Concept Note

Migration flows have taken increasing complexity, which indeed is one of the main marks of contemporary time. Refugees, asylum seekers, labour migrants, ecological refugees, stateless groups – all are rolling into one massive and mixed phenomenon signifying population shifts in global geo-political and geo-economic context. In this context, it has become even more important to study labour flows and labour control systems regulated by institutions, infrastructures, processes, and practices. Equally important is to study the new formations of space and time effected by footloose families, transformation of cities, existence of Diasporas, global commodity chains including care chains, and migrants’ modes of encountering borders, boundaries, immigration control systems, surveillance systems, interception methods, etc. This situation – marked by (a) massive and mixed flows and (b) transformation of the migration dynamics – puts the old strategies of protection at odds with the evolving scenario. The categories of protection are found of decreasing relevance. The implications cut across legal, national, administrative lines of protection. It has become worse due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic. People all over the world not only lose their lives due to the disease, but also due to massive joblessness, lack of public health facilities, and massive financial crisis.

The current challenges to the global protection system for refugees and migrants along with new protection issues in the light of the UN initiated two global compacts for the protection of refugees and migrants. The states along with different global agencies tried different protection measures to fight against the pandemic. But, the treatments or protections they have taken for the migrants and refugees are questioned from different aspects. Different research organisations and civil society initiatives have pointed out the discrepancies and loopholes of the global and the state-based agencies regarding different protection measures (e.g. public health, law and order etc.). The inequalities related to gender, race, caste and other vulnerabilities have become more prominent and the neo-liberalist agendas of the states get a new dimension during this pandemic crisis. Several discussions have been organised to address these problems. Several books, reports and policy papers have been published. Calcutta Research Group (CRG) has also published books (Borders of an Epidemic, A Pandemic and the Politics of Life), a policy brief (Burdens of an Epidemic) to address the pertinent questions on global protection regime during the pandemic.

In this background, the Calcutta Research Group in collaboration with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung and Institute for Human Sciences Vienna (IWM) will organise a research and orientation workshop and international conference on ‘Global Protection on Migrants and Refugees’ from 15th-20th November 2021 in Kolkata. The orientation programme will have the larger Asian situation in mind, while the focus will be on South Asia and the neighbouring countries around the region. CRG has the experience of running for twelve years an annual winter workshop on issues of forced migration, racism, and xenophobia. Every year the course had a focal theme (Please see the past programmes section of CRG website for details – http://www.mcrg.ac.in/winter.asp). The key theme for this year’s workshop and conference is ‘Global Protection on Migrants and Refugees’. The workshop will aim to engage with the new realities of migration as well as various approaches to the theoretical, methodological, and legal challenges to grasp the complex phenomenon of migration. The workshop and the conference will provide a space for debate and exchange between academia and practice, and will aim at stimulating discussion between scholars, legal practitioners, media activists, representatives of what is called the “civil society”, and personnel belonging to governments and international humanitarian agencies.

The workshop and conference will revolve around six research themes.

Module A: Protection and Punishment (race, caste, and policing);
Coordinator- Nasreen Chowdhory, Delhi University, Delhi & CRG.

Module B: Migrant workers and the refugee: complicated terrains of welfare and asymmetric social protection;
Coordinator: Manish K. Jha, TISS, Mumbai & CRG and Mouleshri Vyas, TISS, Mumbai & CRG.

Module C: Refugees and migrants as subjects of economics, politics, and gender division;
Coordinators- Ranabir Samaddar, CRG and Arup Sen, Serampore College, Kolkata & CRG.

Module D: Forced Migration, law and critical jurisprudence;
Coordinator – Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury, CRG & Rabindra Bharati University.

Module E: Derogation of rights of refugees and migrants, and situations of statelessness;
Coordinator- Parivelan K. M., TISS, Mumbai & CRG.

Module F: Protection Ethics and Practices of Care and Solidarity
Coordinator- Samir Kumar Das, University of Calcutta & CRG.

Notification || Revised Notification || Poster

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