Yingzi Shen is a third-year PhD student at the University of Sheffield, whose research focuses on intergenerational cooperation on childcare in rural-to-urban migrant families in southern China. She attended IMISCOE 2024 Annual Conference "Migration as a Social Construction: A Reflexive Turn" in Lisbon (1-5 July, 2024). She reflect on the experience below.
I took apart in a number of sessions as a speaker or participating in discussions. As a participant in the 'Early Career Symposium on the ageing-migration nexus: Reflections on a recently published handbook' I critically commented on chapter 21 'Migrant Eldercare Workers of The Handbook of Migration and Ageing'. This chapter is written by Megha Amrith, who is the leader of Max Planck research group ‘Ageing in a time of mobility’. I emphasised that more attention should be given to the connections migrant eldercare workers establish with their families at home and the complex migration processes of migrant eldercare workers. We discussed how eldercare has changed overtime along with the rapid social changes in China. The symposium provided valuable opportunities for early career researchers and PhD students to relate the handbook to their own research projects and exchange ideas with the authors.
This was my second time to attend IMISCOE* annual conference. Compared to IMISCOE conference held in 2023, my impression was that this year’s agendas have been more diverse and inclusive. There were more panels that focus on migration in a broader context drawing attention to migrants in the Global South and the institutional barriers they encounter during migration. For example, the speech delivered by Mary Boatemaa Setrana (University of Ghana) and Maruja M.B. Asis (Scalabrini Migration Center), whose research focuses on international migration in Asian region enriched the perspectives and discourses about migration studies across the globe.
I found the IMISCOE PGR Network sessions very helpful and thought-provoking; they helped PhD students redefine and reframe ‘failures’ in academic work and establish solidarity with peers through discussions on their experiences of ‘failures’. The questions about the institutional barriers in academia also urged us to establish solidarity between senior and junior scholars.
The plenary sessions were also very inspiring, and they provided critical insights into the research gap in migrant studies. For instance, Anna Amelina (Brandenburg University of Technology, Germany) mentioned that we should be more reflective on the knowledge production process and pay closer attention to the practices and meanings of migration. Furthermore, the intersections of gender and migration, and migration from the Global South to South require further studies.
Overall, the conference emphasised some of the most urging agendas and topics in migration studies. It also provided a great opportunity for academics to share their knowledge about migration in different contexts and critically reflect on the power dynamics in which migration is embedded.
*IMISCOE (International Migration Research Network) is the largest interdisciplinary network of scholars in the field of migration. Migration Research Group (MRG) is an institutional member of the network.