Refugees, Migrants, and Urban Justice (2024)
Concept Note
Calcutta Research Group in its long collaboration with the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Vienna has undertaken research on statelessness, protection and care of the refugees, solidarity as response to social crises, sea as the site of the statelessness, climate-induced migration, labour migration and digitized migration. In 2024, the renewed focus on urban justice and the position of the urban refugees and migrants in urban justice. The aim is threefold: (a) to continue work on interlinked issues of forced migration as a consequence of war, violence, border disputes and ecological catastrophes, and the necessity of the protection of refugees and migrants; (b) to situate these questions in the particular context of the cities of the South, which includes the European South as well; and (3) the resultant issue of urban justice as an intersectional theme of the urbanization of the South. Some of the themes to be explored are:
(a) Urban refugees and migrants and the Global Compacts for their protection
(b) The faultlines with migrant and refugee populations in the cities in the forms of caste, religion, race and gender discrimination
(c) Rural-urban-rural migration, and the circularity of the migration process
(d) Impact of climate change on the city
(e) “Pandemic Urbanism” i.e., the experiences of the city in coping with the repeated health crisis
(f) Urban restructuring, rent based extraction in the city, gentrification, logistical reorientation, and their impact on the refugees and migrants, homelessness, informal settlements, and informal economy
(g) The intersectional nature of urban justice
(h) Histories of urban rights movements, urban riots and urban conflicts
(i) Global urban problems as “problems of the South”
Research shall be done on four to six cities of Asia and Europe, like Mumbai, Calcutta, Chittagong, Bangkok, Naples, Marseilles, and Athens. In continuation of previous collaboration, this year also, CRG will hold a workshop and orientation programme and conference in Kolkata, an investigative field visit within India resulting on a primary report on urban refugees and migrants, a workshop on urban caregivers and urban social activists, a summer camp of young scholars and young activists working on issues of urban justice. CRG will establish short-term Media Fellowships resulting in a creative media output (to be published by CRG as working papers with shorter versions published in Newspapers; visual and audio output, such as documentaries, podcasts, reports, photo exhibitions, interviews etc., that will be available on CRG’s website and exchange programme of young scholars in South and Southeast Asia.
Events / Public Lectures / Webinars
Disseminations / Resources / Important Links
