----- Forwarded Message -----
From: G Sanchez <gabriella.sanchezevangelista@xxxxxxxxx>
To: urbanth-l@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, October 9, 2016 11:05 AM
Subject: [SUNTA] Critical Approaches to Human Smuggling Facilitation: the
theory and praxis of human smuggling
Hello everyone,
We would appreciate your help disseminating the following call.
Many thanks!
Gabriella Sanchez
Callfor PapersCriticalApproaches to Irregular Migration Facilitation:
Groundingthe Theory and Praxis of Human SmugglingUniversityof Texas at El Paso
El Paso, Texas (USA) April 6,7 and 8, 2017
Thefacilitation of irregular migration – labelled by the state as migrant,
peopleor human smuggling – has been primarily articulated as a violent,
exploitative practiceunder the control of transnational crime. It has also been
tied to oftenproblematic articulations of class, race, gender, informal forms
of labour and sexwork. Furthermore, the language of crisis, crime, violence and
humanitarianismoften associated with references to smuggling has reified
specific geographic locationsand their people as inherently dangerous and in
need of surveillance andcontrol. Amid this context, the explosive
militarization of border controlpractices and stricter immigration
criminalization policies have beenarticulated as the only effective measures to
fight the alleged spread ofsmuggling, depicted as a global security threat
under the control of networksof vast, dark reach. The migratory flows in the
Mediterranean, the Horn and theNorth of Africa, the Pacific, the Middle East,
the US Mexico Border and Centraland South America; the punitive efforts to
control human mobility and thenarratives pertaining to transits and their
facilitation are clear examples ofthis approach. More often than not unintended
outcomes have ultimately outweighednational security and border protection
policy. The vast border and immigrationenforcement systems have prompted
spiralling financial costs. Attempts to blockor contain migration routes have
only redirected unauthorized migration flows intomore dangerous and remote
routes, leading to the injury, death anddisappearance of thousands of people on
the move. Furthermore, border enforcementhas played a role in the very reliance
of migrants and refugees on oftendubious facilitators of migration services or
criminally-organized entitiesthat engage in specific forms of violence. Amid
the panic causedby the overly-simplistic, fear-driven narratives of smuggling
and those behindtheir facilitation, the social, economic, cultural, moral and
affective significanceof smuggling to and from the perspective of its actors
(facilitators, clients,their families and communities) has remained vastly
unexplored. To this date, narrativesof tragedy, death, graphic violence, and
transnational crime have continued toobscure the basic realization that the
facilitation of irregular migration is ultimatelya response to the lack of
channels for legal entry and transit to which so manyyet specific few are
subjected. Building on theexperience at the European University Institute in
Florence in the Spring of2016, this second edition of the Smuggling Workshop
seeks to continue theconversation towards empirically grounded smuggling
research, a field oftensilenced by the onslaught of anecdotal evidence or
technocratic-legalisticperspectives concerning the facilitation of irregular
migration. This timearound the workshop will have a particular focus on
collectively building thetheory and documenting the praxis of human smuggling,
relying on theempirically documented perspectives of its actors. This workshop
is acollective effort to comprehend the ways in which migrants, refugees,
theirfamilies and communities along with those facilitating their transits
perceive,talk about, and partake in the phenomenon. The workshop takes place at
acritical time in migration studies, when despite the vast abundance
ofscholarship on the lives of migrants and refugees, grounded empirical work
onthe processes involving their journeys and the effects and affects inthem
interwoven is still scant and scattered across the disciplines. A gathering of
innovativeand critical voices in smuggling from academic and policy circles,
the workshopseeks to consolidate the creation of an interdisciplinary and
global collectiveof professionals engaged in the empirical study of migration
facilitation thatintegrates perspectives from the global north and south. With
this goal in mind,we invite abstracts on the theme of irregular migration/human
mobilityfacilitation for an international workshop to be held on April 6, 7 and
8, 2017at the University of Texas at El Paso. We seek to bring together
critical,empirical engagements on the facilitation and brokerage of irregular
migrationas witnessed locally, regionally and comparatively. Some themes
toconsider include theoretical and empirical engagements with: 1. The
politicaleconomy of human smuggling/facilitation of irregular migration2.
Trans-Local/trans-regional/globalsmuggling practices3. Comparativeand
historical perspectives on smuggling4. Theconverge of migration
facilitation with other criminal/ized markets and/orpractices5.
Smuggling,trafficking and “modern day slavery” 6. Etiologyof violence and
victimization in smuggling7. Philosophical,ethical and moral dimensions of
smuggling8. Race,class and gender as manifested in smuggling practices and
smuggling research9. Theoryand methods in smuggling research and their
implications and critiques10. Anti-smuggling lawenforcement and prevention
campaigns (risks, side-effects and consequences)11. Role of stakeholdersin
anti-people smuggling operations (IOM, UNODC, Frontex, CBP, ICE, etc.)12.
Global migrationgovernance and domestic law initiatives on anti-people
smuggling measures OUTCOMESBuilding on theexperience of the first workshop,
selected contributions will be part of aseries of proposals for special issues
and/or edited collections on thefacilitation of irregular migration. We look
forward to receiving andconsidering submissions that encompass the complexity
of migration facilitationacross and within regions, regimes and time periods,
and for selectedparticipants to be engaged in the publication process.
SUBMISSIONSPreference will begiven to work that draws on ethnographic research.
Please submit a 250-300word abstract to smugglingworkshop@gmail.comby November
15th, 2016. Participants will be notified of theiracceptance by December 1st,
2016. Organizers will provide verificationletters for participants requiring
visas. Workshop papers are due by March 15th,2016. Please be advised that as a
condition of your acceptance, and giventhe working, creative and intensively
collaborative nature of this secondedition of the workshop, all participants
must commit to submit their work bythe deadline. Questions can be addressed to
the organizers,Luigi Achilli at the European University Institute
(Luigi.Achilli@xxxxxxx), Antje Missbach at MonashUniversity
(antje.missbach@xxxxxxxxxx)and Gabriella Sanchez at the University of Texas at
El Paso (gesanchez4@xxxxxxxx).
_______________________________________________
urbanth-l mailing list
urbanth-l@xxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.capalon.com/lists/listinfo/urbanth-l
Attachment:
pdftGOZlMHyYk.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document
