Newsletter Archive
A compilation of IMER's published newsletters 2013 - 2022.
Main content
2021
IMER NEWS
We are glad to announce that Kari Hagatun has been appointed as the new IMER-Bergen leader, taking over from Marry-Anne Karlsen. Kari brings to the role relevant experience, having previously been a co-coordinator for the IMER junior network. Kari completed her Ph.D. about the educational situation for Roma pupils in Mai and now holds a tenured position as associate professor in the Department of Education, UiB. We congratulate Kari on her appointment and wish her all the best in her new role. We also thank Marry-Anne for her excellent leadership and wish her the best of luck in her new endeavors.
We are also pleased to announce that IMER network’s new coordinator - Felicity Atieno Okoth, has finally arrived in Bergen. She is pursuing her PhD at the Department of Social Anthropology (UiB). She takes over from Amany Selim whom we wish to thank for her engaged and diligent work at the network during her tenure.
We welcome Frederikke Jarlby, who has newly been appointed an interim leader of IMER junior, as the new representative for IMER jr. in the IMER board. Frederikke is a PhD-candidate at NORCE/HVL, taking part in the project “Home and (dis)continuity: Foster care for children with migrant backgrounds” (HoMi). Frederikke is appointed interim leader of IMER junior together with Irina Tiurikova (Department of Foreign Languages).
IMER Bergen new affiliate - Regine Paul recently launched her book: Handbook on the Governance and Politics of Migration, published by Edward Elgar. We wish to congratulate her on this achievement. The link to her profile can be found here for anyone interested in making a follow up on her work.
Synnøve Bendixsen (UiB) recently received the 2021 Faculty of Social Science Award for dissemination of research on refugees and migrants. We congratulate Synnøve on her achievement!
Weekly ShutUpAndWrite sessions organized by the IMER Junior Network have now started up again. If you are a Ph.D.-candidate or a post-doc interested in joining the network and the ShutUpAndWrite sessions, please write an email to imer.juniorscholar@uib.no with your contact details and a couple of lines about your research project. Check out their Facebook-page, and click here to see their blog where you can find the latest news about publications, conference calls, and other news related to the Junior Network.
New Projects
The Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), with funding from the Research Council of Norway have commissioned a new project titled: On Equal Grounds? Migrant Women’s Participation in Labour and Labour Related Activities (EQUALPART) led by Astrid Sundsbø. Anyone interested in the project can email Astrid through Astrid.Ouahyb.Sundsbo@hvl.no
Researchers at the University of Bergen and Chr. Michelsen Institute in connection with the TemPro project have launched a podcast related to their project that you can listen to here. Please contact Kari.Drangsland@uib.no if you would learn more about the podcast or want to contribute to it.
Publications
Karlsen, M. A., (2021). Migration Control and Access to Welfare. The Precarious Inclusion of Irregular Migrants in Norway. London and New York: Routledge (open access)
Bendixsen, S. and Hviding, E. (eds.) (2021). Anthropology in Norway: Directions, Locations, Relations. Sean Kingston Publishing: Canon Pyon
Bendixsen, S. and Sandberg, M (2021). The temporality of humanitarianism: Provincializing everyday volunteer practices at European borders, in Intersections. EEJSP 7(2): 13–31. DOI: 10.17356/ieejsp.v7i2.734
IMER NEWS
In mid-March, the TemPro project exploring the effects of temporary protection in the current asylum and refugee systems led by Jessica Schultz on the IMER team and Marry-Anne Karlsen the leader of IMER, held an interdisciplinary workshop in migration research. The aim of the workshop was to explore how interdisciplinary methods drawing on the disciplines of law and anthropology can be productively applied to research questions in the field of migration.
A new PhD candidate, Felicity Okoth, has been appointed on the IMER team. She is affiliated with the department of Social Anthropology, UiB and will be writing her thesis on the migration aspirations of African migrants in Nairobi. Felicity has a Masters degree in International Migration and Ethnic Relations from Malmo University. She has started this month and will be the new coordinator of IMER Bergen.
