Call for Papers: Global Labor Migration: Past and Present

Call for Papers



The Global Labor Migration Network has announced its call for papers for this international summit. The application portal is now open. Full instructions can be found below. Applications are due via the application portal by July 1, 2018. Presentations on labor migration in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are particularly encouraged.

The following thematic areas will be prioritized for projected panels: 

• Host country immigration policy and politics
• Sending country/emigrant relations
• Women and care-worker migration issues
• Populism, restrictionism, and anti-immigrant movements
• Refugees and asylum-seekers
• Trade unions and host worker/immigrant worker relations
• Neoliberalism/post-neoliberalism and immigration policy
• Regulatory strategies for ensuring decent work for migrant workers
• International organizations and NGOs (U.N., ILO, World Bank, Care, Oxfam, etc.)
• Race, ethnicity, and migrant labor markets
• Free/unfree labor, trafficking, and the global migrant labor system
• Im/migrant rights activism

Conference Location:

• International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam
  
  Cruquiusweg 31, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Conference info:

Labor migration is a vast, global, and highly fluid phenomenon in the 21st century, capturing public attention and driving political controversy. There are more labor migrants working in areas beyond their birth country or region than ever before.

Although scattered across the social ladder, migrant workers have always clustered, at least initially, in the bottom rungs of the working class. Even as cross-border or inter-regional movement may beckon as a source of hope and new opportunity, the experience for the migrants and their families is often fraught with peril.

Labor migrants are vulnerable: they are exploited more easily by recruiters and employers, and are less likely to benefit from union representation. They often face arrest or deportation when attempting to fight for their rights, and are bound to special documents that limit their ability to change jobs.

Moreover, as recent history reminds us, host-country fears directed towards labor migrants can also spark larger political movements characterized by nativist, racist, or even outright fascist tendencies. Clearly, there is a need to combat fear with understanding and to reach for improved global regulations and standards to protect the rights and welfare of migrants alongside those of host country working people.

Applicants are encouraged to submit full panel proposals, including a chair, commentator, and no more than three papers; individual paper submissions will also be accepted.

• The submission form may be found here
  
  The deadline for submitting proposals is 11:59 P.M. EST, July 1, 2018.
• If you have any questions about this event, please don't hesitate to contact us.
• More info on the conference website