Preface
Overall aim of the project
In addition to the research events, the project publications include articles, books and commentaries, as well as a robust online presence, both through CRG and the IWM. Through its events and publications, the Europe-Asia Research Platform on Forced Migration has established a closer collaborative relationship between Europe and South Asia by bringing on board fellows who focus on the variety of topics in the science of forced migration. These topics were addressed through the research of the fellows, as well as through the launch of the above-mentioned activities, collaborations and public events.
Project activities
Kusumika Ghosh, a researcher from the Europe-Asia Research Platform on Forced Migration, was a Chair Fellow this year and regularly contributed to the resources on the page. In addition, Piya Srinivasan who is also a researcher of the Europe-Asia Research Platform on. For CRG they are Neetu Pokharel ('Statelessness and the Plight of Women in Nepal'), Mujib Ahmad Azizi ('War, Conflict, Climate Change and Internal Displacement in Afghanistan'), Niloy Ranjan Biswas ('The Remaking of Rohingyas in the Host Communities of Cox's Bazar: The Intersectionality of Identity, Politics and Culture'), and Nadarajah Sooriyarajah ('Migrants in India's Health Infrastructure: Ethnography on India's Frontline Workers').
Two other collaborators (from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka; they could not attend the workshop in 2019) were invited after CRG's South Asian partners from the University of Dhaka and the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies, Colombo, Sri Lanka, suggested their names. . The ASeminar series on Forced Migration as part of the Europe-Asia Research Platform on Forced Migration was planned and launched in November 2020. Organized by IWM, the event also preceded the official and inaugural conference of the Europe-Asia Research Platform on Forced Migration.
Workshop: The epidemic, migrants and the media; 4-5 December 2020 The multi-day workshop included a variety of activities in the programme, including panel discussions and presentations, as well as a book release by Shoaib Daniyal, Scroll.in, Delhi. The discussions ranged from the media coverage and imagination of migrants during the pandemic; issues of caste, representation and rights; and borders and statelessness in the aftermath and during the Covid-19 pandemic. Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Vienna, organized a roundtable conference on 24 June 2020 to discuss 'Borders of an Epidemic: COVID-19 and Migrant Workers'. The recording is accessible at https://soundcloud.com/user-769802309/covid-19-pandemic-and-the-spectral-presence-of-migrant-workers-and-refugees. The LIDC Migration Leadership Team at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London has published a blog which is from the chapter "Introduction: Borders of an Epidemic" of the recently published book "Borders of an Epidemic: Covid-19 and Migrant Workers" was withdrawn", the former written and the latter edited by Professor Ranabir Samaddar and published by the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (2020).
In IWM's "Made in IWM" online section, Ayşe Çağlar wrote a commentary on "The Multiple Tenses of a Postcolonial Age of Migration" on Ranabir Samaddar's ThePostcolonial Age of Migration. In addition to the contributions presented by IWM and CRG colleagues and researchers, scholars and policy practitioners from the discipline and from institutions in Europe and Asia, such as Sedef Dearing from the ICDMP (International Center for the Development of Migration Policy), Vienna, were invited as discussants. The workshop created a platform where scholars participating in the Europe-Asia Research Platform on Forced Migration would have the opportunity to meet and learn about each other's work, and at the same time engage them and others present at the workshop in a productive dialogue on various topics, including:. a) cities of various sizes in Asia and Europe facing a growing humanitarian crisis, as forced migrants live mainly in inhospitable urban environments;. The final version was shown at the CRG workshop on "Epidemic, Migrants and Media" in December.
Burdens of an Epidemic” was translated by Pranav Jha. The editors of the books are Anamika Priyadarshani and Gopal Krishna who were commissioned by CRG for editing and translation. Media Workshop: CRG's workshop on the theme of "The Epidemic, Migrants and the Media" sought to bring seasoned journalists together with young reporters to explore the role of the media in reporting the migrant crisis.
