Conferences
For information on location and
time of current conferences,
see Research Seminars.
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May 20-21, 2005: Diasporic Homecomings:
Ethnic Return Migrants in Comparative Perspective
This conference will examine various groups of ethnic return
migrants—diasporic peoples who return to their ancestral
homelands after living outside their countries of ethnic origin
for generations. Conference participants will compare the ethnopolitical
reception of ethnic return migrants in different East Asian
and European countries and its impact on their ethnic experiences.
Diasporic return migration has often been enabled by extraterritorial
citizenship and immigration policies of homeland governments
based on imaginings of a broader ethnic nation beyond state
borders that encompasses diasporic descendants abroad. Nonetheless,
ethnic return migrants frequently receive an ambivalent reception
in their homelands and are often marginalized as immigrant minorities
because of their cultural differences and low socioeconomic
position, forcing them to reconsider their national identities
and loyalties and their previously idealized images of the ethnic
homeland. Conference
Agenda
May 15, 2004: Third Annual Undergraduate Research
Conference
A forum for UCSD undergraduates majoring in any discipline to
present their senior thesis projects or other independent research
addressing international migration and refugee issues to fellow
students, faculty, and other researchers. Conference
Agenda
November 4, 2003: Rolling Back Immigrant Rights
in the United States--The Aftermath of 9/11
Academics and legal practitioners reviewed the erosion of
immigrant and refugee rights caused by various national security
measures implemented (and planned) by the U.S. government in
the period since the September 11 terrorist attacks, including
Patriot Acts I and II, the selective detention of Arab immigrants,
increased border enforcement, and a Supreme Court ruling against
due process for immigrants. Efforts to defend immigrants against
such measures, as well as the future status of immigrant and
refugee rights in the continuing "war on terrorism," were discussed.
October 24-25, 2003: The International Migration
of "Traditional Women"
Migrant Sex Workers, Domestic Workers, and Mail-order Brides
in the Pacific Rim
CCIS hosted an interdisciplinary conference on the international
migration of women filling traditional women's roles in the
Pacific Rim region. The Pacific Rim region has witnessed considerable
growth in female migration over the past several decades, particularly
from less developed states such as the Philippines, Thailand,
and Indonesia into more developed states such as Japan, Hong
Kong, Taiwan, the U.S., and Canada. Many of these female migrants
become domestic workers, sex workers, and mail-order brides
in the receiving states, providing housecleaning, child care,
cooking, elderly care, and/or sexual services. That is, there
is an apparent demand in more developed states in the Pacific
Rim not for generic labor, but for a certain kind of woman to
provide the kinds of gendered services and caring labor historically
relegated to women. Concurrently, the industries that recruit,
traffic, and broker migrant women for these gendered roles have
developed into multi-million dollar enterprises. These emerging
markets have consequences for the social structures of both
sending and receiving states in the Pacific Rim. They also have
consequences for the migrants themselves, who are often subject
to abuses not easily addressed through labor laws.
Conference
Agenda.
December 3, 2002: Forced Migration, Global
Security, and Humanitarian Assistance
Scholars and non-academic professionals working with refugees
addressed current themes in forced migration through a combination
of theoretical and practical approaches. Topics included: the
causes of refugee flows, their impact on receiving countries,
implications for international security, and humanitarian responses.
Conference Agenda.
December 10, 2002: New Immigrants and Credit Unions
Academics and the CEOs of credit unions discussed the utilization
of credit unions for economic advancement by recent immigrants
to the United States, including measures to facilitate and promote
immigrant access and use.
Conference Agenda.
October 18-19 , 2002: Reluctant Hosts? Japan as a Recent
Country of Immigration in Comparative Perspective
A multidisciplinary group of immigration specialists analyzed
the extent to which immigrant labor has become "structurally
embedded" in Japanese society because of various demographic
and other socioeconomic processes. Given the permanence of immigrants
in Japan, the project then examines local-level efforts to socially
integrate them into Japanese society. The Japanese case will
be placed in comparative perspective by analyzing similar issues
in other "recent" countries of immigration (Korea, Spain, and
Germany). The results of the project have been published as
a CCIS anthology.
Conference Agenda.
May 28, 2002: Panel on Policy Challenges for International
Migrant Rights
Four CCIS Visiting Research Fellows discussed, questioned, and
challenged the relationship between rights, residency, and migration
from sociological, economic, and legal perspectives and compared
policies of immigration and emigration in various international
contexts in order to launch an ethical and practical inquiry
into rights.
