Dispatches

Vol 1. No. 5

December 15, 2000

Partner Update
Recent Publications by Metropolis Network Members
Related Initiatives
Related Events

Dispatches focuses on providing timely information (bimonthly) concentrating on results, upcoming events, and updates on various experiments conducted by the international Metropolis partners. It is your communications device, please make use of it. To have information placed in Dispatches, or to comment on content or structure, please contact John Biles at +44 819 997-5791 (john_biles@pch.gc.ca).

Partner Update

IDC Update

The Metropolis International Steering Committee met in Vancouver on November 17 and 18, 2000. High on the agenda was an analysis of the Fifth International Metropolis Conference and the program for the Sixth Conference, upcoming in Rotterdam in November 2001. There was consensus that the fifth conference successfully continued the progress that Metropolis has been making and agreement that the workshops ought to be mildly re-worked to generate more active and productive discussions. Other Committee decisions included the location of the Seventh International Conference in Oslo, Norway, to be organized by the Norwegian government for early autumn, 2002; the development of a memorandum of understanding between Metropolis and UNESCO/MOST which would see increased involvement of the Asia-Pacific Migration Research Network in Metropolis; an announcement of an inter-conference seminar, "Urban Futures", to be held in May, 2001 near Stockholm, Sweden; and co-operation between Metropolis and the Croatian Centre for Strategic Studies in Zagreb to organize an inter-conference seminar on diasporas in the autumn of 2001. The meeting also discussed a project, now in its early stages, to identify sources of funding for international comparative research. For more information please contact either Rinus Penninx at penninx@pscw.uva.nl or Howard Duncan at howard.duncan@9522apx.cina.cic.x400.gc.ca

Sweden

A Metropolis inter-conference seminar, "Urban Futures: Urban Policy Developments and Urban Social Transformations in Europe in the 21st Century", will held from May 10-12 in Sodertalje, Sweden. It will feature discussions of a number of major policy issues that European cities will face as a result of increased migration, and is being organized and supported by the Swedish government and the city of Sodertalje. Specific themes include urban demographic futures, urban economic futures, urban social futures, urban policy futures, and urban practice futures. For additional information, see www.storstad.gov.se or contact the principal organizer, Kristine Dosen, at kristine.dosen@culture.ministry.se

The complete integration program of the City of Stockholm can be found on-line at http://www.stockholm.se/infoom/integration

International Organization for Migration (IOM)

The IOM has a large number of publications available on the subject of international migration. The most recent release is the World Migration Report 2000. This report is a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of major trends in international migration, and the economic, demographic, social and political impacts on source, transit and destination countries. For more information please check http://www.iom.int/iom/publications/entry.htm

Canada

The proceedings of the policy-research seminar on social justice organized by the Department of Canadian Heritage are now available. It is the second in a series designed to build a research agenda for the Multiculturalism Program. The background papers in the proceedings highlight research gaps in the areas of human rights, hate crimes, education and recognition/reconciliation of past injustices. The proceedings will be on the Metropolis website in the near future. In the interim, if you would like to receive a hard copy, please contact John Biles at john_biles@pch.gc.ca

European Union

CANADA-EUROPEAN UNION JOINT STATEMENT ON COOPERATION IN JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS

On December 17, Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Chretien, the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac, representing the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi signed a joint statement on cooperation in justice and home affairs. Included in this statement was a section on migration, immigration and asylum which included a reference to Metropolis: " To derive maximum benefit from managed migration, we will share best practices and research on legal migration regimes, and the integration of legal migrants, in particular within the Metropolis network in order to our collective understanding of migration phenomena and strengthen our strategic action in this area. We will continue to consult and cooperate bilaterally and in multilateral fora on improving the international protection regime."

In addition the statement pledged in the area of racism and xenophobia to, "strengthen our dialogue on study of these phenomena, including their root causes and effects, and will exchange practices with a view to contribute to the eradication of such phenomena in our societies. In particular, this will include, inter alia, substantial regular contacts between the Vienna-based European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia and the relevant Canadian institutions."

