Engaging migration: Community and collaboration in restrictive times

The 23rd Nordic Migration Research conference explores the opportunities and obstacles for multicultural society by highlighting how communities, authorities and civil society intersect in local everyday life: How are the rights and experiences of migrants and minorities shaped, and what social, cultural and political factors influence their living conditions? The theme highlights both barriers and possibilities for collaboration, resilience, and social justice in an era of increasing restriction.

Over the past decades, migration and diversity have become highly contested across Europe and the Nordic countries. Restrictive policies, narrowing definitions of national identity, and hostile public debates have profoundly affected the lives of migrants and minorities and the communities they live in. States have tightened access to legal residence and migrants have been increasingly framed as economic burdens and threats to security and cohesion in public discourse. In this context, cultural symbols and social values are used to determine who belongs, or not, by using negative perceptions of migrants and refugees, albeit shrouded in obscurity and misrepresentation through terms such as second-generation immigrants, foreign background and ‘disadvantaged’ areas. Yet these legal and discursive changes are themselves contested. Local and migrant communities, families, and organisations continue to create new spaces of solidarity, participation, and belonging.

Keynote speakers:
Gloria Ladson-Billings, professor emerita, FBA, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Philip Lalander, professor Social work, Linnaeus University
René León Rosales, Multicultural Centre, Botkyrka & Södertörn University
Rashid Musa, senior teacher and lecturer on racism