May 25, 2002: Second Annual Undergraduate Research Conference
A forum for UCSD undergraduates majoring in any discipline to
present their senior thesis projects or other independent research
addressing international migration and refugee issues to fellow
students, faculty, and other researchers.
Conference Agenda.
May 17-18, 2002: Controlling Immigration: A Global Perspective
Participants compared immigration control policies and outcomes
in 11 major labor-importing countries (the United States, Canada,
the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Italy, France,
Australia, Japan, and Korea). They sought to explain the persisting
gap between the goals of immigration control policies and their
results through in-depth country case studies with special attention
to human smuggling operations and the relationship between immigration
control and security issues. The project culminated in an edited
volume (second edition) published by Stanford University Press.
Conference Agenda.
May 16, 2002: Winter 2002 Research Workshop: UC Comparative
Immigration and Integration Program
(Co-sponsored by CCIS and the International Organization
for Migration, co-chaired by Philip Martin, Professor of Agricultural
and Labor Economics, UC-Davis, and Wayne Cornelius, Director,
CCIS.)
Topics included border control expenditures and measures of
their effectiveness in selected immigrant-receiving countries.
February 19, 2002: Immigrant Women in the U.S. Domestic
Service Industry
This panel discussion was based on presentations by the
following two speakers:
Kristin Maher (Assistant Professor of Political Science,
San Diego State University) "Labor Brokers and the
International Maid Trade: The Commodification of 'Traditional
Femininity' in a Global Market"
Rhacel Salazar Parrenas (Assistant Professor of Women's
and Ethnic Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison) "Migrant
Domestic Work and the International Division of Reproductive
Labor"
April 24, 2001 (12:00-3:00 p.m.), Panel Discussion: Grounding
Transnational Lives: A Dialogue
Drawing upon case studies reflecting the uniqueness of transnational
lives, panelists discussed the transnational social fields (domestic,
educational, religious, leisure, etc.) within which individuals
operate and engage in identity politics. Participants discussed
the specificities of how lives unfold and the nature of commitments,
interests, and ties across borders.
April 17, 2001: The State of Migrant Labor
in the Western United States: Then and Now -- A Symposium
Six leading scholars and a migrants' rights advocate discussed
the past and present challenges facing Mexican and Central American
migrant farm workers in California, Oregon, and Washington state.
Issues included migrants' changing relations with employers,
labor contractors, and labor unions; migrant housing problems;
the ways in which undocumented immigration status affects migrants'
access to jobs and terms of employment. This event was part
of UCSD's first annual César Chávez state holiday observance,
sponsored by the UCSD Chancellor.
February 23, 2001: Winter 2001 Research Workshop:
UC Comparative Immigration and Integration Program
(Co-sponsored by CCIS)
CCIS Visiting Fellows, faculty and graduate students from various
UC campuses spoke on "A New Migration Era? U.S.- Mexico Migration
under Fox and the New U.S. Administration," "New Directions
in Immigration Policy in Germany and the EU," and "Recent Developments
in Immigration in Asia."
Conference Agenda.
February 16, 2001: Exclusive Citizenship: Mexico-to-U.S.
Migrants and Indigenous People in Mexico
(co-sponsored by CCIS, the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies,
and the Ernesto Galarza Public Policy and Humanities Research
Bureau)
This conference brought together scholars from various disciplines,
social activists, and public officials from Mexico and the U.S.
to discuss the consequences of recent legal and policy changes
affecting citizenship (including expatriate voting and cultural
rights) for indigenous peoples in Mexico and Mexican migrants
in the U.S.
January 25-28, 2001: American Identities, Transnational
Lives
A preview of cutting-edge research in the multidisciplinary
field of immigration studies. Thirty Fellows of the Social Science
Research Council's International Migration Program reported
on their recently completed research, and 10 senior immigration
scholars commented.
May 25, 2000: Immigration and Integration
of Asians and Jews to Latin America
From the late 19th Century to the present, with leading historians
and anthropologists presenting new papers. An edited volume
is expected to result from this conference.
Conference Agenda.
May 12-13, 2000: International Migration
of Highly Skilled/Professional Workers to the U.S. and Canada
The papers presented at this conference have been published
as a CCIS Anthology.
Conference Agenda.
