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Unsettling Imagi(nations): Towards Re-Configuring B/orders
*Are you working with undocumented persons, migrant workers,
peoples from the South, immigrant communities or Aboriginal communities?
*Are you working to combat practices of patriarchies,
racisms, nationalisms and capitalisms?
*Are you addressing how racism, nationalism, sexism and
heterosexism affect all workers' ability to resist employers' demands?
*Are you addressing how the corporate sponsored destruction
of our environment destroys people's livelihoods?
*Are you addressing how national states are complicit
in processes of 'globalization', massive displacements and unprecedented
levels of human migration?
Yes? Then we need to hear from you!
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Unsettling Imagi(nations): Towards Re-Configuring B/orders
Vancouver, BC, Canada. MARCH 22 - 24, 2002
The latest period of 'globalization' has produced a world-wide
level of displacement and migration that is unprecedented in human history.
At a three-day conference, participants will address this international
crisis in migration and examine how it is connected to ongoing processes
of both globalization and nation building. Presenters will also address
how migration(s) are reproducing and re-configuring social relationships
shaped by patriarchies, racisms, nationalisms and capitalisms. A special
focus will be on the responses of variously located people (i.e. Indigenous,
women, workers, peasants and more) to displacement, mobility (or lack
thereof) and their practices of trying to maintain or reclaim self-determinative
lives. This conference will provide important new opportunities for cross-polli(nations)
between people examining processes of displacements and migrations in
both similar and differing geo-political areas.
At least 150 million people move across nationalized borders
every year. Many millions more remain unaccounted for because they are
forced to move and live without legal documents. Additional hundreds of
millions of displaced people move within the boundaries of national states,
mostly from rural to urban sites. Indigenous peoples, in particular, have
had their lives and communities disrupted by the imposition of national
borders and have been forced to become so-called "illegal migrants" when
attempting to keep their communities in tact.
At the same time, nation-states around the world are criminalizing
and demonizing those who have been displaced and forced (in one way or
another) to migrate. It is virtually impossible for most people in the
world to be able to enter and remain in another national state as a permanent
resident or citizen. Because of racist, sexist and heterosexist practices,
many peoples with citizenship status are treated as inferior versions
of 'true members of the nation'. The reality for most people, particularly
for people from the Global South, is a life of endless vulnerability and
exploitation as employers and governments profit from their supposed 'illegal',
'temporary' or 'inferior' status.
A three-day gathering, Unsettling Imagi(nations): Towards
Re-Configuring B/orders, is being organized to address how the international
crisis in migration is connected to ongoing processes of both globalization
and nation building. We will focus on the responses of variously located
people (Indigenous, women, workers, peasants and more) to displacement,
mobility (or lack thereof) and their practices of trying to maintain,
reclaim or challenge notions of 'home'.
This conference will provide important new opportunities
for cross-pollinations between people examining processes of displacements
and migrations in both similar and differing geo-political areas. Together,
participants will address some of the following themes, and more:
q International
Crisis in Migration: the Possibilities of Home-Maintenance?
q Transformative
Transgressions of Borders
q Indigenous Peoples'
(forced/denied) Migration
q Globalization:
the Politics of Homelessness
By engaging with academic and community-based researchers,
artists and organizers from around the world, participants will be better
able to address the trans-regional and transnational character of these
processes and build important networks for future collaborative research
and action. Submissions of academic, activist and creative work are all
equally welcome.
For further information or to submit a proposal for a
paper/presentation/performance, please send a 100 to 150 word abstract
and an abbreviated, one-page CV by SEPTEMBER 15, 2001 to:
Open the Borders!
c/o Nandita or Allison
1850 E. 2nd Avenue
Vancouver
BC, V5N 1E2 Canada.
Email: open-the-borders@sfu.ca
Fax: (604) 822-6161, Tel.: (604) 255-4910
www.opentheborders.org
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