From 18 to 20 September 2024 the 8th Conference on Migration Research in Austria will take place at the University of Innsbruck. The call for panels and papers is now open.

From a postmigrant perspective, migration research is a comprehensive examination of the prevailing power relations in local, national, European, and global contexts. The postmigrant perspective implies an open and holistic approach to (im)mobilities and migration societies. It involves dealing with discriminatory and racist structures and it makes ambiguities and marginalised perspectives visible. These should not be located at the margins, rather they express inequalities ranging from the global to the local level. Against this background, it is important to rethink (im)mobilities and arrival from different disciplines and perspectives (including world societal, postcolonial, decolonial, and subaltern), to establish a forward-looking and solidary understanding of migration and society, and to design a new topography of the possible. 

Postmigrant perspectives are currently used in academia to engage with migration societies. In addition, they inspire artistic activities and social movements. This conference will connect these existing concepts with the increasing research on global inequalities and (im)mobilities, which has likewise distanced itself from the migrationist focus. Instead of concentrating on one group of mobile people, it considers their unequal treatment against the background of global mobility. Can postmigrant perspectives form a common denominator to bring together these different research approaches? How would the theory have to be rethought to make this possible?

At the same time, the conference calls for developing postmigrant perspectives responding to the current context. Glocal and global polycrises promote national polarisation and postfactual ideologies, which are accompanied by increasing anti-migrant mobilisation and a political shift to the right, not only in Austria.

Against this background, the conference will focus on the following questions:

• What are the challenges and topics that migration research faces in the 21st century?
• What does critical migration research mean in view of global polycrises, tendencies towards social division, and postfactual politics?
• Which creative and newer methodological approaches have emerged from current migration research?
• To what extent do the arts influence and shape the discourse on migration?
• Which diversity-conscious and inclusive practices can be discerned in migration related fields of action and how are these implemented?

The organisers call for proposals for panels and papers and are particularly interested in proposals displaying a multidisciplinary orientation and/or using a postmigrant perspective to discuss global inequalities, (im)mobilities, and migration societies. However, there are no thematic restrictions: the call is open to all panels and papers dealing with any further themes related to migration, mobility, and integration.

Proposals for panels and papers can be submitted in English or German. Early-stage researchers are specifically encouraged to submit proposals for papers and panels, and panel submitters are encouraged to involve early-stage researchers.

The deadline for submission of proposals is 29 January 2024. Find further information on the conference website.

This conference is organised by the ÖAW’s Commission for Migration and Integration Research and Institute for Urban and Regional Research together with the University of Innsbruck’s Research Centre for Migration & Globalisation, Doctoral College Dynamics of Inequality and Difference in the Age of Globalization, Faculty of Educational Sciences/Department of Educational Science/Migration and Education, Philosophical and Historical Faculty and the Faculty of Geo- and Atmospheric Sciences. Collaborating institutions are Eurac Research, Bozen, and the MCI Management Center Innsbruck. In addition, local institutions and initiatives from Innsbruck participate as cooperation partners.