UfM supports the launch of a Euro-Mediterranean Research Network on Migration

• The core mission of the EuroMedMig-ReNet network is to promote research, training, and knowledge transfer on the key current issues and main challenges connected with the migratory research Agenda in the Mediterranean.
  
• The Network was launched during the 15^th IMISCOE Annual Conference 2018, held under the title “Europe, migrations and the Mediterranean: human motilities and intercultural challenges”, on 2-4 July, in Barcelona

Barcelona, 4 July 2018. The Euro-Mediterranean Research Network on Migration “EuroMedMig-ReNet” will be an independent interdisciplinary network of research institutions from both shores of the Mediterranean fostering research exchanges and knowledge building on key issues related to migration and diversity in the region. It will be coordinated by the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Immigration of the Barcelona-based University Pompeu Fabra (GRITIM-UPF), with the support of IMISCOE, Europe’s largest network of scholars in the area of migration and integration, and the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM).

The network is conceived as a platform to facilitate working together between research institutions of the South and the North. It seeks to contribute to the analysis of the root causes of migration and their interdependences, diversity management and intercultural relations, as well as to the development of migration studies and Mediterranean studies.
“Research and Innovation are key areas to analyze migration from new angles and to offer new instruments for action. The establishment of new networks for dialogue between researchers at regional level benefits the whole region and reinforces the Mediterranean positive agenda”, said Said Bhira, Special Counselor of the UfM Secretary General on Higher Education and Research.

“The creation of this network will contribute to promote a coordinated approach by the entire region to increase the mobility of researchers and students and to establish common platforms for the collection and analysis of data, as well as to make better use of the existing tools », said Ricard Zapata-Barrero, director of GRITIM-UPF.

The network was launched during the 15^th IMISCOE Annual Conference, which brought together more than 600 researchers from across the entire region to build synergies and facilitate the development of public research programs and policies on migration in the Mediterranean. The Conference was organized by the University Pompeu Fabra, in collaboration with the Union for the Mediterranean, the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), the United Nations University (UNU-GCM) and ”la Caixa” Banking Foundation.

The creation of the EuroMedMig-ReNet network is an important step forward to implement the recommendations of the “Valletta Declaration on Strengthening Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation through Research and Innovation” (May, 2017) and the UfM Roadmap for Action endorsed by the UfM Ministers of Foreign Affaris (January, 2017), especially with regard to the key role of research and innovation to provide solutions to migration issues.
The UfM also supported the participation to the Conference of young researchers on migration from Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia, and chaired the Closing Plenary on“Linking Mediterranean and Migration studies: the research, policy and society nexus”.

More information

Members of the Network and main researchers:

1. Belgium: Hassan Boussetta, CEDEM, University Liege
2. Egypt: Ibrahim Awad, Director of the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies in the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at The American University in Cairo
3. Israel: Adriana Kemp Head, Dept. Sociology and Anthropology School of Social and Policy Studies Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences Tel Aviv University, Israel
4. Italy: Anna Triandafyllidou: Professor at the Global Governance Programme (GGP) of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS), European University Institute.
5. Lebanon: Tamirace Fakhoury, associate professor in Political Sciences and International Affairs in the Department of Social Sciences, and Associate director of the Institute of Social Justice and Conflict Resolution (ISJCR). Lebanese American University
6. Morocco: Mohammed Khachani, Professeur à l’Université Mohammed V – Agdal Rabat. Président Association Marocaine d’Etudes et de Recherches sur les Migrations
7. Palestine: Abdelrahman Alamarah Tamimi, Director General Palestinian Hydrology group for Water and Environmental Resources Development Ramallah, The Palestinian Authority
8. Spain: Ricard Zapata-Barrero, Full Professor, GRITIM-UPF director, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona
9. Norway: Jørgen Carling is Research Professor of migration and transnationalism studies at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)
10. Netherlands: Peter Scholten, Erasmus University of Rotterdam
11. Tunisia: Hassan Boubakri, Professor of Geography / University of Sousse (Tunisia) Migration & CS (Civil Society) Forum Expert Chairman of the Centre of Tunis for Migration and Asylum (CeTuMA)
12. Turkey: Ahmet İçduygu, Director of the Migration Research Center at Koç University (MiReKoc).