The IMER Junior Scholar Network will be holding a two day seminar in April 14-15. The aim of the seminar is to bring together junior scholars from academic institutions in Norway who work with topics related to migration and ethnic relations. Through the seminar we want to provide junior researchers with an access to our platform for networking and sharing knowledge and ideas across our different disciplines and institutions. We will have two guest speakers on the seminar, Lynn Nygaard from PRIO who will focus on issues such as the nature of academic writing, how to develop a core argument and how to develop good writing habits and stay motivated, and second Mikkel Rytter who is a professor at the University of Aarhus in the Department of Anthropology and will talk to us about problematizing the concept of integration. For those interested, please sign up here. Bear in mind that the deadline for signing up is April 9th.
A number of IMER research affiliates have defended their PhD theses lately including Katrine Bjerke, former IMER coordinator Olav Elgvin, former PhD representative on IMER board Kari Anne Drangsland, former coordinator of IMER Junior Scholar Network Noor Jdid, and former communication coordinator of IMER Junior Scholar Network Zubia Willmann Robleda. We congratulate them on their success and thank them for contributing to the network!
2020
IMER NEWS
The IMER seminar series has been mainly held online this year. We are hoping to implement a hybrid solution next semester in collaboration with Bergen Global Challenges to allow for a physical and online presence. We will publish our schedule for the seminar series soon.
IMER will soon be hiring a new PhD candidate as part of its team. More news on that will follow next semester.
Katrine Mellingen Bjerke, an IMER affliate researcher, has defended her doctoral thesis earlier this month under the title of "Transnational Ageing in Place - The Case of Pakistani and Polish Migrants in Norway". We congratulate Katrine on the completion of her PhD!
Publications
Bendixsen, Synnøve (2020). Existential Displacement: Health Care and Embodied Un/Belonging of Irregular Migrants in Norway, in Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry.
Bendixsen, Synnøve and Hilde Danielsen (2020). Hierarchical forms of Belonging in an Engalitarian Society, in Digesting Difference: Migrant Incorporation and Mutual Belonging in Europe, Johan Borneman and Kelly McKowen (eds), Palgrave: New York.
Hilde Danielsen and Bendixsen, Synnøve (2020). ‘Is it Mandatory to celebrate Birthdays?’ Birthday Parties as a Test of Belonging in Norway, in Ethnologia Scandinavica. A Journal for Nordic Ethnology.
Bendixsen, Synnøve and Hilde Danielsen (2020). Great expectations: Migrant Parents and Parent-School Cooperation in Norway, Comparative Education.
Jacobsen, Christina, Marry-Anne Karlsen, and Sharam Khosravi. (2020). Waiting and the Temporalities of Irregular Migration. (eds), Routledge: London and New York.
IMER NEWS
Earlier in March, we had to put our activities on halt due to the Covid-19 situation. As the lockdown continues, at least partially, we plan to have webinars. Last month, Sarah Tobin from CMI and IMER board member delivered a virtual presentation on Corona prevention measures and its impact on Syrian refugees in Jordan. The seminar was co-organized with Bergen Global Challenges and streamed on Youtube. We will continue to have online seminars until the end of the semester.
We are soon to launch a new webpage for IMER! We are excited to announce we are working together with Bergen Global Challenges on creating a webpage for IMER on UiB website. You may check our page here (still under construction).
IMER NEWS
New project: Temporary Protection as a Durable Solution? The ‘Return Turn’ in Asylum Politics in Europa (TemPro).
The four year-research project TemPro is a collaboration between legal scholars and anthropologists from CMI, University of Bergen, Coventry University and Aarhus University. The project will be led by Jessica Schultz (CMI), and includes Marry-Anne Karlsen (UiB), leader of IMER Bergen. TemPro, which will have its kick-off conference in Aarhus in May, focus on the so-called ‘return turn’ in refugee policies in Denmark, Norway and UK to create new knowledge about the effects of temporary protection for refugee lives, for welfare state institutions, and for regional and international refugee law.
2019
IMER NEWS
The project “States of Protractedness: Utilizing Norwegian Expertise for Solutions to Protracted Displacement Situations” led by IMER board member Sarah Tobin has received 1 million nok for 2 years. The project will take the knowledge from the Horizon 2020 Trafig project (www.trafig.eu) and bring it to Norway and reinforce it here through a series of conferences, workshops, publications and dissemination activities over the next two years. CMI is the lead, with NUPI, FAFO, and UiB Dept. of Social Anthropology (Synnøve Kristine Nepstad Bendixsen) as partners. IMER is a project beneficiary and welcome participant in the activities.
