Diaspora and Media roundtable participants

Three roundtables on the topic titled ‘Global South Perspectives on International Migration, Diasporas and Mobility in the Post-digital Era’ will be organized by IAMCR’s Diaspora and Media Working Group, with the individual roundtables focusing on Africa and Asia (in 2022) and Latin America (in 2023). The Africa roundtable will be organized by Ola Ogunyemi, the Asia roundtable will be organized by Sumana Chattopadhyay and the Latin America roundtable will be organized by Jessica Retis and Sofia Zanforlin.

The roundtables will feed into a book project, planned to appear in 2024. The working group was granted $3,000 from the Section and Working Group activities fund for this project. 

Below is the information for the 2022 roundtables which will be conducted via Zoom. Information about the 2023 Latin America roundtables will be shared later in the year. The 2022 Africa and Asia roundtables will be recorded on June 27, 2022 (and will later be available for viewing during the IAMCR conference). 

The 2022 roundtables aim to bring together academics, media practitioners and policymakers in Asia and Africa to explore regional perspectives on the challenges and prospects of international migration, diasporas and mobility in the Post-digital Era. These will also explore key issues in reporting migration and how it is effectively communicated through the media; examine the drivers for migration and how migrants are received in the host countries; examine the veracity of data on migration; explore the commonalities and differences in the migration flows happening within the Global South (compared to the South-North flows); examine repatriations, expulsions, criminalization, and restrictions of human mobility in the Global South; explore refugee camps and forced migrations; and these will also examine digital diasporas and the flow of information, signs, and commodities; among others.

The South-South migratory flows have become increasingly relevant. According to OECD (2014) ‘with the world's 82 million South-South migrants forming about 36% of the total number of migrants, South-South migration is an increasingly significant factor in the economic and social development of many developing countries.’ 

This is much-needed topic to examine in the current times. Traditional South-North migratory flow is a regular and much studied phenomenon that continues to happen, despite the barriers to migration imposed by European and US countries (in the form of border restrictions and criminal charges being imposed on migrants). This is an emerging research area and is distinctive in nature than the South-North migration flows with diverse and complex variables. 

How to participate

Please send a 200-word abstract if you are interested in taking part in either the Asia or Africa roundtable by 15 April, 2022 to the following coordinators:

• Sumana Chattopadhyay (for the Asia roundtable): sumana.chattopadhyay [at] marquette.edu
• Ola Ogunyemi (for the Africa roundtable): oogunyemi [at] lincoln.ac.uk 

More information about the 2023 Latin America roundtable will be shared later in the year by Jessica Retis: jessica.retis [at] gmail.com and Sofia Zanforlin: szanforlin [at] gmail.com