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.
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.
To get involved...
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 events on LinkedIn and our other social media channels:
Seminar series
We hold weekly seminars in term-time, with both internal and external speakers. If you are interested in presenting your work to a migration studies audience, please get in touch at migration@sussex.ac.uk.
The SCMR seminar series has hosted a wealth of prominent international migration scholars over the years, as well as providing a forum for SCMR members to share their work.
See who has presented in the SCMR Seminar Series archive (pdf document from 2008-2026).
Annual conference
Our annual conference co-hosted with the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (JEMS), is a key community event, drawing together SCMR members, alumni and internernational speakers. Below you can see who has presented at our previous annual conferences.
Past SCMR-JEMS conferences
- 12th: Progressive migration perspectives in regressive times
Paul Statham, SCMR & Editor JEMS, Welcome Introduction
Keynote: Janine Dahinden NCCR-on the Move, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Migranticization as a Technology of Power
Joris Schapendonk, Radboud University, the Netherlands, Return migration infrastructure and the sleeking of ‘migration governance’
Sirijit Sunanta RILCA, Mahidol, Thailand & Paul Statham, SCMR, UK Research Note: Sussex-Mahidol Migration Partnership on Cross-Border Intimate Mobilities
Marcia Vera Espinoza, Queen Margaret Edinburgh, Scotland, Governing through Complexity: The Politics and Embodiment of Regularization Pathways in Latin America
Ayşen Üstübici, Koç University, Türkiye, How digital migration brokers shape aspirations and manage expectations for social mobility?
Rahsaan Maxwell, New York University, USA, Immigration preferences and political participation
- 11th: Migration dilemmas in a rapidly changing world
Paul Statham (SCMR Director & Editor JEMS) Welcome & Introduction
Keynote: Cecilia Menjívar, (UCLA) Categorization in Immigration Systems: Misalignments, Spillovers, and Omissions.
Laura Morosanu, (SCMR, Sussex) and Monica Serban (Romanian Academy) Return Migrants Contemplating Future Migration: A Temporal and Life Course Perspective
Nuno Ferreira, Moira Dustin, Kamran Matin and Mehran Rezaei Toroghi (SCMR, Sussex) present Negotiating Queer Identities Following Forced Migration (NQIfFM) project prior to screening of new documentary film over lunch
Susanne Wessendorf (Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry) Infrastructures of Kindness in the Context of Migrant Arrival
Christof Roos (Europa-Universität Flensburg). Individual freedoms and/ or collective responsibilities? The debate on emigration and its externalities in media in Eastern and Southern Europe
Michaela Benson (Lancaster) and Nando Sigona (Birmingham) Experiencing the coloniality of ‘Global Britain’ from below: Hong Kongers, Ukrainians and the citizenship-migration-asylum nexus after Brexit
- 10th: Re-thinking migration and inclusion in a divided world
Content
Paul Statham (SCMR & Editor JEMS) Welcome and Introduction
Keynote: Mary Waters, Harvard University (USA), Migration and Integration in the Era of Climate Change.
Merlin Schaeffer, University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Correcting Misperceptions about Ethnic Discrimination: The Limits of Awareness Raising to Promote Support for Equal Treatment Policies
Mike Collyer, Ceri Oeppen and Tahir Zaman, University of Sussex (UK), Beyond Livelihoods: A Protracted Displacement Economy Approach - SCMR Research Note
Lucy Mayblin, University of Sheffield (UK), Bringing Order to border: Illiberal racism, technocratic fantasies, and postcolonial borders
Linda Morrice, University of Sussex (UK), Integration as challenge and solution: Walking a tightrope (authors: Linda Morrice, Jenny Phillimore and Alison Strang)
Mike Slaven, University of Lincoln (UK), Securing Borders, Securing Power: the Uncertain Politics of Securitizing Migration
- 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
