Abstract

Following the recent drowning of over 900 people in a single day, trying to reach the European coasts, how do we respond?

CAMMIGRES (Cambridge Migration Research Network) Forum will host the screening of the award-winning film “A Land of Transit”, followed by a panel & audience discussion with Dr Geoffrey Edwards, Senior Fellow and Emeritus Reader in European Studies, Department of Politics and International Studies, Dr Sara Silvestri, Affiliated Lecturer, Department of Politics and International Studies & Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley, Lecturer in Political Sociology, University of Cambridge, alongside the Director of the film, Paolo Martino.

We open discussions with the challenge posed by UN Special Rapporteur Francois Crepeau “Instead of resisting migration, let’s organise it”. In this discussion we hope to question the political exigencies that permitted an ultimately horrifically inhumane decision to stop funding EU search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean and to ask what kinds of approach to migration policies would adequately respect the lives of those fleeing war, persecution and economic hardship, and to what extent we must heed the fears of potential host country citizens/electorates in relation to the impacts of immigration.