On 23 September 2021 the Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development (MACIMIDE) in collaboration with the Dutch Association for Migration Research (DAMR) organizes its multidisciplinary and annual conference devoted to topics focusing on development and migration, return migration and displacement, migrants and the receiving society and migration in light of Covid19.
Durning the conference an interfaculty team of UM researchers, including many MACIMIDE researchers, has secured one of the 2021 UM D&I grants to invite people to think about and question the labels they put on others by zooming into the distinction made between migrants and expats. This is done by means of a virtual
and physical photo exhibition portraying 20 foreign workers (some who identify as expat and some who identify as migrant) to highlight how migrants and
expats may not look so different. This is followed by a workshop to discuss social categorisations related to migration (research) as well as their causes and
consequences. The workshop could cover questions like: 1) Is the expat/migrant distinction justified? 2) what is the role of academics and universities in
upholding the distinction? 3) Would rooting out this distinction have a meaningful impact on the acceptance of the migrant community ? and 4) How could
academics and universities contribute to overcoming this distinction?
Organizers:
Julia Reinold (UNU-Merit) and consortium from FASoS, MSGoG, Law and SBE in collaboration with Expat Center Maastricht and Tetsuro Photograhy