Deadline to attend: April 1, 2024
June 28-29, 2024
American Studies, University of Passau
Organizers: Grit Grigoleit-Richter (University of Passau, Germany) and Claudia Sadowski-Smith (Arizona State University, USA)
Keynotes: Miriam Finkelstein (University of Vienna, Austria), Halyna Lemekh (St. Francis College, USA), and Jannis Panagiotidis (University of Vienna, Austria)
The worldwide rise in the number of refugees in response to military, economic, and ecological devastation has emerged as one of the top global policy issues. It has become even more pressing since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has produced the historically largest numbers of refugees in recent times—more than 6.3 million refugees globally according to the UNHCR. Over 271,000 refugees were admitted to the United States and an estimated 1,118,205 are recorded in Germany.
While the United States is viewed as a country of immigration whose social institutions promote integration, US laws and policies have historically privileged certain groups of migrants and refugees based on a variety of factors, including economic status or national, ethnic, and religious background. Largely racialized as white, Ukrainian war refugees were given temporary preferential admission at the US-Mexico border and provided access to a newly created refugee program Uniting for Ukraine. In Germany, which has long ignored its status as a country of immigration, Ukrainian war refugees similarly encountered privileged admission under the aegis of a new legal (EU-wide) framework and generous integration policies.
Funded by the Stiftung Deutsch-Amerikanische Wissenschaftsbeziehungen (SDAW/ Foundation on German-American Academic Relations), this interdisciplinary workshop is designed to generate comparative critical insight and expertise on Ukrainian migration and integration in Germany and the United States as case studies for the examination of global refugee policies. We invite papers that provide critical perspectives on legal and social policies guiding Ukrainian refugee admission and (temporary or longer-term) integration into Germany and the United States, the relationship of Ukrainians to other refugee and migrant populations, as well as their representation and treatment in both countries.
Possible paper topics include, but are not limited to the following topics
Refugee admission
Modes of incorporation
Settlement policies
Refugee and welfare policies in the US and Germany
Public, media, and political discourses relating to Ukrainian migration/resettlement
Racialization processes
Making un/equality – un/equal laws or dis-equaling practices
Solidarity
Please send a 300-word paper abstract and a 150-word biographical statement as one PDF-file by February 15, 2024 to Grigoleit-Richter.Grit@uni-passau.de and Claudia.Sadowski-Smith@asu.edu.
A limited number of travel allowances (200 EUR) is available to PhD candidates/part-time or contingent faculty. Please indicate the need for a travel allowance when submitting the abstract. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by the end of February to allow participants ample time to plan their visit to Passau. It is highly recommended to book accommodations early.
Select papers from the workshop will be published in a special journal issue. Please plan to submit your complete article for the reviewing/publishing process in summer 2024.
For those interested in attending the workshop without presenting, conference registration is free. Please email Grigoleit-Richter.Grit@uni-passau.de to register by April 1, 2024.