Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2019



'Welcome Refugees':

A Case Study on Community Mobilisation and Refugee Advocacy in the East of England.



Dr. Carlos Gigoux (Department of Sociology, University of Essex)



April 18th 7pm (Thursday)

Sophia University, Bldg. 10, room 301



In 2014 the British government after intense pressure from the UNHRC, charities, political parties and community groups across the UK agreed to accept vulnerable Syrian refugees into the UK. As a consequence, the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme (SVPRP) was established. In 2015 the scheme was expanded in order to accept 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020. In this context institutional support for refugees have been channelled through the regional Strategic Migration Partnership (SMP) funded by the Home Office and channelled through local councils. Social integration and community cohesion are the guiding principles behind such scheme. This seminar brings together ethnographic data in order to highlight the role and impact of grassroot community groups in the campaign Welcome Refugees and in the implementation of the SVPRP in Essex. By examining their experiences, networks, strategies, limitations and challenges it is possible to formulate a blueprint for refugee support and migration research.



Dr. Carlos Gigoux is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Migration Studies and the Director of the MA in Migration Studies at the University of Essex. His research focuses on Indigenous peoples' issues and on community activism and refugees. In 2017 he co-authored a monograph entitled Colonialism and Indigenous Peoples: Global Perspectives from Polity Press. For the past three years he has been actively involved working with university staff, students and community organisations supporting asylum seekers and refugees in the East of England.



This event is coordinated by Professor David H. Slater (FLA) for an ICC Research Unit "Digital Social Science and Oral Narrative Research"



Open to all; no prior registration necessary

Language: English



Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture

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