On Friday 6th of December, the first one-day conference for junior scholars working on topics of migration and ethnic relations in Norway was held in Bergen, organized by the local IMER junior scholar network. Thirty-three participants affiliated with eight different universities participated in the conference. We were very happy to have professor Mette Andersson from the University of Oslo as the keynote speaker. In her keynote speech titled as "what happens when migration research meets inequality research"?, she guided us through the development of research on immigration and ethnic relations in Norway and introduced us to a variety of debates and disciplinary disagreements. In addition to the keynote, we had several other activities including two small workshops and a panel discussion.
For more details on the conference, read more here
IMER NEWS
Earlier this week, IMER organized a PhD relay where PhD candidates from various disciplines and across departments were offerred the opportunity to discuss their research and receive feedback from IMER board members. For more info on this, please click here
The IMER junior scholar network, which is a network for junior researchers based in Bergen and working on migration issues, is organizing a one day conference for scholars from across Norway. The conference will take place in Bergen on 6th of December. If interested, you are invited to take a look at the call, and apply here. Deadline for applications is 15th of October.
The junior network has also recently launched its own blog and website. Click here if you wish to learn more about the network and check out its online platform. You can also join the network by sending an email to imer.juniorscholar@uib.no
IMER NEWS
We are pleased to announce that IMER junior scholar network has received funding from GSU. This will help the network expand and organize more events for PhD candidates and early career researchers working on migration in Bergen and elsewhere.
IMER NEWS
We are pleased to announce our new partnership with UiB Bergen Global. Bergen Global is a joint project between the University of Bergen and CMI. This project serves as a platform for events on development-related issues and global challenges including migration. As part of this cooperation, Bergen Global will participate in the organizing of our monthly seminars and also provide us with a new upgraded venue. IMER's seminars are to take place at UiB Global Bergen/CMI at Jekteviksbakken 31.
2018
IMER NEWS
We are pleased to announce that Marry Anne Karlsen has been selected as the new IMER leader. She is a postdoctoral fellow at SKOK and a board member of IMER. Amany Selim has been also assigned to the position of IMER coordinator. She is a PhD student at the Department of Sociology.
A new member has joined IMER board, Sarah Tobin. She is a senior researcher at CMI where she specializes in the anthropology of Islam, economic anthropology, and displacement in the MENA region. A new PhD representative, Kari Anne Drangsland, has been also elected to the board. Kari Anne is a PhD candidate at SKOK.
We are also excited to announce the formation of IMER junior scholar network with the goal of developing a platform for migration researchers in Bergen. It is open for both PhD and postdoc researchers who are interested in and writing on topics related to migration studies. Currently, this network organizes weekly collective writing sessions where PhD students meet up somewhere and write. The network plans to expand its scope of activities next semester to include more sessions for discussion of practical issues related to publishing and dissemination of results as well as topics of academic content. The idea is to facilitate engagement and cooperation between junior and senior scholars in the field of migration studies.
Noor Jdid, a PhD scholar at PRIO and SKOK, is the coordinator of this new network. If you would like to join the group and subscribe to the list of participants, please contact her. Email: njdid@prio.org
IMER NEWS
SUCCESSFUL CONFERENCE ON EUROPEAN ASYLUM POLICY IN BRUSSELS
On Wednesday this past week, several researchers from IMER Bergen convened with European policy-makers, other researchers and representatives from NGOs at a conference in Brussels to discuss European asylum policy. Hakan Sicakkan, the academic convener of the conference, presented a comparative study of political asylum procedures in 17 European countries. Christine Jacobsen discussed irregular migration and asylum policymaking. Synnøve Bendixsen made a presentation on assisted return policy from a migrant perspective. Susanne Bygnes discussed the effets of framing asylum arrivals.
The conference was hosted by Mrs Jean Lambert, a Member of the European Parliament.
2017
IMER NEWS
NEW PhD CANDIDATES AND NEW PROJECTS AT IMER BERGEN
In recent weeks, new PhD candidates have been employed in projects that are connected to researchers in IMER Bergen. A large new research projects is the IMEX project, Imagining and experiencing 'the refugee crisis'. This project is led by Susanne Bygnes from IMER Bergen, who received funding for the project from the Research Council of Norway. More information about the project can be found here.
