Europe’s Borderlands

Migration, trafficking and regional integration in interdisciplinary perspective

International Graduate Student Conference
UCLA, 8^th-10^th May, 2008

Organized by Adrian Favell and Gail Kligman
UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies

In the wake of twin enlargements (2004 and 2007) and the ever expansive effects of the European Neighbourhood Policy, borders and the movements across which define them, have changed forever in Europe. Whether in terms of everyday travel between Poland and Germany, illicit trade and trafficking at the Ukraine-Romania border, people smuggling from Albania to Italy, or the maintenance of an offshore European wall against migration in Ceuta, Morocco, Europe’s edges have never been fuzzier or more contested. They also provide a guide to other areas of the world undergoing regional integration processes that engender mass migration and mobility across borders, including the US-Latin American borderlands.

Bringing together a set of advanced graduate students for three days at UCLA, Europe's Borderlands aims to facilitate new interdisciplinary research on migration, borders and trafficking, as well as building a network of young Europeanists in North America and Europe working on these subjects. The conference includes an exclusive showing of an Italian documentary film about African migrants and their harsh journey towards Europe, and a keynote presentation from French CNRS political scientist Virginie Guiraudon about the effects of EU policies on its borders and neighbors.

Conference Program

Day 1 – Thursday, May 8, 2008

6:30-7:30pm   Film “A sud di Lampedusa” by Andrea Segre at the Italian Culture Institute, Introduction by Adrian Favell

Day 2 – Friday, May 9, 2008

9:00-11:00am  Panel 1, Borderlands: Ethnographic and Sociological Studies,10383 Bunche Hall

11:10-11:30     Coffee break

11:30-1:00       Keynote Speaker, Virginie Guiraudon, 10383 Bunche Hall

“Ever closer Union, ever further borders? The costs of European border policies and the consequences for EU legitimacy”

1:00-2:30pm   Lunch, box lunches, 10383 Bunche Hall

2:30-4:20         Panel 2, Immigration & Labor Markets, 10383 Bunche Hall

4:20-4:40         Coffee break

4:40-6:00         Panel 3, Trafficking & Sex Work, 10383 Bunche Hall

Day 3 – Saturday, May 10, 2008

8:00-9:00am   Breakfast, 306 Royce Hall

9:00-10:50       Panel 4, Remittances & Impacts of ENP, 306 Royce Hall

10:50-11:10     Coffee break

11:10- 1:00      Panel 5, Africa and the EU, 306 Royce Hall

1:00-2:30pm   Lunch, 306 Royce Hall

Discussion Panels

FRIDAY

1. Borderlands: Ethnographic and Sociological Studies– discussant, Ruben Hernandez-Leon (UCLA Sociology)

Friday, 5/9/08, 9:00–11.00am, 10383 Bunche Hall

·         Andrew Asher (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Anthropology)

Schengen's Excluded: Third Country Nationals and EU Citizenship Regimes on the Polish-German Border

·         Nicola Buecker (Jacobs University Bremen, Political Science)

EU Border Regions - Laboratories of Social Integration in Europe? The Relevance of "Transnational Social Capital"

·         Tatiana Matejskova (University of Minnesota, Geography)

Post-soviet Migrants in Post-socialist Berlin: Citizenship, Economies of Difference and the Geopolitical in the Everyday

·         Anna Virkama (Finnish Graduate School of Education and Learning)

Changing Picture of a Moroccan Migrant. The 'Old' and 'New' Migration in Comparative Perspective

2. Immigration & Labor Markets – discussant, Roger Waldinger (UCLA Sociology)

Friday, 5/9/08, 2:30–4:20pm, 10383 Bunche Hall

·         Ina Ganguli (Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government)

Post-Communist Immigration: Testing the Selection Hypotheses for Immigrants in the US and EU

·         Sofya Aptekar (Princeton University, Sociology)

Contexts of exit in the migration of Russian speakers from the Baltic countries to Ireland

·         Micheline Van Riemsdijk (University of Colorado at Boulder, Geography)
Constructions of belonging and exclusion: Positionings of Polish skilled workers in Norway

3. Trafficking & Sex Work – discussant, Gail Kligman (UCLA Sociology)

Friday, 5/9/08, 4:40–6:00pm, 10383 Bunche Hall

·         Jonathan Wadley (University of Florida, Political Science)

“Violence Takes Place in a World without Borders”: Trafficking in Women and the Consequences for EU Legitimacy

·         Antonia Levy (CUNY Graduate Center, Sociology)

New Issues Regarding Sex Workers' Rights in Germany after Decriminalization

·         Mathilde Darley (Institut d’Etudes Politique, Paris)
Prostitution at the Czech-Austrian and Czech-German border

SATURDAY

4. Remittances & Impacts of ENP – discussants, Adrian Favell (UCLA Sociology) & Virginie Guiraudon (CNRS)

Saturday, 5/10/08, 9:00–10:50am, 306 Royce Hall

·         Zvezda Dermendzhieva (Charles University, Prague, Economics)

Migration, Remittances, and Labor Supply in Albania

·         Melissa Siegel (Maastricht Graduate School of Governance)

Immigrant Integration and Remittance Channel Choice

·         Sofya Simonyan (American University of Armenia, Political Science)

The Effects of European Neighborhood Policy on Mobility and Cross-Border Interactions in the South Caucasus

5. Africa and the EU – discussants, Adrian Favell & Virginie Guiraudon

Saturday, 5/10/08, 11:10am–1:00pm, 306 Royce Hall

·         Lorenzo Rinelli (University of Hawaii at Manoa, Political Science)

The Last Frontier: the Role of Libya in European Outsourcing of Migration Control

·         Nora El Qadim (Institut d’Etudes Politique, Paris)

Sub-Saharan Migrants in Morocco: A Geographic Rent?

·         Piotr Plewa (University of Delaware, Political Science)
Circular Migration Between Europe and Africa: Early Lessons from Spain

For more information please contact:

Jim Robbins
Center for European and Eurasian Studies (CEES)
310-825-4060

jrobbins@international.ucla.edu

Sponsor(s): Center for European and Russian Studies, French and Francophone Studies, UCLA Division of Social Sciences, Centre Pluridisciplinaire/Center for the Study of Global France