On 17th -18th May 2023, the Centre for African Studies of the University of Porto (CEAUP) and Casa África will organise at Casa África, Las Palmas G.C. a Conference entitled "The African Roots of Migration".
This Conference intends to discuss the main causes of African migrations: of those from Africa to Europe and of the internal migrations. It will thus focus on the roots, rather than on the routes.
Routes, networks and migration policies are the issues most often raised when African migration is considered is considered under the institutional point of view of the destination's countries. The goal of this Conference is to discuss the push and pull factors involved in the decision to migrate.
A special focus will be given on the factors of irregular migrations as well as of the forced ones.
This Conference also intends to pave the way for the Conference on African Internal Migrations, co-organised by the Centre de Recherche Afrique Contemporaine of Douala, the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the CEAUP, and which will take place in 2024 at Douala, Cameroon.
Papers for Las Palmas Conference should be framed along at least one of these complementary axes:
- First axis: Push factors
This section will cover all types of endogenous circumstances (economic, political, cultural and its combination) or constraints (limited job opportunities, political oppression, natural disasters, corruption, conflicts and insecurity) that drive people to leave their land and move to another.
- Second axis: Pull factors
The concept of pull factors covers the cultural representations (images of strong economy with job opportunities, easy access to education, tolerant, and welcoming cultures, less or not corrupt societies and Human Rights protection) inducing to move to. What social mechanisms produce these representations? The Seminar will also tackle the media leading the potential migrant’s behaviour.
Paper Proposals
Applications should be submitted in Spanish, French, English or Portuguese. They can be individual or collective proposals.
Proposals must include the author's identification (surname, first name, institutional affiliation), the title of the proposed paper, and an abstract of 250 words maximum in English.
Deadline for submissions: 17th March;
Notification of acceptance:
All paper proposals will be validated by the Scientific Board of the Conference.
Applicants will be informed of the results of the selection until 1st April.
Conference Format
This Conference will have a mixed format - presential and virtual.
The working languages of the Conference are: Spanish, French, English and Portuguese. The Organization will provide simultaneous translation of the papers.
A certificate of participation or a certificate of presentation of the paper at the Conference will be issued by the Organizing Board.
Travel and accommodation costs will be at the expense of the participants.
Publications
It is expected that publications will come out of this Conference.
A selection of the papers (about 10) will be published by the CEAUP's journal Africana Studia in a special issue concerning its main topics. Immediately after the Conference the authors of the papers will be given notice of the deadline in order to deliver their articles according to the Editorial Norms of the Journal Africana Studia.
For an abstract of AS editorial norms, please see:
https://africanos.eu/index.php/en/africana-studia-2/publishing-norms
Non selected papers will also be subject to a further selection in order to be published as working papers in the CEAUP.
All the selection of the papers will be carried by the Scientific Board of the Conference.