across the European Union and more globally rely on enhanced surveillance of borders, tightened criteria for entry and stay as well as hierarchical categorizations of those living inside Europe. At the same time, there are calls for policies that would support the development of more inclusive societies, respect for human rights and solidarity. Inclusive participation and solidarity are indeed described as ways to enhance equality among diversely positioned people or as antidotes to the crisis of democracy. Hence, questions of global mobility and ethnic relations touch societies profoundly at multiple levels and in diverse ways ranging from mundane relations and encounters to the principle of rule of law and social justice.
Confirmed keynote speakers are Dr. Prem Kumar Rajaram (Central European University, Vienna, Austria), Dr. Elisa Pascucci (University of Helsinki, Finland), and Dr. Nira Yuval-Davis (University of East London, UK).