TOPICS AND AGENDA
During three days, 15 migration experts working for international organisations, non-governmental sector, research institutions and academia from Austria, France, Germany, Kenya, The Netherlands, Slovakia, Switzerland, Thailand, United States and United Kingdom lectured about:
- Migration myths and data based migration policy-making;
- Migration governance and future scenarios of international migration;
- Current migration development – perspective from countries of origin;
- Vulnerabilities and human rights of migrants;
- Environmentally induced migration;
- Labour migration and the risks of modern slavery.
Participants had a chance to explore impact of current actions for the future migration policy-making through interactive role-play board game developed by the EU Policy Lab of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre.
Among lecturers in alphabetical order were:
- Amr Taha, Senior Regional Liaison and Policy Officer, IOM Regional Office for South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Austria
- Argentina Szabados, Director, IOM Regional Office for South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Austria
- Arjen Leerkes, Associate Professor of Sociology, Erasmus University Rotterdam & Full Professor of Migration, Securitzation and Social Cohesion, Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, Netherlands
- David Brown, Researcher, Antislavery Ecosystems project, University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab, United Kingdom
- François Gemenne, environmental geopolitics and migration dynamics specialist, Paris School of International Affairs, France
- Jasper Daf Tjaden, Data and Survey Officer, IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC), Germany
- Jeffrey Labovitz, Regional Director, IOM Regional Office for East and Horn of Africa, Kenya
- Kanta Kumari Rigaud, Lead Environment Specialist & Regional Climate Change Coordinator for Africa, World Bank Group, U.S.A.
- Kilian Kleinschmidt, Founder of Innovation and Planning Agency (IPA), Austria & former director of Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan
- Lara White, Senior Specialist for Labour Mobility and Human Development, IOM Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Thailand
- Liza Schuster, Co-Founder of Afghanistan Migrants Advice and Support Organization (AMASO), Afghanistan & Sociologist at City University London, United Kingdom
- Nassim Majidi, Co-Founder and Director, Samuel Hall, Kenya & Research Associate, Wits University, Africa Center for Migration Studies, South Africa (online lecture)
- Penelope Kyritsis, Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Worker-Driven Social Responsibility Network & Research Associate for the Worker Rights Consortium, USA (online lecture)
- Zuzana Vatráľová, Head of Office, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Office in the Slovak Republic
EVENING PROGRAMME
Apart from the day sessions, the programme included also a public event Migration caused by Climate Change where screening of the new documentary film Anote's Ark about impacts of climate change was followed by discussion with experts from Kenya, USA and Czech Republic on related migration aspects. Detailed information is available here.
PARTICIPANTS
The 2018 seminar targeted mainly professionals from the public administration, non-profit sector and academia based in Slovakia who deal with or are interested in the topics related to migration of third-country nationals. The seminar continued to be open also to participants coming from/nominated by other EMN National Contact Points based in all EU Member States and Norway.
More than 70 participants attended the seminar, coming from/representing Slovakia and seven other countries. They were representatives of state and public administration, state implementing authorities, intergovernmental organisations, non-profit sector, think tanks and independent experts, academia, Slovak municipalities, self-governing regions and associations.