Migration and asylum in the Americas: interdisciplinary perspectives

People have migrated throughout the Americas for centuries. Today we are seeing the continuation of such mobility trends, but restricted by migration and asylum policies, (in)formal controls, precarity, violence and insecurity. Nevertheless, where there is oppressive power there is resistance. Migrants and refugees are not only subjects of violence, as agents, they resist, transform, and advance their goals.

This afternoon interdisciplinary panels, conversations and art installations aim to create spaces where scholars, practitioners, students, and people with lived experience of migration can expand their knowledge about migration and asylum dynamics in the Americas. The event is also a platform for participants to identify gaps in research, policy-practice, build networks and collaborate to construct knowledge and solutions together.

Researchers from King’s College London, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the Ohio State University, Oxford Brookes University, the University of Essex, the University of Warwick, and the University of Oxford will present their work focusing from multiple disciplinary angles including: 
-    health and migration, 
-    environmental change, 
-    music making of Black Caribbean diasporas, 
-    community-based participatory and creative methods, 
-    gender and sexuality, 
-    violence, resistance, and empowerment, 
-    migration and asylum policy-practice, 
-    migrants’ integration and experiences of discrimination.

This event is hosted by Migration Oxford and organised by Abril Ríos-Rivera (Convener of Migration Oxford and DPhil candidate in Migration Studies – University of Oxford) in coordination with Alejandra Díaz de León (Researcher - Essex University) with the support of the Centre for Migration Studies, Essex University. The event has been supported by the Social Science Division of the University of Oxford.

A coffee-biscuits break will be offered and a drinks reception will follow the panel discussions.

Intended outcomes:

1.    Participants will better understand the complexities of migration processes in the region and beyond.
2.    Participants will create new networks that may lead to the expansion of their professional prospects.
3.    Participants who are students and researchers will generate new ideas and gather useful sources to inform their research projects.

For questions please get in touch with Abril Ríos-Rivera at migrationoxford@compas.ox.ac.uk

Programme