Issues of migration and diversity have become a very significant political and social issue in Europe in the last 25 years. Europe is now a major destination for potential migrants who are drawn by historical links and the prospect of improved lives and opportunities. Reports in the media bear witness to the concerns of citizens all over Europe on these topics and the criteria for accepting immigrants and integrating them into our societies are an important topic in the public discourse.

It was for this reason the Institute for European Studies decided to form a Migration and Diversity research cluster which has now been built up into a strong team of researchers and diverse activities in the field, the aim being to engage with other research bodies, policy makers and the non-governmental sector and optimize its strategic location in Brussels.

The research cluster “Migration and Diversity” focuses on the social effects of migration on the countries of the European Union. Its main thrust is research on immigrant integration policies (from local level right up to EU policies), questions of identity and multiculturalism, return migration, reasonable accommodation for religious diversity, intersectionality, i.e. the interrelation between multiple forms of discrimination (race/ethnicity, gender, religion, residence status, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, class or disability) and the detention of undocumented migrants in Europe.

The Migration and Diversity team is lead by Senior Research Fellow Richard Lewis (MSc Bristol), who was a former principal administrator in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Justice, Freedom and Security responsible for immigration and asylum. The cluster is currently supported by Professor Dr. Alison Woodward (PhD, Berkeley), Post-doctoral researcher Ilke Adam (PhD, Université Libre de Bruxelles), and 2 junior Researchers: Hannelore Goeman (MPhil, Cambridge), Malasree Neepa Acharya (MA Stanford). In March 2011, the Migration Cluster welcomed GOA Project Researcher Mathias Halvoet and visiting scholar Karolína Babická.

The team is active in organising lecture series which have included “Multiculturalism in Europe” (Spring 2005) and a further series on European Identity (Spring 2007). In the autumn of 2009 the cluster co-organized a lecture series on Security, Migration and Integration in Europe (Autumn 2009). The cluster has also been responsible for two edited volumes arising out of lecture series.

The cluster actively collaborates with other VUB researchers from different faculties working on migration and diversity. The Urban Studies network of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Erasmushogeschool Brussel took the initiative to bring together researchers from different faculties of the VUB working on migration topics. A first meeting in which every researcher briefly presented his or her research led to the creation of the interdisciplinary City and Migration Research Group. The migration and diversity cluster of the IES takes an active part in this group. Ilke Adam is member of its steering committee which planned joint activities for the academic year 2009-2010: a master class and doctoral seminar on migration, a reading seminar in which doctoral students and senior researchers read classical texts on immigrant integration, a research seminar in which members of the City and Migration group present their research to a wider public and a colloquium concerning reception policies towards newcomers in the city.

The cluster also maintains research links with other universities either in cooperative projects or publications, as alumni of those institutions or as visiting researchers. It also has links with consultancy groups in the field and maintains close links with the European institutions in Brussels.

In cooperation with the training unit of the Institute for European Studies, the Migration and Diversity Cluster organizes training sessions on the role of the EU in the Global Governance of Migration Issues. The first session was organized in 2009 and a further session will be organized in October 2010.

 

Current projects

Recent publications

van Puymbroeck N., Adam I. & Goeman H. (2010), ‘The Europeanisation of the ‘Belgian’ integration policy: soft European instruments and their impact’, in Dierickx D., Van Herck N. & Vranken J., Poverty in Belgium, Leuven: Acco.

van Puymbroeck N., Adam I. & Goeman H. (2010), ‘L’européanisation de la politique d’intégration « belge » : les instruments européens souples et leur impact’, in Dierickx D., Van Herck N. & Vranken J., Pauvreté en Belgique, Leuven: Acco.

van Puymbroeck N., Adam I. & Goeman H. (2010), ‘De Europeanisering van het ‘Belgische’ integratiebeleid: zachte Europese instrumenten en hun impact’, in Dierickx D., Van Herck N. & Vranken J., Armoede in België, Leuven: Acco.

Adam I. (2010), ‘Une approche différenciée de la diversité. Les politiques d’intégration des personnes issues de l’immigration en Flandre, en Wallonie et à Bruxelles (1980-2006)’, in Ringelheim J.(ed.), Le droit belge face à la diversité, Louvain-la-Neuve : Academia-Bruylant (forthcomming).

Adam I. & Rea A. (dir.) (2010). La diversité culturelle sur le lieu de travail: pratiques d’aménagements raisonnables en Belgique, Bruxelles: Centre pour l’Egalité des Chances et la Lutte contre le Racisme.

Adam I. & Rea A. (dir.) (2010), Culturele diversiteit op de werkvloer: praktijken van redelijke aanpassingen in België, Brussel: Centrum voor Gelijke Kansen en voor Racismebestrijding.

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