Resources
Insights from project evaluations
These events were very interactive and one segment fed into another, starting a lot of dialogue and covering important ground on different aspects of forced migration and the pandemic. Workshop, held on December 21-22 with the participation of faculty working on forced migration and displacement from South Asia and Europe. Similarly, CRG's initiative to bring together individuals and institutions working on migrant issues during the pandemic, labor rights activists, policy experts, trade unionists, journalists, lawyers and scholars to bring together the Migrant Solidarity Forum has led to an exciting and important virtual plenary meeting. session at CRG's fifth annual research and orientation workshop and conference and the creation of a solidarity network that will be expanded into the coming year.
An important example of good practice during the pandemic was the effort to ensure that every safety protocol was in place during the physical, virtual and hybrid component of CRG's three major workshops under the IWM project: the Fifth Annual research and orientation workshop and conference on the global protection of migrants and refugees; the media workshop on the theme “The epidemic, migrants and the media” and the teacher workshop on “Research methodology and syllabus formation in migration and forced migration studies”. An extensive set of circulars was prepared for the workshop and conference – the largest of the workshops in terms of size – to ensure adherence to these protocols at every step of the planning and organization of the conference. Another important insight was the synergy between the CRG Forced Migration Office and the presenters at the events.
For example, at the fifth research workshop and conference, one of the participants complained of a persistent headache, which is also a Covid-19 symptom, and we made the difficult decision to send her back home mid-session to ensure that a further crisis has not occurred. The trip to Kolkata's tourist attractions, which was an integral element of CRG's workshop and conference, was also first converted to a bus trip and then had to be canceled due to Covid-19 concerns. We also encountered resistance at times while implementing certain health and safety protocols, such as producing Covid-negative certificates and insisting that masks be worn at all times.
Researchers contracted from India covering various aspects of forced migration had to negotiate a lack of mobility and access to the field, which made fieldwork a sometimes impossible task.
Risks
There were many workshop cancellations due to fear of Covid-19 or because they contracted the virus themselves. With public libraries and archives closed due to the pandemic, access to research materials has been very difficult. All international participation had to be shifted to the virtual medium, and sessions were sometimes held in a hybrid format of physical and virtual interaction.
The spending plan developed at the beginning of the year had to be shaken up significantly, with strict restrictions on travel and public gatherings. Due to the lockdown, Piya Srinivasan, the research associate of the CRG-IWM project, was not able to participate until July, leaving very little time for her to develop her own research paper and work on the programs. At the IWM, some publications and both workshops and fellowships had to be postponed. There were also several factors beyond the control and jurisdiction of CRG and IWM, such as the constantly evolving nature of the Austrian and Indian central and state governments' Covid-19 protocols.
All this had to be done more prudently this year, given the increased uncertainties. Also, there had to be constant revisions and cancellations of airfares scheduled for visiting fellows from South Asia due to changing rules and each country implementing its own set of protocols. Sudden lockdowns have been implemented in pockets of the city, depending on the level of infection, which has meant revising staff presence to allow those in "red zones" to work from home.
The unforeseen consequences of the pandemic made it difficult to predict the implementation of the project itself.
Summaries
This brought its own limitations, which placed limitations on clear communication between the speakers and the audience, especially when the speaker was virtually present. Even in a normal year, migration and forced migration is a difficult research topic to get approved by the authorities. In 2020, CRG worked on migrant worker crises, formed a solidarity forum to bring together activists and other interventionists, and fully participated in the critical review of state policies on migration in times of a pandemic.
However, most of these risks could be circumvented with the cooperation of partners and members of CRG. The pandemic has prompted CRG researchers to look at the issue of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons from a new perspective as this crisis exposes the day-to-day vulnerabilities of these populations and what may become the 'entitlement' of much of society mentioned has worsened. . This year it also ventured into research into public health in relation to migration for the first time.
CRG's three major workshops—the November workshop and conference, the media workshop, and the teacher workshop—along with the June midterm workshop anchored at the IWM, along with numerous meetings, webinars, seminar series, and public lectures provided platforms for the presentation of scholarly research and discussions. Overall, IWM and CRG's collective research output examines how debates on migration and statelessness in Asia and Europe intersect and can collectively provide a greater understanding of the fault lines of migration in the 21st century of postcolonial politics and global governance.
Annexures
Migrant Workers and the Pandemic: A Socio-Legal Study of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979.
