GCRO at an international conference on forced migration

Sally Peberdy presented a paper at the 16th biennial conference of the International Association of Forced Migration Studies in Poznan, Poland in July 2016. The theme of the conference was ‘Rethinking Forced Migration and Displacement: Theory, Policy and Practice’.

Held for the first time in Central Europe, the conference was organised against the backdrop of significant changes in refugee movements, particularly in Europe, but also in other parts of the world. These changes, and responses to them, have led to heated debates about who belongs and where, as well as how to manage the movement of refugees. In the words of the organisers, the main theme of the conference was to engage in discussions as to ‘when, how and why forced migrants have “the right to have rights” to quote Hannah Arendt.’ The conference brought together academics, scholars, practitioners and activists from across the world.

Sally was invited to join a panel organised by Eve Lester of the Australian Catholic University, entitled ‘Rocking the Boat: Barbarians at the Border. The Sovereign Right to Include and Exclude: Doctrine? Ideology? Discourse? Perspectives on Policies of Inclusion and Exclusion’. Sally’s paper, ‘The state, nationhood, belonging, exclusion and business in South Africa’, was based on existing South African policies and changes to immigration and refugee legislation envisaged in the recently published South African Green Paper on Immigration, as well as recent GCRO research on entrepreneurship. Co-presenters on the panel were Eve Lester and Baz Schotel from the University of Amsterdam.

See the Trade and the future economy of the GCR project for further detail regarding Sally’s ongoing research into cross border migration and trade.

Cover photograph for news item by Peter McKenzie.