Afghan Migration: Global and Local Perspectives
4th November 2021, Thursday 16.30 – 20.00
Organizers: IFEA & GAR
Afghan Migration: Global and Local Perspectives
4th November 2021, Thursday 16.30 – 20.00
Organizers: IFEA & GAR
Register: https://forms.gle/AwtxqresgXLApe3aA
Afghan migration has re-appeared on the political agenda and public media, following the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in August 2021. In the contexts of Turkey and Europe, this coincided with the rise in hate discourse and anti-refugee sentiments. The hostile attitude towards in host countries did not hinder movement, as thousands of Afghans struggle to escape from the political instability in their country. In fleeing, they join the 2.2 million Afghan refugees already settled in neighboring countries.
The Afghan exodus necessitates a deeper understanding that takes into consideration both global and local perspectives. For this aim, IFEA and GAR jointly organize a half day event (in hybrid format) in order to better discuss multiple aspects of Afghan migration. Our objective is to shed light on Afghan migrants’ present situation and future prospects with the participation of experts on these topics.
The event starts with a panel composed (in order of appearance) of Prof. Orhan Deniz, Dr. Sibel Karadağ and Dr. Angeliki Dimitriadi who will discuss the situation of Afghan migrants at different points of their migration journey, namely in Van, Istanbul, and Greece, respectively. It will be followed by a keynote speech by Prof. Alessandro Monsutti, who will provide a tour du monde on Afghan mobilities based on his more than two decades of research in this field.
Simultaneous Turkish-English translation will be provided during the conference.
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
16.30-16.45 – Welcome speech
16.45-17.45 PANEL
Prof. Orhan Deniz (Van 100. Yıl Üniv)
Border crossing practices of Afghan migrants in Van and their strategies to hold on in the city
Dr. Sibel Karadağ (Kadir Has Univ & GAR)
Ghosts of Istanbul: Afghans at the Margins of Precarity
Dr. Angeliki Dimitriadi (ELIAMEP) – The situation in Greece
In limbo and unwanted: Afghan refugees in Greece
16.45- 18.15 – Q&A
18.15-18.30 – Pause
18.30-19.15 – Keynote speech : Alessandro Monsutti
“Homo itinerans: Towards a Global Ethnography of Afghan Mobilities”
19.15- 20.00 – Q&A
19.45-20.00 – Closing remarks
Border crossing practices of Afghan migrants in Van and their strategies to hold on in the city
Prof. Orhan Deniz (Van Yüzüncü Yıl Univ.)
After graduating from Atatürk University, Department of Geography, Deniz has been working at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Department of Geography since 1993. Deniz became Assistant Professor in 2003; Associate Professor in 2011 and Professor in 2016. He continues his studies mainly on irregular migration and security. He pioneered the establishment of the Population and Migration Research Center at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University in order to institutionalize migration research in Van, which has been an important crossroads of international migration for many years. He also took an active role in the establishment of the General Directorate of Migration Management. Deniz, who still works as the Dean of the Faculty of Letters and the Director of the Population and Migration Research Center at the university, continues his studies on the geographical structure of Turkey’s eastern border, the relationship between the geographical structure of the border and irregular migration flows, migrant networks, the actors of migration and security.
Ghosts of Istanbul: Afghans at the Margins of Precarity
Sibel Karadağ (Kadir Has University – GAR)
Sibel Karadağ is an assistant professor at Kadir Has University, Department of Political Science and Public Administration. She is also 2021/2022 Mercator-IPC Fellow. Karadağ received her PhD from Koç University in 2020, with the dissertation titled “Monitoring Migration, Governing Borders in the Aegean Sea: An Ethnographic Study of Practices, Subjectivities and Narratives”. After completing her doctoral research, she worked as postdoc at MiReKoc within the Horizon 2020 ADMIGOV project, and simultaneously pursued her research under GAR. During the 2018/2019 academic year, she was a Fulbright Fellow at Yale University. Her interests lie mainly in critical security and border studies, migration and mobility, politics of humanitarianism, sovereignty and citizenship, social and political theory. Karadağ received her BA in Social and Political Science and MA in European Studies from Sabancı University as well as a MSc in Social Policy from LSE with Jean Monnet Scholarship.
In limbo and unwanted: Afghan refugees in Greece
Angeliki Dimitriadi (ELIAMEP)
Angeliki Dimitriadi is Senior Research Fellow at ELIAMEP. She is a political scientist interested in irregular migration and asylum, and the interplay between migratory movement and policies of deterrence and protection. Her research looks on Europe, particularly the front-line countries and countries of transit (Turkey).She was Visiting Fellow in residence on migration and asylum policy at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in Berlin between October 2015 and April 2016. She has published articles in referred journals and is the author of two monographs with most recent on “Afghan migration Europe: at the margins, looking in” (Palgrave, 2018).
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Homo itinerans: Towards a Global Ethnography of Afghan Mobilities
Alessandro Monsutti (the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies)
Alessandro Monsutti is Professor at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. He has been Research Fellow at Yale University (2008-2010), Grantee of the MacArthur Foundation (2004-2006), and Visiting Professor/Scholar in Residence at the University of Vienna (2012, 2021), Arizona State University, Tempe (2014), and Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Vienna (2020). He is also Research Associate at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, and International Fellow at the Institut Convergences Migrations, Paris. In addition, he has worked as a consultant for several international and nongovernmental organisations such as UNHCR. He has conducted multi-sited research since the mid-1990s in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. He has subsequently broadened the geographical scope of his research to include Afghans migrating to Western countries. Among his current research interests: the political economy of reconstruction in Afghanistan as an example of emerging forms of sovereignty and global governance; asylum seekers and refugees in Europe; migrants and non-migrants in urban neighbourhoods; the changing nature of borderlands in Europe and South Asia.
