SEMINAR
by invitation only
Policy
Challenges of the New Migrant Diasporas
22-23
April 1999 - Chatham House, London |
funded by
The European Commission, Directorate-General XII/G
organized in
collaboration with
Economic & Social Research Council
Research Programme on Transnational Communities
The Royal Institute of International Affairs
METROPOLIS International Forum for Research and Policy
on Migration and Cities
BACKGROUND
INFORMATION
A growing body of social scientific research
demonstrates numerous new ways in which contemporary global migrants remain intensely
connected to their places of origin, to co-nationals or co-ethnics across nation-state
borders and indeed across the world. Such connections include a considerable degree of
economic exchange, political lobbying and cultural activity; sometimes criminal trade,
terrorism and human trafficking mark them.
Utilizing new communication technologies
and cheap travel, migrant networks today are significantly different from migrant and
diasporic groups in prior periods. Such networks present national and local policy-makers
with significant new challenges, both to foster opportunities (primarily economic
investment), as well as to tackle issues surrounding crime and security.
A Seminar of some thirty policy-makers and academics will
be convened over one and a half days in order to discuss these issues intensively in an
off-the record manner. Participants will include government ministers, representatives of
non-government organisations and leading academics. The Seminar’s aim is to explore
policy pitfalls and strategies -- foreign and domestic -- in response to new global
processes, immigration flows and cross-border activities.
The meeting will structure discussion around
three key policy domains subsequently challenged by the new migrant diasporas. These are:
Immigration and
Asylum – A variety of local and national government policies
concerning migrants and minorities differentially condition composition and transnational
communities like migrant diasporas. These policies govern, among other things,
‘gateways of entry’ (and modes of illegal immigration), legal status and
citizenship, asylum-seekers and refugees.
| Speakers: |
Demetrios Papademetriou,
Director, International Migration Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace, Washington, D.C.
Jeff Crisp, Senior Research Officer, United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees, Geneva |
Economic Exchange
– Transnational communities often control sizeable patterns of investment and
corporate development, represent important portable skills within global labour markets,
are sometimes key players in unrecorded and illegal international trade, as well as
architects of strategies within international commerce, and forms of trade with and
investment in the homeland.
| Speakers: |
Alejandro Portes,
Professor of Sociology, Princeton University
Frank Gregory, Jean Monnet Chair in Politics, University of Southampton |
Political
Participation, Foreign Relations and Security – The condition of
diaspora often affords freedoms to organise politically which are impossible in the
country of origin. Hence there are transnational political developments particular to
overseas branches of national political parties, political fund-raising activities among
transnational groups, movements for political reform, agencies for the monitoring of human
rights, irredentist movements, governments-in-exile, and terrorist organisations.
Political ideologies often comprise key tenets of religious movements with chiliastic,
fundamentalist and universalist claims which are rapidly transforming and mobilising among
transnational communities. These may challenge the capacity of states to effect uniform
patterns of national identity, social control and political representation.
| Speakers: |
Bruce Hoffman,
Director, Washington Office and Head of Terrorism Research Unit, RAND Corporation
Yossi Shain, Chair, Department of Political Science, Tel-Aviv University |
AGENDA
Background briefing papers will be distributed in advance.
This will allow speakers to present their ideas and material in twenty minutes, giving
ample time for discussion of each theme.
Day 1
Chair: George Joffé, Royal
Institute for International Affairs |
| 10.00-11.00 |
arrival & coffee Introduction (Steven Vertovec, University of Oxford)
What’s ‘new’ about the new migrant diasporas
(Robin Cohen, University of Warwick) |
| 11.30-12.30 |
Comparative Immigration Regimes: their impact
on migrant networks (Demetrios Papademetriou, Carnegie Endowment) |
| 12.30-14.00 |
lunch |
| 14.00-15.00 |
Comparative Refugee flows and Asylum Regimes:
their impact on refugee networks (Jeff Crisp, UNHCR) |
| 15.00-16.00 |
The Economics of Transnational Migrant
Communities (Alejandro Portes, Princeton University) |
| 16.00-16.30 |
tea |
| 16.30-17.30 |
Migrants and Transnational Crime (Frank
Gregory, University of Southampton) |
| 17.30-18.30 |
General Discussion |
Day 2
Chair: Jack Spence Royal, Institute
for International Affairs |
| 9.00-10.00 |
Migrant Networks and Terrorism (Bruce Hoffman,
RAND) |
| 10.00-11.00 |
Comparative Foreign Policy and the New Migrant
Diasporas (Yossi Shain, Tel Aviv University) |
| 11.00-11.30 |
coffee |
| 11.30-13.00 |
General Discussion |
| 13.00- |
lunch & departure |
Invited persons will include:
United Kingdom
Home Office
(Mike O’Brien, Minister for Immigration & Nationality)
(Peter Ward, Director of Research)
Foreign Office
(Darek Fatchett, Minister of State, or Tony Lloyd, Minster of State)
Institute for Public Policy Research
(Sarah Spencer, Senior Fellow)
Royal Institute for International Affairs
(George Joffé, Director of Research)
(Jack Spence, former Director of Research)
Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
(Claude Moraes, Director)
Immigration Law Practitioners Association
(Chris Randall)
academics
(Prof. Robin Cohen, University of Warwick)
(Steven Vertovec, University of Oxford)
Belgium
academic
(Marco Martiniello, University of Liege)
Canada
Ministry for Immigration and Citizenship
(Greg Fyffe)
France
Ministry of the Interior
(Gerard Moreau)
academic
(Catherine Withol de Wenden, CERI)
United States
Immigration & Naturalization Service
(Doris Meissner)
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(Demetrios Papademetriou, Director, International Migation Policy Programme)
academic
(Alejandro Portes, Princeton University)
Germany
Foreign Affairs - Federal
(Marie Louise Beck, Federal Commissioner for Foreign Affairs)
Israel
academic
(Yossi Shain, Tel Aviv University)
Italy
Ministry of the Interior
(Guido Bolaffi)
The Netherlands
Directorate-General for Public Administration
(G.M.J.M. Koolen)
Switzerland
Federal Office for Immigration Affairs
(Dieter Grossen)
academic
(Andreas Wimmer, Director, Swiss Forum for the Study of Migration)
European Commission
(Anita Gradin)
(Adrian Fortescue)
(Giuseppe Callovi)
UNHCR
(Jeff Crisp, Centre for Documentation and Research)
RAND Corporation
(Bruce Hoffman, Terrorism Research Unit)
METROPOLIS Network
(Meyer Burstein, co-Chair)
(Howard Duncan, Project Director)
(Marco Lombardi, ISMU/European Secretariate)
EuroMeSCo Network
(Álvaro de Vasconcelos, Secretary)
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