The IMEX project has recently employed Amany Selim as a PhD candidate in the project. She will work on political mobilisation in the recent Syrian diaspora in selected European countries, using ethnographic fieldwork and interviews.
At the Faculty of Law at UiB, Andrea Grønningsæter has been employed as a PhD candidate. She will explore questions related to sexual orientation as a reason for being granted asylum in Norway.
IMER NEWS
NORWEGIAN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION 2017:
As of writing, the Norwegian parliamentary election for 2017 will soon be over. Researchers from IMER have written op-eds during the campaign about issues they thought deserved more attention.
Synnøve Bendixsen, together with Erlend Eidsvik, Håvard Hårstad and Arne Wiig, wrote an op-ed in Bergens Tidende where they highlighted that the Norwegian election campaigns have largely neglected topics beyond the Norwegian borders.
Olav Elgvin wrote an op-ed in Dagbladet about the climate crisis, how it affects issues like refugees and migration, and the choices about climate policy that Norway has to face.
Following the election, IMER is looking into arranging a panel discussion between researchers and politicians on how Norwegian policies on integration and immigration will develop with the next government. More information to follow.
IMER NEWS
SEMINAR ON RADICALISATION WITH RIVA KASTORYANO FROM SCIENCES PO ON 16.05
How is identity connected to jihadi radicalization? The esteemed sociologist Riva Kastoryano from Sciences Po in Paris is coming to IMER to explore this question, in the lecture "Trajectories and identities in radicalisation of jihadi yout". She argues that jihadis are driven by an identity narrative on their belonging to the umma, the reimagined worldwide Muslim community in which national, religious and wordly attachments are all jumbled together. Different cases of jihadi radicalization have in common this larger issue of belonging, that connects citizenship with transnational networks and an imagined diaspora.
TOWN HALL MEETING 01.01: HOW DO SYRIANS EXPERIENCE IMMIGRATION TO NORWAY AND BERGEN?
How do Syrian who have immigrated to Bergen experience their life here? Josh Dickstein from IMER Bergen is arranging a large town hall meeting at Kvarteret on June 1st, from 18.00 to 21.00. In this meeting, Syrian refugees will tell about their experiences with life in Bergen and Norway, with comments from both researchers and public officials. More information will follow in a separate email.
FILM SCREENING 14.06: TRAFFICKING AND EVERYDAY VIOLENCE AMONG NIGERIAN FEMALE MIGRANTS
This summer, Marry-Anne Karlsen and Maja Janmyr from IMER Bergen are heading a course on migration at the Bergen Summer Research School. As part of the program they are showing the documentary Becky's Journey by the Danish anthropologist and filmmaker Sine Plambech. The film documents how Becky, a 26 year old Nigerian woman, is trying to reach the European shores. Entrance is free of charge and open to all. More information can be found here.
IMER NEWS
PHD DEFENSE ON FILIPINO AU PAIRS IN NORWAY
Mariya Bikova from the IMER network is defending her PhD today, which explores the life of Filipino au pairs in Norway. In her PhD, Bikova has looked at how Norwegian egalitarian values are shaping the interaction between host families and the au pairs. More information on the PhD can be found here, on the website of the Department of Sociology at UiB. She will also present findings from her PhD at a IMER seminar on the 14th of March. Our congratulations!
MIGRATION COURSE AT BERGEN SUMMER RESEARCH SCHOOL 2017
This is a kind reminder that Maja Janmyr and Marry-Anne Karlsen from the IMER network will be leading the PhD course 'Migration and the (Inter-)National Order of Things', under the umbrella of Bergen Summer Research School from June 12-22 next summer.
This interdisciplinary course aims to deepen the understanding of the politics of protection and control of contemporary migration. How are migrants given different bureaucratic and legal identities (e.g. refugees, stateless persons, irregular migrants) and what are the consequences of such distinctions and labels? What protection does international law and humanitarian institutions offer to different categories of people? How is this challenged by migrants themselves?
This course is one of six parallel courses in 2017, spanning disciplines within health, humanities, and social sciences. In addition to the courses, there will be a series of joint sessions about research tools for PhD candidates, but also plenary sessions with keynotes, debates, and an excursion.
We would appreciate if you could share this invitation with PhD candidates in your network. You may visit the website (www.uib.no/en/rs/bsrs) to find more information about the course and submit an online application. The application deadline has been extended to the 1st of March.
