SCMR Events

The SCMR has a vibrant research community of migration scholars, doctoral researchers and MA students. We host a regular series of lively and well attended events.

Paul Statham presenting to a room of people at the SCMR conference 2021

SCMR events

The SCMR hosts regular events, including conferences, a seminar series, symposia and social events for the SCMR community. Our postgraduates also often organise their own student-led events with SCMR support.  

Our key annual event is an international conference in conjunction with the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (SCMR-JEMS Conference), where leading international scholars are invited to present their latest research; these conferences are usually attended by 120-200 people.

Along with the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change (MiSoC), the Essex Centre for Migration Studies and UEA Migration Network, SCMR supports an annual Cross-Institutional PhD Colloquium on Ethnicity and Migration.

Forthcoming events

Our next annual SCMR-JEMS Conference will be in the autumn (fall) semester. You can view the 2023 poster, details for the 2024 conference will be shared here when available.

Our autumn 2023 seminar series schedule is available, and you can download the schedule here.

Details of events, such as seminars and symposia, will be shared via the SCMR email list. If you would like to be added to the SCMR mailing list, then please email migration@sussex.ac.uk.   

We also advertise items on our social media channels.

Events archive

The SCMR seminar series has hosted a wealth of prominent international migration scholars, as well as providing a forum for SCMR members to share their work.

Have a read of the SCMR Seminar Series archive from 2008 onwards.

Below you can see photos and presenters from our annual conferences.   

Past SCMR-JEMS conferences

  • 9th: Migration and global inequalities

    19th October 2022

    Keynote: Anna Korteweg (Toronto) and Gökçe Yurdakul (Humboldt) ‘The Gendered Racialized Politics of Non Belonging: The Repatriation of European IS Members and their Children’

    Kristin Surak (LSE) ‘Golden Visas and Golden Passports: What is Really Going on Globally?’

    Sarah Scuzzarello (SCMR) SCMR Research Note: Introducing the Exhibition 'Queer Migrations'

    Mirna Safi (Sciences Po) and Haley McAvay (York) ‘Personal vs. Group Discrimination: distinct patterns and differential consequences’

    James Hampshire (SCMR) ‘From huddled masses to best and brightest: global inequalities and migration governance’

    Ron Skeldon (SCMR; Maastricht) ‘Migration Futures’

    Photo gallery: 9th SCMR-JEMS conference

  • 8th: Migration futures - which ways forward?

    17th November 2021

    Jonathan Rigg (Bristol) ‘Connecting migration transitions & development transformations in Asia’

    Miri Song (Kent) ‘Rethinking arguments about expanding the boundaries of whiteness’

    Maria Wardale (SCMR) Presentation of Fotonomads’ Virtual Photography Exhibition “Strength of Friendship”

    Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (UCL) ‘Displacement and beyond: Refugee-led responses to politically-produced precarities’

    Marta Bivand Erdal (PRIO) and Ceri Oeppen (SCMR) ‘Theorising voluntariness in return migration’

    Adrian Favell (Leeds) ‘Immigration, integration and citizenship: elements of a new political demography’

    Photo gallery: 8th SCMR-JEMS conference

  • 7th: Migrations in turbulent times

    2nd November 2019

    Keynote: Rhacel Salazar Parreñas (University of Southern California Dornsife) ‘The mobility pathways of migrant domestic workers’

    Willem Schinkel (Erasmus University Rotterdam) ‘Migration as Border’

    Renee Luthra (University of Essex) ‘Origins and Destinations: the Making of the Second Generation’

    Rahsaan Maxwell (University of North Carolina, Chapell Hill) ‘Does local context affect asylum seeker integration? County-level data from Germany’

    Paul Statham (SCMR) ‘Living the long-term consequences of Thai-Western marriage migration: the radical life-course transformations of women who partner older Westerners’

    Photo gallery: 7th SCMR-JEMS conference

  • 6th: Global migration and mobilities - facing the challenges of exclusion

    21st November 2018

    Keynote: David FitzGerald (University of California, San Diego) ‘Refuge Beyond Reach: How Rich Democracies Repel Asylum Seekers’, with response by Renee Luthra (University of Essex)

    Nicola Piper (University of Sydney) ‘The Right to Decent Work: Global Social Governance and Migrant Precarity’

    Sirijit Sunanta (Mahidol University) ‘Globalising the Thai 'high-touch' industry: exports of care and body work and gendered mobilities to and from Thailand’

    Ilse van Liempt (Utrecht University) ‘Being Far Away From What You Need. The Impact of Dispersal on Resettled Refugee's Homemaking and Place Attachment in Small to Medium Sized Towns in the Netherlands’

    Adrian Favell (University of Leeds) ‘"Integration" in "Immigration" Studies: Twelve Propositions’

