Skip to Main Content
You are now in the main content area

Migration Working Group – Scholars of Excellence Edition: Migration Brokers in (Im)Mobile Times

Date
October 25, 2022
Time
10:00 AM EDT - 4:00 PM EDT
Location
Hybrid (In person at CERC Migration office / online via Zoom)
MWG Images

The Migration Working Group is a series of monthly sessions to discuss innovative research being done on migration and integration by emerging and established scholars. The series gives researchers an opportunity to present their ongoing projects, learn about each other’s work and share feedback.

In fall 2022, our visiting Scholars of Excellence will be leading day-long workshops. Check our calendar for other workshops taking place in September and November.

Migration Brokers in (Im)Mobile Times

Co-convened by Brenda Yeoh, I. Rajan and Anna Triandafyllidou

Migration governance is a multi-dimensional (social, spatial, temporal) process which develops in non-linear ways. Recent scholarly work has paid increasing attention to the role of intermediaries in regulating migration, whether they act as employment agencies, local brokers or government representatives. This workshop built on this literature and looked to carry it forward in two distinct directions: first, a reflection on whether and how the role of migration brokers is changing in the post-pandemic period; and second, to bring together the study of migration brokers in temporary, less-skilled migration with an analysis of their role in the migration of the highly skilled, including in our reflection international students, artists or athletes. This workshop considered the pandemic as a ‘critical juncture’ that has shaped the role of the migration infrastructure in unexpected ways, while also exploring the interaction between migration infrastructure and migrant agency.

Workshop Agenda
9:30-10 AM EDT Welcome reception
10 AM EDT Welcome: Anna Triandafyllidou, CERC Migration, Toronto Metropolitan University, Brenda Yeoh, National University of Singapore, and Irudaya Rajan, International Institute of Migration and Development 
10:15 AM-12:35 PM EDT Panel 1: Migration brokers and temporary migration regimes in pre-and post-pandemic times
  • Transnational mediated migration: Cross-border recruiters as a pre- and ‘post’pandemic mode of governance of migrant labour regimes in Asia  | Katharine Jones, Coventry University  (PDF file) Abstract
  • Migrant domestic workers and placement agents in the debt-financed migration regime | Brenda Yeoh, National University of Singapore  (PDF file) Abstract
  • The pandemic’s effect on the migration industry in Nepal | Richa Shivakoti, CERC Migration  (PDF file) Abstract
  • Journeying to the city of gold: Migration brokers and the routes of South Asian migrants to South Africa | Pragna Rugunanan, University of Johannesburg  (PDF file) Abstract
12:35-1:30 PM EDT Lunch break
1:30-3:50 PM EDT Panel 2: Migration brokers and temporary skilled migration
  • Brokers as dream sellers: The Indian student experience | Irudaya Rajan, International Institute of Migration and Development  (PDF file) Abstract
  • Foreign students locked out of China: New challenges, new brokers | Heidi Østbø Haugen, University of Oslo  (PDF file) Abstract
  • Value of care: How foreign live-in elder care workers in Germany bargain wage and working time | Magdalena Nowicka, DeZIM-Institute, Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin  (PDF file) Abstract
  • Migration brokers and opera singers before and after Covid-19 | Irina Isaakyan, CERC Migration  (PDF file) Abstract
3:50-4:00 PM EDT Reflections and concluding remarks