GUEST RESEARCHER AT IMER
Sándor Klapcsik from the Technical University of Liberec will be a guest researcher at IMER Bergen from the 15th to the 20th of February. He will give a presentation on Wednesday 15th of February from 14.15 to 16.00, on Acculturation of South Asian Families in Three Diasporic Films. The seminar takes place in the Seminar Room at the Department of Sociology, Rosenberggata 39.
2016
IMER NEWS
IMER BERGEN IN THE MEDIA AND CIVIL SOCIETY
This semester, researchers from IMER Bergen have been active in popularizing our research beyond the confines of the academic ivory tower. At this year's Forskningsdagene UNG, Synnøve Bendixsen and Susanne Bygnes from IMER Bergen were among the select researchers who were invited togive lectures to high school pupils from the Bergen area who had gathered to hear about current research at UiB. Olav Elgvin from IMER Bergen was invited by the Municipality of Bergen to participate in a pioneering dialogue project between the mosques in Bergen, the municipality of Bergen and the local police, which included a study trip to London. Many of our researchers have also made numerous appearances in the media. Here is a recent piece from NRK, in which Susanne Bygnes talks about Spanish migrants in Norway.
IMER NEWS
FUNDING FROM THE RESEARCH COUNCIL FOR A NEW PROJECT
This summer, IMER Bergen got some pretty exciting news. A project led by Christine Jacobsen, director of the Center for Women's and Gender Research (SKOK) and board member at IMER, received funding through the Samkul program from the Research Council of Norway (NFR). Introducing the concept of waitinghood, the project will investigate how irregular migrants experience waitinghood - to live in a state where the future is uncertain. You can read an interview about the project with Christine here (in Norwegian).
BERGEN MIGRATION WEEK: 24-28 OCTOBER
In the last week of October, an exciting event will take place in Bergen. The IMER network is one of the organizers of Bergen Migration Week, along with CMI, SKOK, the Faculty of Law at UiB and the Bergen Resource Centre. For a full week there will be events and seminars on migration and responses to migration. The week kicks off on Monday 24th of October, at 19.30 at Litteraturhuset in Bergen. How does media coverage influence our perceptions of migration and refugees? Lars Petter Gallefoss, the director of the upcoming NRK series Flukt, will discuss with the matter with journalists Frøy Gudbrandsen and Christina Pletten. Next evening, on Tuesday 25th at 19.30 at Litteraturhuset, both Susanne Bygnes and Marry-Anne Karlsen will take part in a panel on "Seige systemer og ville ideer", where new solutions to early stage integration will be discussed. Here's a link to the event on facebook.
IMER NEWS
19.04.2016 IMER key note and stand at Christie conference
Kathrine Mellingen Bjerke from the IMER network will hold a key note at the Christie conference. She attends as one of three young researchers presenting their work at the conference. You will find the program here (Norwegian only)
IMER will also organise a stand outside the conference hall, presenting our network and our research topics.
19.04.2016 IMER participation at event: Migrants’ choice and governments’ influence. How Europe manages migration - and how migrants deal with their lives? Halvar Andreassen Kjærre contributes at event taking place at Litteraturhuset in Oslo from 1400-1630. The event will be in Norwegian.
20.04.2016 CHILDREN FOR SALE. Nuray Yildirim Gullestad (IMDI) and Anja Bredal (HiOA) in conversation with Åse Gilje Østensen (CMI) about forced and child marriages amongst Syrian refugees. This event will take place at Bergen Resource Centre for International Development in Jekteviken, from 1130-1230, and will be held in Norwegian.
2015
IMER NEWS
EMERGING URBANITIES LUNCH SEMINARS: Bjørn Egen Bertelsen - Predatory Securities: Reshaping the City and State of Mosambique
December 15, 2015 @ 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
UNI Rokkan senteret (6 etg)
Nygårdsgaten 5, 5015 Bergen, Norway
Notions and practices of security colonise both state and urban contexts across Africa. Arguably, these notions and practices are also integral to wider global political formations where urban formations in Africa are often cast as pre-figuring the shape of future global cities more generally. Based on fieldworks in the Mozambican cities of Maputo and Chimoio, this paper sees security there as related to violent crime and capital accumulation in ways that undermine policy-oriented representations of security provision as solely undertaken by state police supplemented by neoliberal assemblages of security companies.
