Jean Monnet Postgraduate Summer School in Migration and Refugee Studies

Introduction to the Summer Course

In this introductory session the course conveners will welcome the participants, give an introduction to the course, its aims and objectives, format, and requirements to receive the certificate of participation. The session will also discuss the meaning of the words ‘migrant’ and ‘refugee’, and will analyse related concepts. It will also be an opportunity for participants to get to know one-another and start developing their international network of contacts.

• Professor Jeremy MacClancy, Anthropology
• Dr Esteban Devis-Amaya, Spanish and Latin America Studies

Documentary Filmmaking and Migration: an overview

This session will provide an introduction to various uses of documentary filmmaking to document, narrate, and discuss migration. It will focus on recent productions that stemmed from recent debates around the "migration crisis" in the EU, covering examples from mainstream, activist, and migrant cinema. Students will be encouraged to reflect on questions of (self)representation, and the impact of media on public discussions surrounding migrants' lives.

• Dr Dalila Missero, Performing and Media Arts

Inter-organisational collaborations supporting migrants' labour market access

This session examines individual and interactive activities among organisations supporting migrants and refugees into work. It uses the notion of ‘ecologies’ to make sense of the dynamic support landscape and it examines the common goals and disparate interests of the various actors involved. The session explores how diverse resource capacities, activity scope and stakeholder focus shapes organisations' interactions and cooperation.

• Professor Peter Lugosi, Culture and Organisation

Understanding precarious and undocumented migration: UK case

This lecture will explore the sociological dimensions of different forms of precarious migration in the UK context. It will address issues and debates surrounding the categories ‘trafficked’, ‘illegal’, ‘modern slaves’ and ‘asylum seeker’ and discuss how these impact upon migrants’ social status, access to rights and resources, and protection in the UK. We will then explore how experiences of being undocumented raise important questions about the effectiveness of current migration policies and categories.

• Dr Tamsin Barber, Sociology

Government Policies on Immigration: A Historical Perspective

This session will consider the issues relating to immigration that concerned early modern English governments. These included fears of religious extemism, political radicalism as well as the economic impact. It will also reflect on those immigrants who were welcomed and those who were regarded as a problem by the authorities. By providing a historical overview of migration, this session will demonstrate that the anxieties of current governments were not so different from those held by monarchs and their ministers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

• Professor Andrew Spicer , Early Modern European History

Course participant group discussion: Presentation preparation

Course participants meet in groups to discuss the cross-disciplinary presentation they'll be making on Friday afternoon: what to read for it, how to approach the topic, etc. The discussion will be chaired by Oxford Brookes University Supervisors.

Immigration detention across the EU

In this session we will explore the use of Immigration Detention across Europe. The use of administrative detention has been growing across the EU, and shows no sign of stopping. In this session we will explore the justification and purpose of immigration detention, alongside the experience of detention for individuals. We will learn about alternatives to detention, and discuss the merits and potential complications of abolitionism.

• Dr Alice Gerlach, Criminology

Shifting power dynamics for vulnerable EU citizens working in the UK – the struggle between rights and exploitation

This session addresses broader normative implications for EU law questioning whether Union citizenship can justify work exploitation in host Member States. Many EU citizens are victims of labour exploitation across the EU. They are frequently citizens at the margins of society and very vulnerable to exploitation. Nevertheless, they are often integrated into the small and medium businesses which play such an important role in urban society, as well as the local and national economy. By taking an in-depth, intersectional analysis on EU citizens’ labour conditions across various sectors in the UK, this paper questions whether this phenomenon, which is spread across various Member States can be reconciled with EU citizenship rights and fundamental rights. The UK is analysed as a case study to reflect on the dynamics and implications of Brexit on EU citizens who are vulnerable to exploitation

• Professor Sonia Morano-Foadi, European Law

Digital Migration: ICT-Mediated Experiences and Interactions in Migration Across Smart Borders

Scholarship in the field of border studies has, in recent times, focused primarily on the way digital technologies are increasingly used in surveillance, to control and manage migration (Nalbandian, 2022) and track migrated bodies after border crossings (Aradau & Tazzioli 2020; Chouliaraki & Georgiou, 2022; Ahouga, 2022). In this lecture and seminar, we will take a complementary approach, investigating how refugees and other migrants make use of information and communications technology (ICT) to find information and contacts to aid their migration journeys, form communities, and negotiate digitised ‘smart’ borders (Dekker et al., 2018; Nedelcu and Soysüren, 2022). This means that migrants are positioned as agents rather than passive victims. The lecture will draw on research conducted for the prestigious Horizon 2020 project PERCEPTIONS, to examine how ICT mediates diverse experiences and interactions within extended migration infrastructures.

• Dr Karen Hough, Independent Scholar

Student presentations

Course participants each provide a cross-disciplinary presentation