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The words and things of migration

Date November 10, 2022

Time 10:00 AM EST - 3:15 PM EST/3 PM - 8:15 PM CES

Location Hybrid (In person at CERC Migration office / online via Zoom)

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A workshop organized by Anna Triandafyllidou, Amin Moghadam and Younès Ahouga, Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Migration and Integration

10:00 AM EST - 3:15 PM EST/3 PM - 8:15 PM CES

Contemporary migrations have come to be represented by a myriad of words and things that reflect its complexity. From irregular migration, diversity, nation and culture, to consumer goods, artistic works, detention centres and biometric technologies, the words and things concerning migration can influence political narratives, provide building blocks for administrative or legal practices, even shape knowledge itself and much more. This international workshop looks at the modalities, conditions and power relations which sustain their production and circulation across various sociopolitical contexts, geographical areas and scales.

Specifically, the workshop seeks to address the following questions:

  • What are the political and social processes that produce and circulate the words and things of migration?
  • What are the effects of the words and things of migration on how we understand the world, interact and define our identity?
  • What are the material conditions of the words of migration? What are the discursive conditions underpinning the production of the things of migration?

The workshop will foster a dialogue between studies concerned with the systems of meanings, terminologies, vocabularies, languages and discourses of migration, on the one hand, and studies that investigate the objects, artefacts, technical assemblages and materiality of migration on the other. Our discussions will highlight that the imaginaries, practices, policies and knowledge of migration are rooted both in words and networks of practices, institutions and material realities.

This conference will be delivered in French with English simultaneous translation provided on Zoom.

PROGRAM
9-10 AM EST Welcome reception
10-10:30 AM EST Opening speech and introduction of the workshop, Anna Triandafyllidou, Amin Moghadam and Younès Ahouga (CERC Migration, Toronto Metropolitan University)
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM EST

Panel 1 - Migrations, objects and materialities  

Chair and discussant: Janine Dahinden, University of Neuchâtel

  • Alexandra Galitzine-Loumpet (CESSMA - Paris Cité University, Convergence Institute Migrations), Objects as migrating passwords, subjects and things  (PDF file) Abstract
  • Hadrien Dubucs (Sorbonne University – Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi), Materialities of migrants’ practices and visibility in urban spaces: Perspectives on Paris-Abu-Dhabi  (PDF file) Abstract
  • Younès Ahouga (CERC Migration, Toronto Metropolitan University), The International Organization for Migration and the Surveillance Technologies of the Displaced Populations of the South: the case of the International Organization for Migration  (PDF file) Abstract
12:30-1 PM EST Lunch break
1-3 PM EST

Panel 2 - Migrations, languages and life narratives

Chair and discussant: Emmanuelle Le Pichon-Vorstman (University of Toronto – OISE)

  • Suzanne Huot (University of British Columbia) and Luisa Veronis (University of Ottawa), The third-spaces and the politics of belonging: Francophone immigration to Francophone minority communities in Canada  (PDF file) Abstract
  • Monika Jezak, Luisa Veronis and Anne Lechowicz (University of Ottawa), The added value of bilingualism: Arm wrestling between French and English in Ontario  (PDF file) Abstract
  • Myriam Richard (University of Montreal), Family reunification for refugees: Empirical perspectives on the effects of the process on family members settled in Canada and elsewhere in the world  (PDF file) Abstract
3-3:30 PM EST Reflections and concluding remarks from Amin Moghadam and Younès Ahouga
Cliquez ici pour voir le programme en français

Presented in partnership with:

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