This year, the Law and Society Association Annual Meeting is taking place in Mexico City between 20-23 June 2017. CRN 11: Displaced Peoples inaugural presentations comprise one roundtable and three paper sessions featuring 16 presenters. The presentation details are as follows:
Round Table: Compassionate Migration and Regional Policy in the Americas on Tuesday, 20 June 2017 @ 8:00 AM – 9:45 AM
Abstract: This roundtable brings together contributors and other scholars relevant to a forthcoming interdisciplinary volume to be published in 2017 by Palgrave Macmillan that seeks to envision a transformation in migration policy throughout the Americas. Our foremost concerns are the design, adoption, and implementation of compassionate immigration reform in the United States and improved policymaking relations among the hemispheric nations, especially regarding unauthorized migration. Rooted in our concern over the ongoing securitization of U.S. migration policies and the humanitarian crises that have ensnared unaccompanied minors and families with children who flee violent conditions in Central America, and the persistent exclusion, disregard for fundamental human rights, and other dehumanization of unauthorized migrants, this roundtable explores what “compassionate migration” entails and which laws, policies, practices, and venues might establish compassion for migrants.
Presenters
Raquel Aldana, McGeorge School of Law
Steven Bender, Seattle University School of Law
Karla McKanders, Vanderbilt Law School
Evelyn Cruz, Arizona State Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
Paper Session: Rights, Politics and Protection: Global Forced Displacement on Tuesday, 20 June 2017 @ 10:00 AM – 11:45 AM
Abstract: In 2015, the United Nations High Commission for Refugee recorded high trends of global forced displacement. Some 65.3 million people (i.e., one person in 113) were displaced from their homes due to violent conflict, persecution and human rights violation in 2015. For those able to cross an international border (i.e., refugees and asylum seekers) their survival hangs on geopolitical narratives of terrorism, boundaries and global security. Those incapable of leaving (i.e., internally displaced persons) are faced with unprecedented exposure to real violence on a daily basis. While others linger within the space of being irregular, undocumented and stateless migrants, some, especially children and women are challenged with rebuilding their lives over a long period of time after the conflict ends. This Panel discusses the diverse nature of forced displacement in Africa and the Americas pertinent to children’s rights, refugee integration, state responsibility and migrants’ protection at sea.
Presentations
A Migration Story from the Sugar Fields of Southwest Guatemala
Blake Nordahl, McGeorge Law School
Bridging the Integration Gap: A Practical Proposal for Teaching Refugees about U.S. Law and Justice Megan Ballard, Gonzaga School of Law
Deadly Voyage: African Migrants Crossing the Mediterranean
Veronica Fynn Bruey, Australian National University
Internal Refugees in the Lake Chad Basin and the Displacement of International Law
Jerusa Ali, Carleton University
The Challenges and Opportunities for the Implementation of the Rights of Children in Displaced Situations: The Case of Refugee Children in Ethiopia
Kebede Brook, University of Gondar
Paper Session: Displacement, Violence and Criminal Justice System on Thursday, 22 June 2017 @ 8:00 AM – 9:45 AM
Abstract: Internal and/or international displacement of populations is diverse and complex. Irrespective of the type of method used to displace populations, tensions created in the process of mass movement can raise concerns of human rights, criminal justice and violence control. The Panel examines socio-legal policy intervention programs in addressing crime, political violence and mass movement at it pertains refugees, homeless persons, and other marginalized populations in Europe, North and South America.
Presentations
Crimmigration, belonging and deportation in American immigration courts
Lili Dao, New York University
From crime control to migration control – facing refugees as the dangerous other
Rikke Gottrup, University of Southern Denmark
Linda Kjær Minke, University of Southern Denmark
Annette Olesen, Aalborg University
Narratives amidst Mass Violence in Mexico. An analysis from the field of conflict studies to explore the potential of narratives in the aftermath of atrocities to promote collective moral judgments against violence.
Cesar Estrada Perez, The School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University
The Aftermath of the “El Bronx” and “El Cartucho”: An analysis of how Bogota has dealt with homeless strongholds and the relationship between rights, property rights, and social justice
Alberto Nieto, Universidad de los Andes
Paper Session: Narratives of Mobility and Protection on Friday, 23 June 2017 @ 8:00 AM – 9:45 AM
Abstract: Mobility is central to contemporary international and domestic legal definitions of a refugee. Vast numbers of people in need of protection, however, cannot move safely across borders or out of their countries of residence or origin. At the same time, many of those who are mobile and in need of protection do not fit within the limited, legal definitions of a refugee – and their mobility and arrival at so-called refugee receiving states is characterised as excessive, as a threat or as crisis. This panel considers how narratives of mobility, travel, protection and harm feature within asylum and migration law. The panel explores how these narratives influence the regulation of entry into sovereign states, both at their borders and within law and legal processes.
Presentations
Administrative Justice and ‘the Right to be Heard’ in UNHCR Refugee Status Determination
Niamh Kinchin, University of Wollongong
Queering International Law at its Inception: Excavating Narratives of Hospitality and Sodomy in the Right to Travel
Nan Seuffert, University of Wollongong
The Screening of Suffering: Film as a Technique of Government in Anti-Asylum Campaigns
Sara Dehm, University of Technology Sydney
Travelling Subjects: the Road, Credibility, and Narratives of Refugee Mobility
Anthea Vogl, University of Technology Sydney