I. Descriptions of lectures and seminars

“Socio-Economic Dimensions of Post-Accession Migration” (Dr. Izabela Grabowska-Lusińska)

Short description:
In order to understand in depth why and how people migrated so massively and dynamically after EU enlargement in May 2004, it is important to take into account both social and economic dimensions of this phenomenon, also in a theoretical perspective. The lecture will focus on: (1)  primarily changing dynamics of post-accession migration, including period of global economic crisis; (2) types and forms of post-accession migration as comparing to the pre-accession times; (3) households’ strategies; (5) socio-economic consequences of post-accession flows both  for sending and receiving countries and (6) return migration.

“Migration and Work: Migrants’ Occupational Careers” (Dr. Izabela Grabowska-Lusińska)

Short description:
Seminar will be devoted to problem of occupational mobility of migrants and the meaning of migration to their occupational careers. Participants will be discussing: various careers’ metaphors and methodology of researching careers (qualitative and quantitative approaches) and various case studies of people who experienced international migration throughout the course of their lives.

“Gender and Migration” (Prof. Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir)

Short description:
Today the number of men and women who migrate internationally is about equal but the pattern of migration in terms of destination is clearly gendered. Gender relations affect who migrates and why, how the decision is made, the effects on migrants themselves, on sending areas and on receiving areas. Including gender in the study of migration began only in the 1980s and as in many other areas of study began with making female migration visible. In my lecture I will briefly discuss the developments in gender and migration research but will mostly focus on recent concerns. Currently migration is seen as a gendered phenomenon. Gender analysis of migration is being undertaken across a wide variety of spatial scales, from the local and familiar to the national and global. Scholars of migration in various fields of study investigate gender in the lives of both female and male migrants. They examine for example such questions as: Are the politics and governance of migration gendered?  How do different kinds of mobilities influence different women and men’s life? What is the role of sexuality in migration research? They examine gender in the workplaces of immigrants, in neoliberal or welfare state policies toward migration.

“Survey Methods for Migration Studies” (Dr. Michał Wenzel)

Short description:
The workshop will be a presentation and discussion of applying survey research methodology to the study migration and attitudes to migrants. Surveys are a convenient method for studying the constraints on the reception of migrants in the host country: quantitative research on the general population may help identifies areas where immigrants may face adaptation problems. On the other hand, surveys  (and other types of quantitative methodology) may be used to study the scale of migration and the opinions of the immigrant community. In the workshop, challenges regarding the methodology will be presented on examples of research conducted in recent years in Poland.    

”Multimodality of Migrants’ Narratives” (Dr. Aleksandra Galasińska)

Short description:
Migrants often told their stories of departure, voyage, coping and settling down, or indeed struggling with their new live. Oral version of these accounts as well as written forms such as letters, diaries or memoires have been a focus of analysis by researches representing numerous fields.  Explosion of new technologies and new form of communication enable storytellers to extend the range of ways of narrating their experiences. This seminar will explore migrants’ accounts delivered in many different modes of discourse. Students will be presented with a variety of examples of migrant storytelling, ranging from traditional oral narratives, press texts, forum discussions, (photo)blogs, and other visual material. Methodologically, this seminar will be anchored in textual, narrative and visual analysis and students will discover how to look for, identify, and follow patterns of similarities and differences at the level of both, form and content, of data under investigation.

“Post-accession Migration: Migration Grand Narratives vs. Migrants’ Small Stories” (Dr. Aleksandra Galasińska)

Short description:
Semi-private discourses of economic migration are going to be investigated during this lecture, which focuses on an internet forum discussion triggered by newspaper reports and articles on Polish recent migration to the UK (in the aftermath of the 2004 EU Enlargement). Dynamics of Polish discourses on migration will be explored by pointing to the evident discursive struggle between, on the one hand, the new accounts on migration in the early 21st century and, on the other hand, Polish ‘old’ historical grand-narrative of migration. Two questions are going to be examined in particular: 1) what constitutes post-enlargement migrants’ narrative of migration; and 2) how this narrative is created and how it is used as a form of negotiation with, as well as resistance towards, the national, historically-bounded, decontextualised (as well as, to a large extent, mythical) grand narrative of migration. In conclusion the link between discourses of migration and new trans-local discourses of Polish social and economic transformation in the context of the EU expansion after 2004 will also be scrutinized.

“Polish and Filipino Migrants in Iceland” (Prof. Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir, Ms. Anna Wojtyńska)

Short description:
Until very recently Iceland was quite homogeneous country with very small foreign population. In the recent period of economic expansion the inflows of foreign nationals increased dramatically and the number of immigrants rose up to 9% of the total population in 2007. The vast majority of them were coming from European countries (71%), predominantly from Poland (30%) and only a small percentage from Asia (19%). The financial crisis that began in the fall of 2008 slowed down immigration process, however it did not stop it. Taking examples of Polish and Filipino migrants in Iceland we will discuss mechanism of contemporary economic migrations in Europe.

