We invite abstracts for a panel at the IMISCOE Annual Conference, Paris, 1-4 July 2025. Submission deadline: 18 September 2024.
People who migrate are not first and foremost ‘migrants’, and those who seek to migrate are much more than ‘potential migrants’. Our understanding of migration might benefit from taking these facts to heart and granting people’s broader life aspirations a more central place in migration studies. ‘Aspirations’ reflect envisioned futures, offering a useful lens for exploring individual ambitions and expectations. The focus within migration studies has mainly been on migration aspirations, which has been a crucial concept for theory-building about migration decision-making. There is a risk, however, of not fully appreciating the ways in which life ambitions, aspirations, imaginaries and responsibilities inform (directly or indirectly) migration dynamics.
The proposed panel aims to offer new insights on the interlinkages between migration and life aspirations – across theoretical lenses, methodological approaches and geographical contexts. Possible questions to address including the following:
- How can life aspirations be operationalized, analysed and categorized?
- What do different methodological approaches offer in the study of life aspirations?
- Which non-academic terminologies are valuable in the study of life aspirations?
- How are life aspirations related to migration aspirations?
- How can research on life aspirations contribute to migration studies?
- How do life aspirations and migration aspirations change across the life course?
- How can attention to life aspirations inform the notion of migration motivations?
- How does development affect life aspirations and consequently, migration aspirations?
- How can the study of life aspirations facilitate de-migranticizing migration studies?
- What are the connections between lifestyles, life aspirations, and migration?
- How can life aspirations shed light on the relation between migration and mobilities?
- How does ‘capacity to aspire’ affect the development of life aspirations?
- How do life aspirations change under the influence of migration?
The panel is co-organized by Jørgen Carling (Peace Research Institute Oslo) and Naiara Rodríguez Pena (Donau University Krems) and is related to the ongoing research projects Future Migration as Present Fact (FUMI) and Development Implications of Involuntary Immobility in Africa (PATHWAYS).
There is a two-step selection process: First, you must submit an abstract of 200–250 words by 18 September 2024, using this online form. The panel organizers will then select abstracts for inclusion in the panel proposal, which will be submitted to the IMISCOE conference by 23 September 2024. The conference organizers will then review all panel proposals and let us know if ours has been accepted.
The 2025 IMISCOE Annual Conference takes place in Paris on 1–4 July 2025. Please see imiscoe.org for details about the conference. If accepted, at least one author of the paper must be present at the IMISCOE Conference in Paris. There will be no hybrid option for this panel. The panel organizers cannot assist with funding or administrative aspects of conference participation.
