MIGLOBA DAY – January 2025

We’re delighted to invite you to the MIGLOBA Day 2025, an event dedicated to the University of Antwerp’s Network on Migration and Global Mobility. 

By bringing together old and new members, the MIGLOBA Day offers the opportunity to get to know the MIGLOBA network, its main research themes, and its members. By fostering collaboration, knowledge exchange, and the development of new ideas within the network, we hope to strengthen our network and inspire future research projects and partnerships. 

This event also provides the occasion to reflect on and discuss the latest trends and research findings within the migration and global mobility research conducted at the University of Antwerp. During the day, four speakers will present their research, representing the four MIGLOBA research themes, namely: 

1) Diversity and Civil Society 

2) Social Inclusion and Migrant Populations

3) Global Mobility and Governance and 

4) Media and Mobility

Practical information

Date: Thursday, 16 January 2025

Time: 10:30  to 13:00

Place: University of Antwerp, Grauwzusters Building S, Promotiezaal

10:30 - 11:00 | Coffee & registration

• Olivier Sterck – Institute of Development Policy (IOB) –  is an Associate Professor at the University of Antwerp (IOB) and the University of Oxford, and lead economist of the Refugee Economies Programme at the University of Oxford. Olivier's research uses applied econometrics and economic modelling to study refugee economies. He has published articles in the Economic Journal, the Journal of Development Economics, World Development, and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and previously collaborated with, among others, the World Food Programme and the World Bank to assess the impact of humanitarian and development programmes.

The Market Effects and Welfare impacts of Cuts and Delays in Humanitarian Assistance: Experimental Evidence from Kenya. 

In 2022, a staggering 406 million people required humanitarian assistance globally - a twofold increase since 2018. Donor funding is however lagging behind, forcing humanitarian actors to cut or delay vital assistance. We study the impacts of cuts and delays in humanitarian assistance by exploiting high-frequency panel data collected over a one-year period among 622 South-Sudanese refugees living in Africa's largest refugee camp, Kakuma (Kenya). Every month, refugees received a combination of cash and in-kind transfers, which were always delayed and whose value was reduced by approximately 20% during the research. We find that aid cuts and delays have dramatic effects on nutrition, food security, food stocks, assets, and expenditures. Adverse effects are partly mitigated by market effects, as prices decrease following the drop in demand resulting from lower or delayed transfers. 

• Alberto-Horst Neidhardt – Faculty of Law; European Policy Centre –  is a Senior Policy Analyst and Head of the European Diversity and Migration programme at the European Policy Centre (EPC). He works on asylum and migration law and policies, multiculturalism, disinformation, and the politics of migration, EU citizens’ rights, and free movement. Alberto obtained a PhD in EU law from the European University Institute. He lectures at the University of Antwerp on legal pluralism and at the Catholic University of Lille on EU governance, migration policy and ethical policymaking.

Another Brick in the Wall? The External Migration Agenda in the New Cycle.

As the European Union enters its 2024–2029 policy cycle, the migration agenda is increasingly centred on debates around the external dimension of migration management. Following reforms to the Common European Asylum System, EU institutions and member states have shifted focus towards cooperation with non-EU countries on asylum, return processing, and reception outside the EU. Reflecting these trends, in May 2024, over half of EU member states endorsed a declaration calling for innovative measures to reduce irregular migration. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen then committed in October to to a series of further actions in the new cycle, including strengthening partnerships with non-EU countries and exploring ideas such as “return hubs”. This presentation will analyse the geographical focus, objectives, and potential implications of the EU’s externalisation efforts in the new EU policy cycle.

• Noel Clycq – Department of Training and Education Sciences – is an Associate research professor, Department of Training and Education Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences. His main research interests are education, inequality, diversity and difference, migration and resources.

Out of school learning? Lessons for mainstream education. 

In this presentation, he brings together insights from the different research projects he is involved in. These projects study how educators in ‘mainstream’, regular schools and educators in ‘community’, weekend schools address issues of inequality, identity and resources in their classroom and what lessons might be gained from sharing knowledge,  experiences and strategies. 

• Sarah Anschütz – Department of Sociology; Utrecht University – is an FWO-funded Research Fellow at the University of Antwerp, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning at Utrecht University. Her research explores different aspects of young people's transnational lives between West Africa and Europe, including their (digitally mediated) mobility, social positionings, affective experiences, and educational and professional trajectories. She employs multi-sited, mobile and multimodal ethnographic methods in her work, with a focus on graphic anthropological, participative and digital approaches.

Blurring Borders: How Migrant-Background Youth Navigate ‘Homeland' Connections Online and On the Move.

Young people with a migration background engage with their ‘homelands’ through online interactions and in-person visits. Migration research has largely examined digital technology as a tool for maintaining kinship ties and facilitating migratory journeys. Drawing on research with Ghanaian-background youth in Europe, this talk seeks to explore what we can learn from employing both a youth-centric and a mobilities perspective in research on media and migration. Growing up in a world where online and offline spheres blur, migrant-background youth navigate ‘homeland’ connections in novel ways. On this basis, I demonstrate that 1) online information and social connections produce youth mobilities and shape mobility imaginaries; 2) experiences of (dis)connectivity deeply influence embodied practices in and affective senses of the ‘homeland’; and 3) digital media enable youth-specific ‘homeland’ engagements distinct from adult patterns. Overall, young people are inherently on the 'frontline' of emerging global dynamics and their digital lives tell us much about the changing character of transnationalism.

13:00 – 14:30 | Lunch & Networking​

Registration will be possible until the 12^th of January. Early registration is appreciated, so that we can plan the catering accordingly. 

If you have any questions regarding organisational matters, please reach out to Lena Richter or Amalia Innocenti.  

Looking forward to seeing you there!