”Migration and Ethnicity” (Dr. Magdalena Elchinova)

Short  description:
The lecture will try to outline the interrelations between the study of migration and the study of ethnicity. The overlapping will be discussed of methods and subject matters, with particular attention to the concepts of nation, national identity and citizenship. Various examples of social discourses will be discussed, such as ones in which ethnic minorities and immigrants are regarded as synonyms, as well as ones where these two concepts signify of different entities. A closer look will be given to the development of migration studies in Bulgaria out of the tradition of ethnic studies.

“Shifting Theoretical Models of Migration in Anthropology” (Ms. Anna Wojtyńska)

Short description:
Migration was hardly in the scope of traditional anthropology; neither were modern (“complex”) societies. The reason for this – as Carolline Brettell explains – was prevailing at that time definitions of culture, seen as territorially rooted, discrete, static and relatively homogeneous (2000, 97). Anthropologists were mostly occupied by portraying different ways of life of distant peoples, paying little attention to issues of flows and connectivity. However, increased mobility of the studies people to Western world finally brought interest of anthropologists. As Nancy Foner neatly put it “(…) anthropological research on migration is, to a large extent, about what happens when the people studied on their home turf turn up living next door (Foner 1999, 1268).” 
In my lecture I will shortly outline the history of migration studies in the field of anthropology, while my main focus is on the recent theoretical development – theories of transnationalism, and how they are applied in migration studies. Since transnationalism acquires slightly different meanings in the works of different migration scholars, I will present how it was defined by it forefathers and how the understanding of transnational migration has changed within years.

“The Border as Locality and Temporality in Migrants’ Practices and Narratives” (Dr. Magdalena Elchinova)

Short description:
The lecture will focus at the different interpretations of the border, with particular attention to borders as spaces (structuring space) and as temporalities (constructing memory, past experiences, local or individual histories). The case of the Bulgarian-born Turks, re-settlers in Turkey since 1989 will be extensively discussed with regard of issues such as: the formation of transborder local communities, the narrative re-construction of group identity and of memories of the traumatic past.

"Borders, the State, and Migration" (Dr. Alexandra Schwell)

Short description:
Pierre Bourdieu portends to the "danger of always being thought by a state that we believe we are thinking". For Weber, state sovereignty is defined by the monopoly over the legitimate use of force. But what is the state, and how can we conceptualize the state in social and cultural sciences? In the course of nationalization and extensive homogenization the idea of the nation state as a quasi-Herderian cultural space has been quite pervasive among different populations and political classes. This comes along with the imagination of a supposedly and far-reaching incommensurability of cultures, whereas "culture" in popular discourse is perceived as something static, eternal and unchangeable – something a person "has" (or has not). Mental boundaries and institutionalized borders both play a pivotal role for the imagined national community in the construction of Self and Other and are thus particularly prone to the securitization of external threats from anywhere 'behind the border', and from the "East" and "South-East" in particular. Participants will discuss various examples of how migrants are depicted as the de-individualized and threatening Other by both tabloid media and political and public discourse.

"European Identity and Migration Policies" (Dr. Alexandra Schwell)

Short description:
This course will scrutinize the way the EU shapes migration and asylum policies in its member states. Particular attention will be paid to the East-West asymmetry and the question of how migration is adapted and reproduced as a security issue after EU enlargement. Since the new member states had to submit to a homogenizing Europeanisation process, they also had to internalize the EU-15's concept of the "threatening other(s)" and shape their bureaucracies and policies accordingly. Furthermore, the European Neighborhood Policy aims at delocalizing and delegating migration controls ("remote controls") outside EU territory. Therefore, the EU's insistence on terrorists, irregular migrants, and organized crime as extraordinary threats to internal security is a practice that is both discursive and institutionalized in practical actions. Security, however, is differently experienced and culturally imagined in different contexts. In the course, we will analyze policy tools and concepts and discuss their repercussions on mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion with regards to European identity formation.

“Re-traditionalization of Serbian Diaspora in Denmark” (Prof. Kristine Juul)

Short description:
Migrants' perceptions of issues such as the welfare state, democracy, gender equality, traditions and family values reflect, on the one hand, a wish to adapt to shifting social and political environments in the country of settlement, and on the other, political and social transformations in the homeland that are likely to bring former values and norms under stress.
In the course we will explore the often contradictory ways in which re-traditionalization of Serbian society as well as the changing norms and regulations of the Danish society, have impacted on the cultural and social practices of the Serbian families in Denmark, and how this has acted to shape and reshape their perceptions of notions such as family, religion, democracy and the inclusionary welfare state. In the case of the Serbian community in Denmark issues such as bio-rytms, royalism and religion have for example suddenly acquired prominence among certain layers of the Danish-Serbian community.

