Migration and super-diversity: Theory, Method and Practice

Programme

Over the last decades, scholars have been searching for better tools, concepts, and methods to describe and analyze new social patterns of diversity and identity arising from migration-driven diversification of the political, social, economic, and cultural landscapes.
The term ‘super-diversity’ has been coined to describe a condition in cities where the arrival of migrants from many different countries, combined with longer established minority populations, results in an extraordinary diversity of cultures, social conditions, identities, languages, and immigration statuses. The combination of these factors means that super-diversity presents unparalleled challenges and opportunities for researchers, policymakers and practitioners, as well as to communities.

Main conference question to be addressed:

• How can contemporary super-diversity be conceptualized, understood, and researched in urban contexts?

Key questions to be addressed:

• To what extent is the concept of super-diversity useful to describe and analyze new social patterns, forms and identities arising from migration-driven diversification?
• How can ‘super-diversity’ shape new thinking on migration and better strategies for immigrant integration?
• How can diversity research engage with different academic and policy agendas?
• What methodological challenges and opportunities are diversity researchers facing?

Keynote speaker:

Professor Jenny Phillimore, Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology External link., Professor of Migration and Superdiversity, University of Birmingham.