The impact of international migration on a country’s development will be the focus of two international conferences taking place at Northumbria University next week.
With speakers coming from across Europe and India to attend, the two International Migration and Inclusive Development in India events have attracted significant interest from experts in the field.
Organised by Northumbria’s Centre for International Development, the workshops are part of a British Academy-funded project, which also includes a three-month visiting professorship by Professor S.I Rajan, from the Centre for Development Studies, in Kerala, India.
Professor Rajan will deliver talks at both workshops based on his research into the relationship between international migration and development in India, and its role in global, national and regional policy making.
He said: “I am having a wonderful and productive time working with colleagues here at Northumbria. We are already discussing future collaborations, funding bids, opportunities for PhD students and staff/student exchanges between Northumbria and Kerala. Migration, and its relationship to development, can now be seen as a key area of expertise of the Centre for International Development’.”
Steve Taylor, Professor of Sociology, a member of Northumbria’s Centre for International development and Professor Rajan’s principal host during his time here, has organised the workshops.
He said: “We are bringing world-leading academics and practitioners within this field to Northumbria. It is only the beginning of a research and policy network, with Northumbria at its centre.”
The workshops take place on Tuesday 13 and Friday 16 November. They are the second and third in a series of four such events. The first took place at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London on 3 November, with the final workshop in the series due to take place at the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, India on 27 November.
Both events are free, with some limited funding available to support the attendance of PGRs and ECRs. Please contact stephen.a.taylor@northumbria.ac.uk for more information.
Northumbria's Centre for International Development brings together academics, practitioners and students to promote research, consultancy, teaching, training and public engagement on issues of global poverty and inequality, the communities and individuals who experience this, and the policies, practices and approaches that seek to address it.
Full programmes for the conferences below:
Tuesday 13 November 2018, 10am - 4pm
Workshop 2: Indian Transnationalism, Caste and Regional Inequality
- 10am - 10.15am - Welcome and Introduction
- 10.15am – 11am - ‘Dalit Overseas Migration and Inclusive Development: Punjab and Kerala’. Professor Steve Taylor, Northumbria University, UK and Professor S.I. Rajan, Centre for Development Studies, Kerala, India
- 11am - 11.45am - ‘Mapping Caste Abroad: Emerging Configurations of Diasporic Punjabi Dalit/Ravidassia Identity’. Professor Ronki Ram, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
- 11.45am -12.15pm - ‘Remembering and/or Forgetting Caste: Can International Migrants Choose ?’. Professor Meena Dhanda, University of Wolverhampton, UK
- 12.15pm – 1pm: Lunch
- 1pm – 1.45pm - ‘The Migration-Development Nexus, Inequality and Communal Politics in Gujarat’. Dr. Sanderien Verstappen, Leiden University, The Netherlands
- 1.45pm – 2.30pm ‘International Migration as a Diversification Strategy amongst Jat Farmers in Indian Punjab’. Dr. Shreya Sinha, Cambridge University, UK
- 2.30pm - 3.15pm - ‘Dalit Architecture: Regional Particularisms in a Global Context’. Professor Pramod Kumar, Institute for Development and Communication, Chandigarh, India
Friday 16 November 2018, 10am - 4pm
Workshop 3: Labour and Skill Mobility From and to India: Contemporary Practice and Governance
- 10am - 10.15am - Welcome and Introduction
- 10.15am – 11am - ‘Skilled and Unskilled Labour Migration: Evidence from the Kerala Migration Survey’. Professor S.I. Rajan, Centre for Development Studies, Kerala, India
- 11am - 11.45am - ‘Indian Skilled Migration and the IT Sector: A Gendered Analysis’. Dr. Gunjan Sondhi, The Open University, UK
- 11.45am -12.30pm - ‘Indian Skilled Mobility and Transnationalism’. Dr. Gabriela Tejada, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 12.30pm – 1.30pm: Lunch
- 1.30pm – 2.15pm - ‘Unskilled and Low-Skilled Migration from Bihar’. Dr. Rani Kumari, SOAS, University of London
- 2.15pm – 3pm ‘Indian Migration to Italy, Human Trafficking and Unskilled Labour ’. Dr. Pina Sodano and Dr. Marco Omizzolo, University of Roma, Italy
- 3.00 – 3.45 ‘Indian Labour Migration to China’. Professor Filippo Osella, University of Sussex, UK
