On the Use of Visual Methods to Understand Local Immigration Politics

In this chapter, I present the making of an ethnographic film, which I filmed during a research project in geography carried out from 2013 to 2017 and entitled Victory Day. The chapter provides a reflection on the use of film to capture political actions, specifically the ones targeting immigrant groups. It also shows the extent to which filmmaking relates to experiences of the participants involved, and to the sensorial experience of a place. With this, it builds on previous works that have highlighted the potential of moving images to represent the sensory, experiences and intersubjectivities. Finally, it tackles the ethics of working in conflict cities, and even more specifically, when participants take a hawkish stand in that conflict.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The role of established immigrants within institutionalised immigrant integration in Israel

To which extent does the participation of ‘co-ethnics’ in immigrant integration policy implementation enable a more accommodating approach towards newcomers? Whereas immigrant integration policymaking has usually been envisaged through a host/stranger prism, Israel municipal departments for “Aliyah and absorption” (that is for Jewish immigration, and the integration of new Jewish immigrants) provides an interesting case: the last decades, they have primarily recruited established first-generation immigrants to cater for the newest Jewish immigrants settling in their cities. This article offers some new insights regarding the participation of these established immigrants in the implementation of Israel immigrant integration policies. On the one hand, these municipal service workers, and other local actors working towards immigrant integration, have permitted a more pluralist approach to socio-cultural integration; on the other hand, the rather partial diversity of these established immigrants –mostly Western Russian-speaking immigrants–, has limited the potential for an alternative, less ‘ethno-centred’ approach to immigrant settlement to develop.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Border regions, migration and place-making: the case of Trás-os-Montes in Portugal

This contribution focuses on the implications of an enquiry on return migration in a border region. The northeastern region of Trás-osMontes in Portugal is a paradigmatic area of out-migration, from colonial migrations to the ones to western and northern Europe during the Estado Novo, and the more recent migrations post-2008 crisis. The area went through dramatic demographic losses, accounting for a third of its population between the 1960s and 2000s. But it is also one of the areas with the highest rate of new residents - many of them coming (back) from France. The back and forth of inhabitants is only one form of mobilities in the history of the peninsula: as a border region, Trásos-Montes is recently revisiting its transcultural heritage, such as the one of the Sephardic Jewish community, the Mirandese minority and more. Enquiring at the border hence holds many meanings, both in time and space, and both for those who stay and those mobile. Based on Pratt (1991) or Cohen & Sheringham (2017)'s understanding of “contact zones”, I explore the dynamics of place production in such a cultural space of encounters, conflicts, and renewal between several communities, in a region which has historically functioned as a transitional space. The theoretical reflection is accompanied by preliminary results of an ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2018 and 2020 in the region. The case study of a village embedded in various networks, through out-migration and return migration, shows the extent to which the regional efforts to promote the area as “open to the outside” deny the potential of Portuguese migrants and returnees as active place-makers.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

In Solidarity: Ma(r)king and rescaling solidarity boundaries towards migrants

The core idea for this Special Issue is to reflect upon the dynamics of participation both by individuals and by groups acting in solidarity with migrants in different contexts at the individual, local and transnational levels. Using the concept of “solidarities” to address the relation between persons who have experienced migration and persons who have not, and between people and institutions, enables research to escape the “us vs. them” dichotomy, extending the debate on deservingness to society as a whole. Moreover, with the development of crossborder volunteering and the diffusion of multi-scalar partnerships between subnational governments and civil society organisations, solidarities are rescaled, and encompass new forms beyond national welfare mechanisms. Bringing together a rich collection of empirical cases that ranges from the reception of the Rohingya refugees in the Cox Bazar region of Bangladesh to border crossings along the Balkan route, from disaster solidarity in the Hanshin area in Japan to Ukrainian refugee reception in Italy, we explore acts of solidarity in different contexts as a way to try and make sense of when solidarity towards migrants is a political act, when it is about providing basic provisions subcontracted by the state to local or non-governmental actors, and when it is an act of defiance against the state.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

‘It’s a Matter of Life or Death’: Jewish Migration and Dispossession of Palestinians in Acre

In this article, we aim to identify the actors and unpack the discourses and administrative practices used to increase current mobilities of people (Jewish immigrants, investors, tourist visitors, and evicted residents) and explore their impact on the continuity of the settler-colonial regime in pre-1948 Palestinian urban spaces which became part of Israel. To render these dynamics visible, we explore the case of Acre—a pre-1948 Palestinian city located in the north-west of Israel which during the last three decades has been receiving about one hundred Jewish immigrant families annually. Our findings reveal a dramatic change in the attempts to judaise the city: Mobility policies through neoliberal means have not only been instrumental in continuing the processes of displacement and dispossession of the Palestinians in this so-called ‘mixed city,’ but have also recruited new actors and created new techniques and opportunities to accelerate the judaisation of the few Palestinian spaces left. Moreover, these new mobility policies normalise judaisation of the city, both academically and practically, through globally trendy paradigms and discourses. Reframing migration-led development processes in cities within a settler-colonialism approach enables us to break free from post-colonial analytical frameworks and re-centre the native-settler relations as well as the immigrants-settlers’ role in territorial control and displacement of the natives in the neoliberal era.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Le paradoxe de la diversité : développement économique et stratification sociale dans les villes de développement en Israël