IMER NEWS
EMERGING URBANITIES LUNCH SEMINARS: Anouk De Koning -Echoes of Race in Amsterdam
October 13, 2015 @ 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
UNI Rokkan senteret (6 etg)
Nygårdsgaten 5, 5015 Bergen, Norway
In this talk, I will discuss how racialized discourses on multicultural failure and the trouble with the children of migrants is taken up and contested in multicultural Amsterdam. Like in other Western European countries, multiculturalism backlash discourses have dominated public debates in the Netherlands since the 1990s. I ask how people who are framed as part of the problem engage the moral imperatives of such backlash discourses and the anxieties they broadcast. Amsterdam’s Diamantbuurt provides a good vantage point for such an exploration since the neighbourhoods’ unruly Moroccan-Dutch young men have played an important role in Dutch backlash discourses. How do Moroccan-Dutch Diamantbuurt residents, who are closely identified with these iconic bad guys, negotiate the dominant narrative regarding their neighbourhood? This article demonstrates that for these residents, the anxieties articulated in backlash discourses become the grounds for an anxious grappling with abjectness and identification.
IMER NEWS
Thomas Solomon – The Play of Colors: Staging Multiculturalism in Norway
Tuesday 1 September - 12.00to 13.30 – UNI Rokkan centre (6 etg), Nygårdsgaten 5, BERGEN
Fargespill (lit. “play of colors”) is a series of musical performances in Norway that have been staged from 2004 to the present. Each performance consists of a sequence of musical and dance numbers performed by children from different minority and immigrant groups, many of whom came to Norway as refugees, together with white Norwegian children. The songs and choreographies represent the home countries of the children who perform, and have included for example music and dance from Somalia, Myanmar (Burma), Rwanda, Kurdistan, and Eritrea, combined together with Norwegian folk music in often elaborate production numbers with colorful costumes and complex musical arrangements. While the specific musical numbers used and cast members change from performance to performance, the concept remains the same – a representation of ethnic, racial and cultural diversity in Norway staged through the voices and bodies of the children on stage. From its beginnings as an cultural initiative in the city of Bergen, Fargespill has gained increasing national attention within Norway, leading to performances in other cities such as Oslo and Trondheim.
IMER NEWS
Boklansering: Eksepsjonell velferd? Irregulære migranter i det norske velferdssamfunnet
23. Juni klokka 12.00 blir det boklansering av PROVIR boken Eksepsjonell velferd? Irregulære migranter i det norske velferdssamfunnet redigert av Christine Jacobsen, Synnøve Bendixsen og Karl Harald Søvig. Stedet blir Nygårdsgaten 5, 6 etg. UNI Rokkansenteret, Bergen (IMER Bergen).Irregulære immigranter har på noen områder full tilgang til velferdsytelser, men på mange områder er tilgangen svært begrenset enten i form av rettsregler eller andre barrierer. Denne antologien undersøker forholdet mellom rettslig rammeverk, institusjonell praksis og hvordan irregulære migranter selv erfarer sin situasjon. Med en unik kombinasjon av juridisk og antropologisk blikk, går boken regelverket nærmere i sømmene, drøfter gatebyråkraters utfordringer og hverdagslivet til irregulære migranter og deres barn. Hvilke regelverk får konsekvenser for irregulære migranters levevilkår? Hvordan blir dette regelverket forstått og etterfulgt av gatebyråkrater? Og hvordan blir hverdagslivet til irregulære migranter og deres barn påvirket av regelverket og dets fortolkning? Boken er aktuell for velferdsprofesjoner som møter irregulære migranter som en del av sin yrkesutøvelse. Både leger, sykepleiere, helsesekretærer, lærere, helsesøstre, skolerådgivere, sosialarbeidere, sosionomer og barnevernspedagoger vil ha god nytte av Eksepsjonell velferd? Irregulære migranter i det norske velferdssamfunnet. Boken retter seg også mot frivillige organisasjoner som jobber med ulike aspekter ved migranters situasjon i Norge og andre som er engasjert i temaet. Boken er gitt ut på Gyldendal. Les mer: http://www.gyldendal.no/Faglitteratur/Jus/Juridiske-fag/Eksepsjonell-velferd
IMER NEWS
IMER Lunch seminars spring 2015 - Emerging Urbanities and other seminars
This spring IMER Bergen invites you to a series of lunch seminars on the topic of emerging urbanities. The seminars are open to all researchers, students, and other people interested. Urbanity has been a central foci to the IMER network and a part of our research agenda for several years. In this upcoming seminar series, we will ask were our contemporary cities are heading. Some of the topics will be on planned pluralism, gentrification, urban minority, migrant life, housing segregation, the global in the local, governance in ethnically plural cities, and multicultural youth life in the city.
IMER NEWS
Emerging Urbanities series of seminars launched.
2014
IMER NEWS
New IMER related SAMKUL project: Parenting cultures and risk management in plural Norway
Synnøve Bendixsen and Hilde Danielsen from UNI Reasearch Rokkan centre and IMER Bergen have received funding from SAMKUL (Forskningsrådet) for the project Parenting cultures and risk management in plural Norway. By studying a socially complex neighborhood in Bergen (Årstad), the researchers will explore the processes that contribute in the making of different parenting cultures in a plural Norway. Using ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, the project will investigate in which ways parenthood are formed by a) categories such as class, migration background and gender; b) civil society and public spaces; and c) the welfare state. The project will focus both on parents' own understanding and construction of parenting cultures, and on how ideas and ideals of parenthood are constructed by governmental institutions and civil society in different settings.
IMER NEWS
New leadership at IMER Bergen and changes in the IMER board
IMER wants to welcome Synnøve K. N. Bendixsen as the new Head of IMER Bergen and the IMER board. Synnøve has a PhD in Social anthropology from Humboldt University and Ecoles des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. She has worked on religiosity among young Muslims in Berlin, and more lately on irregular migrants in Norway. Currently, she is postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Social anthropology and a researcher at Uni Research Rokkansenteret. IMER also wants to say thank you to Mette Andersson, the former Head of IMER Bergen. We congratulate Mette with her new position as professor at the Department of Sociology at the University of Oslo. Simultaneously, we want to welcome Susanne Bygnes as a new member of the IMER board. Susanne has contributed to IMER research with sociological studies of diversity and multiculturalism and she is now doing her postdoctoral research on labor migration in uncertain times, focusing on labour migrants from Spain to Norway.
New PhD scholar at IMER Bergen
Olav Elgvin has recently started his five-year PHD scholarship at IMER Bergen and the Department of comparative politics at the University of Bergen. His thesis is about Muslim religious leaders in three European countries, France, Germany and England. How do Muslim religious leaders view the relationship between religion and politics, and how do they think about the relationship between sharia-law and democracy? Read more about Olav Elgin’s project in Norwegian here: https://www.uib.no/sampol/80598/olav-elgvin-ny-stipendiat-ved-sampol
Communication migration seminar series and other seminars
The communicating migration seminar series will continue this autumn and there will also be other exiting seminars. Note that we have changed the day and time of the seminars. The seminars will now be held at UNI Rokkan centre, 6. etg. on Tuesdays at 13.15 to 15.00. More information about the dates and the topics of the seminars will be announced on our web pages Imer.w.uib.no and our Facebook page.
The communicating migration seminar series covers how migration and ethnic relations are communicated in every-day encounters, in mass and social media, in politics and in teaching at the universities and art. Has the way people talk about migration and migrants in different social contexts changed over time, and in which ways has it changed? How does migration theory and research fit in with other topics and theories in the social sciences, and how do results from migration research inform public debate and policy development? Communicating migration will be discussed from various angles in our seminar series on international migration and ethnic relations during spring and autumn 2014. We welcome papers that touch upon this broad theme from different angles. Historical analyses of change over time in regard to politics and public debate, research foci and disciplinary concerns are specifically welcomed. The seminar series will end with a two-day conference in October/November 2014.
Communicating migration conference
The 23rd and 24th of October we will end the communicating migration seminar series with a small conference on the same topic.
PROVIR Closing conference - Exceptional welfare: Dilemmas in/of irregular migration
How do states respond to the physical presence and needs of people it officially has excluded? To what extent do international human rights provide protection? How does migration control and welfare policy affect irregular migrants’ experiences and subjectivities?
The closing conference aims to bring together researchers from various disciplines who are interested in the interplay between migration control and welfare policy. At the conference, findings from the PROVIR-project will be presented by the research team. In addition to presentations by key note speakers, the PROVIR research team also welcomes papers to be presented at workshops. We especially invite contributions addressing:
- Irregular migrants’ legal situation regarding access to welfare provisions, either in national or international law.
- Institutional practices and responses by service providers.
- Migrants’ experiences, agency and embodiment.
Read more at: http://imer.w.uib.no/ai1ec_event/provir-closing-conference/?instance_id=369
IMER NEWS
PROVIR Conference
Provision of Welfare to Irregular Migrants (PROVIR) will be organizing its closing conference “Exceptional welfare: Dilemmas in/of irregular migration” at the University of Bergen, 19th - 21th of November 2014. The conference will bring together researchers from various disciplines and geographic regions who are interested in the interplay between migration control and welfare policy.
At the conference, findings from the PROVIR-project will be presented by the research team. In addition to a number of distinguished key note speakers, we also welcome papers to be presented at workshops. Paper proposals (maximum 300 words) can be submitted until the 25th of April 2014. Please include a short bio with the abstract.
For submitting abstract or other enquiries, please send an e-mail to marry-anne.karlsen@uni.no More information about the PROVIR-project, full call for papers and list of keynote speakers, plenary discussion participants and workshop discussants for the PROVIR closing conference is available at http://rokkan.uni.no/sites/provir/events/ and IMER Bergen at http://imer.w.uib.no/ai1ec_event/provir-closing-conference/?instance_id=...
IMER Abroad: PROVIR Workshop at COMPAS Oxford: Precarious migrants and access to welfare - Between policy, law and practiceThis workshop will discuss the legal and experienced dilemmas found in the encounter between migrants living in a legally precarious situation and the welfare state in which they reside. Participants will present on-going empirically based research on migrants’ access to welfare in policy, law and practice in various European countries. They will also discuss the particular position of youth and children in vulnerable situations. The program is available here. Read program here: http://rokkan.uni.no/sites/provir/files/2014/04/Precarious-Migrants-and-Access-to-Welfare-MAY2014.pdf
IMER NEWS
NEW IMER BERGEN WEBSITE, LOGO AND FACBOOK PAGE.
We are happy to announce that the new IMER homepage is now finished and published. It is available at imer.w.uib.no. We hope that you will find our new webpage useful and that it will give you better insights into our research. We are also happy to introduce our new logo, and additionally we introduce our new facebook site. Follow us by pushing the LIKE button at: https://www.facebook.com/IMERBergen?ref=hl.
2013
IMER NEWS
IMER BERGEN SEMINARS
“Thinking gender and belonging through transnational, diaspora and mobility studies”Breda Gray (University of Limerick):Friday 29 November, 12.15-14.00.Uni Rokkan Centre, Nygårdsgaten 5, 6th floor.More ”New research topics within IMER Bergen”Halvar A. Kjærre (University of Bergen): “Politics and mobilities” Tarje I. Wanvik (University of Bergen): “Migration and Social Inequality”Friday 29 November, 14.15-15.30.Uni Rokkan Centre, Nygårdsgaten 5, 6th floor.More
IMER PHD FELLOWSHIP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BERGENAt the Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen (UiB), a funded PhD fellowship is vacant. The total scholarship period is 4 years, 25% of which shall be dedicated to teaching, supervision and administrative tasks. The successful candidate will have his/her work place at the Department of Comparative Politics and contribute to ongoing research both at the Department and the interdisciplinary IMER-Bergen network at the Faculty of Social Sciences, UiB. Application deadline: 24 November 2013.
IMER NEWS
THE SITUATION OF SYRIAN REFUGEES IN LEBANON Fafo has published two papers on the current situation of Syrian refugees in Lebanon:
Christophersen, Mona, Jing Liu, Cathrine Moe Thorleifsson and Åge A. Tiltnes: “Lebanese attitudes towards Syrian refugees and the Syrian crisis: Results from a national opinion poll implemented 15–21 May, 2013”. Fafo-paper 2013:13. * Christophersen, Mona and Cathrine Thorleifsson: “Lebanese Contradictory Responses to Syrian Refugees Include Stress, Hospitality, Resentment”. Fafo policy brief.
Access the papers, and other texts on Syrian refugees: http://www.fafo.no/pub/rapp/10179/index.html http://fm-cab.blogspot.no/2013/07/regional-focus-syria.html