Gertrud Hüwelmeier Women's Congregations as Transnational Communities
Paul Spoonley Reinventing Polynesia: The Cultural Politics of Transnational Pacific Communities

All papers can be found on-line at
http://www.transcomm.ox.ac.uk

Recent Publications by Metropolis Network Members

Rainer Bauböck and John Rundell eds. Blurred Boundaries: Migration, Ethnicity, Citizenship

Jacqueline Lidgard and Richard Bedford “New Zealand's International Migration System at the end of the 20th Century: Review and Prospect” New Zealand Population Review Vol. 25 No. 1,2 May,November 1999 pgs. 41-57.

John R. Logan and Min Zhou "Ethnic Segmentation in the American Metropolis: Increasing Divergence in Economic Incorporation, 1980-1990" International Migration Review Volume 34(Spring 2000) pgs. 98-132.

Related Initiatives

Culture of Cities

A multi-disciplinary research project examining the urban experience in Montreal, Toronto, Berlin and Dublin. The central question driving the project is: Is there a shared experience of city life, a set of encounters, tensions and issues confronting cities, inducing them, at some level, to be engaged in common problems? Or, on the other hand, are cities distinct by virtue of their geographic, economic, cultural and social forces which have molded them? More information on this project can be found at
http://www.yorku.ca/culture_of_cities/about.htm

City of Tomorrow and Cultural Heritage

The overall goals of this European Commission project are to encourage sustainable economic development and competitiveness; improve urban management and integrated planning policy; and to safeguard and improve the quality of life and cultural identity of citizens. For more information on this project please contact David Miles at david.miles@cec.eu.int or consult the web at
http://www.cordis.lu/eesd/home.html

Looking Ahead

Human Resources Development Canada, the British Columbia Ministry of Social Development and a variety of other government and non-governmental partners created the Looking Ahead project. The goal of this project is to identify practical community-based initiatives for enhancing labour force participation of immigrants. The project's website (www.lookingahead.bc.ca) contains an enormous volume of data on immigration in the Vancouver area.

Related Events

Re-Inventing Society in a Changing Global Economy
(Toronto, Canada March 6-10, 2001)
reitz@chass.utoronto.ca

The Spiritual Supermarket, Religious Pluralism and Globalisation in the 21st Century: The Expanding European Union and Beyond
(London, United Kingdom April 19-22, 2001)
inform@lse.ac.uk

Exploring Canadian Identities
(Torun, Poland April 20-22, 2001)
Canadian Studies Resource Centre
Nicholas Copernicus University
+48 56 622-7710

Migration Between States and Markets
(Liege, Belgium May 2001)
http://www.ucm.es/info/isa.cforp103.htm

Health Care in a Complex World: An International Research Conference
(Toronto, Canada May 2-4, 2001)
http://www.nursing.utoronto.ca/research/conferences/

The Canadian Anthropology Society Annual Conference
(Montreal, Canada May 3-6, 2001)
Theme: Culture, Difference and Inequality
http://casca2001.mcgill.ca/

Paradigms Lost and Paradigms Gained: Negotiating Interdisciplinarity in the Twenty-First Century
(Calgary, Canada May 9-12, 2001)
http://www.ucalgary.ca/paradigms

Workshop on Asian Immigrants and Entrepreneurs in the European Community
(Nijmegen, The Netherlands May 11-12, 2001)
t.vannaerssen@bw.kun.nl

Association of Canadian Studies
(Quebec City, Canada May 25-27, 2001)
General Theme: Alternatives to mainstream Canada
http://www.acs-aec.ca

Networks and Transformations
(Manchester, United Kingdom July 2-4, 2001)
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/gsa

Cultural Studies: Between Politics and Ethics
(Bath, United Kingdom July 6-8, 2001)
j.zylinska@bathspa.ac.uk

World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance
(South Africa, August 31-September 7, 2001)
lwiseberg.hchr@unog.ch

Multinational Enterprises: Embedded Organisations, Transnational Federations or
Global Learning Communities?
(Coventry, United Kingdom, September 6-8, 2001)
glenn.morgan@warwick.ac.uk