    Photo gallery: 6th SCMR-JEMS conference

  • 5th: Migration matters - global challenges

    29th November 2017

    Keynote: Nancy Foner (Hunter College and the Graduate Centre of the City University of New York), ‘The Uses and Abuses of History: Understanding Contemporary U.S. Immigration’, subsequently published in JEMS, with response by Paul Statham (SCMR)

    Nando Sigona (University of Birmingham and Institute for Research into Superdiversity) ‘‘We must stop this carnage’: The politics of death and rescue in Europe’s refugee crisis’

    Naika Foroutan (Berlin Institute for Integration and Migration Research (BIM), Humboldt University) ‘Dynamics of Postmigrant Societies - Ambivalences between Acceptance and Rejection of Plural Democracy’

    Michaela Benson (Goldsmiths) and Karen O’Reilly (University of Loughborough) ‘Lifestyle migration: colonial traces, neoliberalism and the search for a better way of life’

    Eric Fong (Center on Migration and Mobility, Chinese University of Hong Kong) ‘Migration Patterns in East Asia’

    Ronald Skeldon (SCMR and University of Maastricht) ‘Illusions of migration: illusions of control. Reflections on current patterns, trends and approaches’

    Photo gallery: 5th SCMR-JEMS conference

  • 4th: Migration and changing societies - research agendas

    30th November 2016

    Keynote: Irene Bloemraad (University of California, Berkeley), ‘(Why) Does Citizenship Matter? Theorizing Mechanisms & Mapping the Research Landscape’, with response by Marc Helbling (WZB, Berlin)

    Sandro Mezzadra (University of Bologna), ‘Logistics, Mobility, and Migration. A New Emerging Agenda for Migration Research?’

    Patrick Simon (Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques, Paris) ‘Discriminations in a Colorblind Society: Racial, Ethnic & Religious Divisions in France’

    Susanne Choi (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) ‘Migration and Masculinities: Masculine Compromise, Continuity and Change’

    Alan Winters (Migrating Out of Poverty (MOOP) Consortium, University of Sussex) ‘Is it changing jobs or changing places that matters for income? Internal migration in China’

    Heaven Crawley (Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University) ‘Between the Devil and The Deep Blue Sea: Understanding the Dynamics of Migration Across the Mediterranean in 2015’

    Photo gallery: 4th SCMR-JEMS conference

  • 3rd: Migration and diversity - a dialogue across disciplines

    16th March 2016

    Keynote: Roger Waldinger (UCLA, California) ‘A cross border perspective on migration. Beyond the transnationalism / assimilation debate’, subsequently published in JEMS, with response by Jørgen Carling (PRIO)

    Brenda Yeoh (National University of Singapore) ‘Reflections on Diversity in SE Asia’

    Magdalena Nowicka (Humboldt University, Berlin) ‘Migrant spaces, shared values and negotiated meanings’

    Alexander Betts (University of Oxford, Refugees Studies Centre) ‘Reflections on the refugee ‘crisis’’

    Elaine Chase (UCL, London) ‘The shifting contours of ‘precarity’: The wellbeing of former unaccompanied migrant children in UK’

    Photo gallery: 3rd SCMR-JEMS conference

  • 2nd: Frontiers in comparative migration research

    2nd SCMR-JEMS Conference: 11th March 2015

    Keynote: Richard Alba (CUNY Graduate Center) ‘The challenges of integration in North America and Western Europe’, with response by Adrian Favell (SciencesPo Paris)

    Gökçe Yurdakul (Humboldt, Berlin): ‘Secularism, religion and diversity: The contradictions of a European identity’

    Rahsaan Maxwell (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): ‘The cultural importance of occupations for the acceptance of immigrant-origin minorities in the national community’

    Antje Ellerman (University of British Columbia): ‘The Comparative Politics of Immigration Policy Making: A Theoretical Framework’

    Claire Dwyer (UCL): ‘Researching the transnational geographies of suburban faith in London and Vancouver’

    Charles Watters (Sussex): ‘Seeking Refuge in Europe: Reflections on the Moral Economy of Deservingness’

    Photo gallery: 2nd SCMR-JEMS conference

  • 1st: Negotiating diversity

    1st SCMR-JEMS Conference: 10th April 2014

    Keynote: Rogers Brubaker (UCLA California) ‘Linguistic and Religious Pluralism: Between Difference and Inequality’ Subsequently published in JEMS

    Christian Joppke (University Bern): ‘Has Multiculturalism Failed?’

    Paul Statham (SCMR Sussex): ‘Worlds Apart? Public debates and everyday views on Muslims/Islam’

    Marc Helbling (WZB Berlin): ‘How state support of religion shapes religious attitudes to Muslims’

    Pieter Bevelander (MIM Malmo): ‘The influence of spouse and country of origin on naturalization in Sweden’

    Els de Grauuw (CUNY New York): ‘Making immigrants’ rights real: non-profit advocacy with the city bureaucracy’

    Photo gallery: 1st SCMR-JEMS conference