Beyond economic contribution: Migrant Identities, Working Lives and Social Embeddedness

We are pleased to announce that the next RSA MICaRD research network event will be hosted jointly by Lincoln International Business School and Lincoln School of Geography.  The deadline for submission of abstracts is extended until 22nd January. 

This symposium aims to foreground migrant perspectives and experiences, and situate these within contemporary debates on migration and the socio-political context of Brexit Britain as well as the broader debates on migration across Europe. Current political, media and scholarly debates on migration overwhelmingly revolve around the quantifiable economic contribution of migrant workers and less around migrant subjectivities, working lives, wellbeing and contribution to local communities.

Through this symposium, we seek to give greater visibility to migrant experiences. Beyond dominant neoliberal discourses, migrants’ contributions go past the economic into the social and local community spheres, aspects that are important for community cohesion but often under-valued in mainstream debates. Migrant lives and identities are shaped and affected – enabled as well as constrained – by spatial contexts and social relationships as well as place-based socio-economic and political structures.

We invite theoretical, empirical and methodological contributions that stretch the focus beyond the economic contribution of migrants, and explore how migrants strive to become embedded in the local environment and play an active role in their workplaces and communities.

The proposed topics may include but are not limited to the following themes:

• Migrant identities and working lives
• Entrepreneurial activities of migrants
• Mobilities and career trajectories
• Gendered and racialised experiences of migrant workers
• Social embeddedness, spatiality and place
• Conducting fieldwork on migrants in rural areas

Timeline

• 15 January 2018 – Deadline for abstract submission – EXTENDED 22nd January
• 15 February 2018 – Abstract acceptance notification. Registration opens
• 15 March 2018 – Preliminary programme to be sent to the contributors
• 10 April 2018 – Registration deadline
• 25-27 April 2018 – Conference

Submission of Abstracts:

• 300 word abstracts words should be submitted via email in Word format to: arydzik@lincoln.ac.uk no later than 15th January 2018
•  We invite conventional papers as well as contributions in visual formats (e.g. film, photography, art exhibitions). We also welcome proposals for workshops
• Contributions from early career researchers and PhD researchers are particularly encouraged
• The following information to be included in the submission:author’s name and institutional affiliations; email address; title of the submission and the theme it fits into; abstract (max. 300 words); when submitting, please include the phrase “MICaRD Lincoln 2018” in the subject line of the email.

Registration fees: £25

Further information:
• For further information about the conference and/or MICaRD email arydzik@lincoln.ac.uk
• For more information on the MICaRD network see: www.regionalstudies.org/networks/network/migrationinter- connectivity-and-regional-development-micard
• For information on the Regional Studies Association visit: www.regionalstudies.org

Event organisers
Dr Gary Bosworth, School of Geography, University of Lincoln, UK
Dr Agnieszka Rydzik, Lincoln International Business School, University of Lincoln, UK
Dr Ruth McAreavey, Newcastle University, UK
Dr Danica Šantić, Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade, Serbia
Dr Adam Ploszaj, Centre for European Regional and Local Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland.