A one-day seminar at the Newcastle University

Friday, 19th June, 10am-5.30pm

Post-accession migration in Europe: geographical perspectives

A one-day seminar organised by School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University and University of Lower Silesia, Poland

The issue of migration from the recent accession states (A8+2) to the older EU member states has attracted considerable attention from both policy and academic spheres, but relatively little of this work has focused explicitly on the geographies of this migration. This one-day seminar seeks to connect ongoing work on post-socialist migration within Europe to an exploration of key geographical themes, such as community, transnationality, local and regional identities, mobility and movement, networks, diasporas, local labour markets, cohesion, and integration. It invites papers which reflect not only on academic work, but also on policy and practice engagements within communities, and part of the day will be given over to short presentations by practitioners.

Papers are invited which explore the following, and other related, themes:
- transnational spaces of post-accession migrants
- migrants and communities
- spaces of integration and cohesion
- place, identity and migration
- migrants, social capital and social inclusion
- migration and social mobility
- processes of settling and adaptation
- sites of migrant organisation
- migration and local and regional governance
- migrants and local labour markets

The seminar will be free to attend, but participants must register as numbers are limited. Tea, coffee and lunch will be included, and an evening meal (at participants’ own expense) will be arranged in a local Polish restaurant, for those who can stay. The meal will be accompanied by a cultural event, co-organised by the North East Polish Community Organisation.

Those interested in presenting a paper should submit an abstract of no more than 250 words to both Aneta Slowik (aneta.slowik@ncl.ac.uk) and Alison Stenning (alison.stenning@ncl.ac.uk) by 30th April. If you would like to attend but not present, please also email the organisers by 29th May. Since places will be limited, we encourage you to contact us sooner rather than later.

Directions to the University are available at www.ncl.ac.uk/travel/maps/index.php and information about accommodation in Newcastle is available at www.newcastlegateshead.com/Accommodation.php.