“Migration and Tourism in Europe” (Dr. Anna Horolets)

Short description:
The main aim of the course is to demonstrate the variety and complex nature of links between migration and tourism. These two forms of mobility are often studied separately, yet there a number of reasons to treat them as interconnected and mutually dependant forms of mobility both at the macro lever (e.g. Hall and Williams 2002) and at micro level of lived experience of European migrants-tourists. By using the examples from my own current field work in the UK as well as research of other anthropologists and sociologists I will aim at raising the discussion on how tourist and recreation mobility is intertwined with tourism.

“Tourism, Culture and Society” (Prof. Antonio Miguel Nogués-Pedregal)

Short description:
Tourism is a global phenomenon and the world’s largest industry. Most countries and regions rely upon tourism to enhance national and local economies. These facts make tourism one of the leading forces of cultural change and, therefore, a suitable subject of anthropological analysis. In this lecture some of the major theoretical approaches to tourism is presented, and special attention is paid to the multidisciplinarity of tourism studies. Ethnography of culture in diverse tourism environments is analysed through class commentaries.

“Tourism, History and Politics: Post-communist Tourism” (Ms. Agata Bachórz)

Short description:
In the seminar, I will study the case of Polish travelers touring Russia, basing on in-depth interviews and travel literature. I will focus on the picture of Russia in Polish travel narrations, trying to find out the meaning of Russia for some part of today Polish society. Polish experience of Russia is based on the long presence of Russian discourse in Polish culture. On the other hand, it is connected  to the notions of adventure and transgression, often bodily understood. I also assume that Russian culture and society is often romanticized, archaised, ruralised and orientalised by Polish travelers, which is the way of building  their own identity, in terms of West and East orientation. Summarizing, I will examine the function of Russia in Polish travel experience, looking for its roots both in anthropology of travel and Polish cultural resources.

“The New Mobilities in Tourism Destinations” (Prof. Antonio Miguel Nogués-Pedregal)

Short description:
Many people from North-Western Europe have quite long stays in some Euro-Mediterranean territories, partly related to phenomena such as ‘wintering’, seasonal movements and sabbatical holidays, for the most part dwelling in their own houses or apartments. During the session intercultural relations of long-term visitors will be explored and some important questions in consolidated tourism context analysed.

“Discourse and Conversation Analysis in Mobility Studies” (Prof. Dorota Rancew-Sikora, Dr. Anna Horolets)

Short description:
The discussion of Conversation Analysis (CA) in multicultural setting will include considering two domains: a) talking as a social structure – what are the consequences of second language use among natives in the spheres of interpersonal relations, employment and health? and b) conversa­tional rules of membership categorization: “tourist”, “immigrant” or “ethnic minority member”. The discourse analytical tools discussed will focus on the possibilities on the selected categories of self and other presentation according to critical discourse analysis perspective.

"Psychological Adaptation of International Students" (Dr. Monika Biłas-Henne)

Short description:
Participants will gain basic understanding of the process of adaptation to the new cultural environment. The lecture will focus on acculturation theories (affective, behavioral and cognitive); and will describe core concepts for acculturation (culture shock concept and re-entry shock). Students will also have an opportunity to get to know a new notion in cross-cultural psychology, so called multicultural buffer - group/community of sojourners who shield themselves from external reality of the host culture and cope with it through mechanisms of internal support. Through the buffer stress may be diminished but at the same time it inhibits acquisition of the host culture competences. The consequences of being a part of a multicultural group for psychological (well-being) and socio-cultural adaptation to the host culture will be discussed.

II. Round table on transnationalism

Round table will consist of a round of statements from the scholars who adapt the paradigm of transnationalism to their research on migration and mobility, followed by a round of questions from the students and the academic staff; the final part of the round table will be the replies and summary comments by the round table leaders.

III. Simulation  “Debate on Migration in Europe”

Students will be distributed roles of relevant social actors (representatives of economic and state institutions, media and NGOs), provided with exemplary “problem issue” and get involved in a debate on the situation of migrants in Europe. The envisaged learning outcomes are a) developing the skills of rational debate; b) acquiring the knowledge of how language works as a social practice; c) acquiring skills of policy oriented analysis of migration and mobility.

IV. Students’ presentations

Students who have expressed their wish to present their ongoing research will present the research design of their project and receive comments and questions from student sessions’ convenors (members of academic staff) as well as their colleagues.