La notion de diversité a été récemment mobilisée dans le champ des politiques locales d’intégration, telles qu’envisagées en Amérique du Nord, en Europe (Schiller, 2016) et depuis peu en Israël. La rationalité mise en avant est de capter puis de mettre en valeur la diversité des populations comme outil de restructuration socio-économique et de développement urbain. Cependant, l’association diversité-développement urbain, lorsqu’elle se réalise dans le cadre de politiques d’orientation néolibérale, c’est-à-dire sous la pression d’intérêts économiques immédiats, ne va pas de soi. Elle risque dans les faits de dissimuler des problèmes structurels d’inégalité et de domination, voire de conforter les effets d’une certaine ethno-stratification prégnante dans la société israélienne. Dans cet article, à partir de l’étude de trois villes de développement – Acre, Arad et Kiryat Shmona – nous montrons comment la doctrine de la diversité entre en tension avec le cadrage ethno-national qui gouverne les enjeux de l’intégration, dont elle réussit au final, tant bien que mal, à s’accommoder.The “diversity” approach has recently been introduced within the context of local immigrant integration policies in Northern America, Europe (Schiller 2016), and more recently in Israel. This approach implies that ethnic diversity can be leveraged and become a tool for socio-economic restructuring and urban development. Nevertheless, the diversity/urban development nexus, when implemented through neoliberal urban policies (that is, policies that respond to immediate economic growth interests) comes with the risk of dissimulating and even reinscribing the effects of a certain ethnic stratification, that is pronounced in the Israeli society. In this article, analyzing the local diversity policies made by three “development towns” – Acre, Arad and Kiryat Shmona – we show the extent to which the diversity doctrine is in tension with the ethno-national frame governing integration stakes, even though it eventually succeeds in accommodating the latter.El paradoja de la diversidad: desarrollo económico y estratificación social en las ciudades de desarrollo en Israel El enfoque de la diversidad esta hoy día aplicado en el contexto de las políticas locales de integración, adoptadas por varias ciudades en América del Norte, Europa, y más recientemente Israel. Se propone fructificar la diversidad étnica de las poblaciones como herramienta de reestructuración socioeconómica y de desarrollo urbano. Sin embargo, la asociación entre diversidad y desarrollo urbano, cuando se implementa a través de políticas urbanas de orientación neoliberal (es decir, políticas que responden a unos intereses de crecimiento económico inmediato), no es evidente. De hecho, corre el riesgo de ocultar problemas estructurales de desigualdad y poder, e incluso de reforzar los efectos de una estratificación étnica arraigada en la sociedad israelí. Basándonos en el estudio de tres “ciudades de desarrollo” – Acre, Arad y Kiryat Shmona – en este artículo cuestionamos cómo la doctrina de la diversidad entra en tensión con el marco étnico-nacional que gobierna los problemas de integración, para al final lograr acomodarle mal que bien.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Visual Methodology in Migration Studies

This open access book explores the use of visual methods in migration studies through a combination of theoretical analyses and empirical studies. The first section looks at how various visual methods, including photography, film, and mental maps, may be used to analyse the spatial presence of migrants. The second section addresses the processual building of narratives around migration, thereby using formats such as film and visual essay, and reflecting upon the ways they become carriers and mediators of both story and theory within the subject of migration. Section three focuses on vulnerable communities and discusses how visual methods can empower these communities, thereby also focusing on the theoretical and ethical implications of migration. The fourth section addresses the issue of migrant representation in visual discourses. The fifth and concluding section comprises of a single methodological chapter which systematizes the use of visual methods in migration studies across disciplines, with regard to their empirical, theoretical, and ethical implications. Multidisciplinary in character, this book is an interesting read for students and migration scholars who engage with visual methods, as well as practitioners, journalists, filmmakers, photographers, curators of exhibitions who engage with a topic of migration visually.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Visual Methods in Migration Studies: new possibilities, theoretical implications, and ethical questions

The purpose of this brief is to reflect critically on the use of visual methods in migration studiesand to provideconcrete examples of their application. We propose to think of the adoption of a visual methodology as a way to access and produce knowledge within the field of migration studies, rather than relying on disciplinaryframing. Based on a collection of empirical cases, we show that researchers can mobilise still and movingimages in the context of knowledge production.Specifically addressed in this brief are mental maps.In the field of migration studies, visual methods generate new possibilitiesfor data collection and their analysis. Nevertheless, questions pertaining to methodological challenges,theoretical implications, as well as ethics remain. This briefis based on a volume entitled “Visual Methods in Migration Studies: new possibilities theoretical implications, and ethical questions”, currently in the process of edition. The proposal has won the IMISCOE competitive book for call last fall, and publication is foreseen in 2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Schiller, Maria, European Cities, Municipal Organizations and Diversity : The New Politics of Difference

Introduction Dans son ouvrage European Cities, Municipal Organizations and Diversity The New Politics of Difference, Maria Schiller (2016) entreprend d’analyser l’émergence d’une nouvelle organisation municipale : les services de promotion de la « diversité ». Ce faisant, elle interroge l’évolution des politiques d’accueil des immigrés telles que formulées par les municipalités de grandes villes européennes. En effet, la notion de « diversité » correspond ici à une étiquette attribuée aux po..

Crafting an Event, an Event on Craft. Working Together to Represent Migration Experiences

We are concerned. We are three early-career researchers in the feld of international migration and we are concerned. This concern arises from our respective feldwork. On the one hand, we witness a politics which toughens eligibility to asylum and makes the access to reside in a foreign country precarious. On the other hand, we are witnesses of an ever more polarised discourse induced by an emergency-like and securitised management of migration fows. European policies aiming at controlling migration routes favour exclusion (erections of walls, multiplication of hotspots’ logics) and death (in the last 25 years, IOM estimates account for 40,000 humans who died or disappeared on migration routes, with 6000 in 2016 only). These migration policies are the result of a selective amnesia: only certain striking fgures, facts and images participate in their production. Secondly, our concern grows while we witness a lack of circulation between scientifc knowledge and measures adopted at a political level: our researches’ results are too often confned to the scientifc sphere.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio