Archive for the ‘migration’ Category

Podcast: Obama's policy challenges and the future of US immigration

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

Photograph of Professor Audrey Singer. Oxford, 5 March 2009. Photo: Forced Migration Online.

This podcast was recorded at the Refugee Studies Centre’s Astor Lecture which was on Thursday 5th March 2009 at Rewley House, University of Oxford. Professor Audrey Singer, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution gave the lecture on the subject of Obama’s policy challenges and the future of US immigration.

Escaping North Korea: Talks and book signings in Oxford & London

Friday, February 6th, 2009

Photograph of North Korean soldiers.

A Podcast of the Oxford event is now online.

The first of its kind, this book provides a rare and unique inside look into the hidden world of ordinary North Koreans. Mike Kim, who worked with refugees on the Chinese border for four years, recounts their experiences of enduring famine, sex-trafficking, and torture, as well as the inspirational stories of those who overcame tremendous adversity to escape the repressive regime of their homeland and make new lives.

In Escaping North Korea, One of the few Americans granted entry into the secretive “Hermit Kingdom,” Kim came to know the isolated country and its people intimately. His North Korean friends entrusted their secrets to him as they revealed the government’s brainwashing tactics and confessed their true thoughts about the repressive regime that so rigidly controls their lives. Civilians and soldiers alike spoke of what North Koreans think of Americans and war with America. Children remembered the suffering they endured through the famine. Women and girls recalled their horrific sex-trafficking experiences. Former political prisoners shared their memories of beatings, torture, and executions in the gulags.

Oxford
10th March 2009, 7.30pm – 9.00pm
Nissan Lecture Theatre
St Antony’s College
University of Oxford
Organised in association with the Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford Department of International Development

London
11th March 2009, 7.00pm – 9.00pm
Room G50
The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
Organised in association with the SOAS Amnesty Group

IASFM 11 Conference: Plenary 4 Podcast

Monday, April 7th, 2008

Photograph of Eftihia Voutira, Mehmet Yashin, Stephanos Stephanides, Giorgia Donna, Elzbieta Gozdziak, Arild Birkenes and Zachary Lomo. Cairo, January 2008. Photo: Forced Migration Online/John Pilbeam.

The latest podcast in a series recorded at the bi-annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) is now available online.

The fourth plenary event began with poetry readings by Mehmet Yashin and Stephanos Stephanides, followed by a panel discussion ‘The Voices of the Displaced in Forced Migration Research’ chaired by Elzbieta Gozdziak, with Eftihia Voutira, Giorgia Donna, Arild Birkenes and Zachary Lomo as the panelists.

IASFM 11 Conference: Plenary 3 Podcast

Thursday, March 27th, 2008

Photograph of Susan Martin, Aicha Belarbi, Ahmet Icduygu, Mark Schlakman, Susan Kneebone, and Jeffrey Crisp at the third plenary event of IASFM 11. Cairo, January 2008. Photo: Forced Migration Online/John Pilbeam.

The latest podcast in a series recorded at the bi-annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) is now available online.

The third plenary event included a panel discussion ‘Regions at the Crossroads: Transregional Forced Migration’ chaired by Susan Martin, with presentations by Mark Schlakman, Aicha Belarbi, Jeffrey Crisp and Ahmet Icduygu and Susan Kneebone.

Forced migration film screenings in London

Monday, March 17th, 2008

Image from the London International Documentary Film Festival 2008

As part of the London International Documentary Film Festival (29th March – 5th April 2008) four films were screened on the topic of forced migration.

Saturday 29 March, 8.00pm Renoir Cinema

“La Americana” (The American)

Dir. Nicholas Bruckman/ Co-Dir. John Mattiuzzi, USA/Bolivia/Mexico, 2008, Special Preview

October 2000, Cochabamba, Bolivia. Carmen, a young single mother, faces a life-changing catastrophe when her nine-year-old daughter is badly injured in a bus accident.

Unable to pay the hospital bills and for specialized care, Carmen makes the dangerous journey to the US to work illegally, staying for 6 years to raise what she believes will be enough money to support her daughter for life.

But when she returns home to Bolivia she discovers her savings are nowhere near enough. Should she stay with her ailing daughter, or make the perilous journey back to the US for a second time?

A portrait of the human side of the current immigration crisis in America.

Tickets £7/£6 Curzon members
Box office: 0871 703 3991, Renoir Cinema

Saturday 5 April, 11.05pm Stevenson Theatre, British Museum

Next Station (Próxima Estación)

Director: Estela Ilárraz, 2007, Spain, 69min, UK Première

A group of Ecuadorean immigrants in Madrid. They came to Spain to work, to support their families, but they desperately want to go home.

But if they go to Ecuador to visit their families, they know they will never again be able to get back to Madrid to work.

Ya Oromia

Director: Amanda Walsh, 2006, Australia, 5min, European Première

In the overcrowded housing estates of North Melbourne lives a young African woman, an Oromo, forced to leave her beloved homeland and family in fear of persecution.

Now she is reunited with her daughters, after more than six years enforced separation. The family must adjust to living together again in a new country.

For My Children (Por Mis Hijos)

Director: Aymee Cruzaleguí, Spain, 2007, 16min, World Première

What is a woman willing to do to make a better life for her children? Norma, a Latin American immigrant in Barcelona, struggles with the pain of solitude, forced to live away from her family in order to support them.

Tickets £3.00
Box office: 0207 323 8181, British Museum

For full programme see the LIDF08 website.

18th December: International Migrants Day

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

18th December: International Migrants Day

To mark International Migrants Day on 18th December 2007, Oxfam Publishing is providing free online access to Oxfam books, journal articles, policy papers and programme learning on migrants and migration.

The resources can be found on the Oxfam
Publishing website
.

OARS project establishes an HE advisory network

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

In November 2007, the FMO team established a network of advisors for the OARS project, comprised of representatives of higher education (HE) institutions in the UK. Students, researchers and academics from universities and colleges form the backbone of FMO’s user community. It is therefore important to involve them in the FMO portal’s redevelopment and enhancement.

On behalf of the FMO team, the Director of the Refugee Studies Centre, Professor Roger Zetter, wrote to academic departments and centres in the UK requesting their input. They were asked to complete a brief questionnaire about their usage and opinions of FMO. This information will be used to inform the team in its work to make the enhancements to FMO through the OARS project.

We would strongly encourage all users of FMO – whether or not they be in the HE sector and/or in the UK – to contribute to the OARS project and assist the team in making the most appropriate changes to FMO to benefit all users. Further details can be found on the OARS project website, and the questionnaire can be completed and submitted online.

Forced Migration Online Podcast 2: Professor Elizabeth Colson

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007

Photo of Professor Elizabeth Colson. Cambridge, April 2006. © Alan Macfarlane, Cambridge University, www.alanmacfarlane.com

In this podcast Professor Elizabeth Colson is in conversation with Dr Anna Schmidt. Elizabeth Florence Colson is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work in anthropology addresses politics, religion, social organisation, social change, migration, anthropological history, and theory and the ethnography of Africa and North America. Colson is best know for her field work with the Gwembe Tonga of Zambia which began in 1956, through the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute as a control study of the social change caused by forced resettlement. All of Colson’s work is solidly anchored in ethnography and through it she has made theoretical contributions to the subdisciplines of applied development and political anthropology. Colson was also one of a group of academics that played an important role in consolidating the Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford in its early years, working closely with the former director, Dr Barbara Harrell-Bond and the development officer at the time, Belinda Allan. Dr Anna Schmidt is a political scientist who gained her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley.