Report by Luz Helena Rodríguez Tapia
(Ph.D. candidate - El Colegio de México) 

 

Forced migration is a priority issue on international agendas and a social process experienced by an increasing number of people in different parts of the world. It can be understood as those change(s) of residence mainly driven by a considerable degree, subjective and objective, of imposition and danger to life. Forced migration is caused by persecution on racial, religious, ethnic, political, national, or gender grounds, or due to life-threatening disasters or catastrophes. Based on their relevance in the 21st century, the International Conference "Forced Migration in a comparative life-course perspective" was held on June 30 and July 1, 2023, at the Ruhr-University Bochum. The main objective of this event was to highlight the importance of the theoretical-methodological approach of the life-course in studies on forced migration, with a particular review of the cases of Jordan, Turkey, Colombia, and Mexico.

 

On the first day of the conference, two round tables were held. In the first panel "Forced migration in a life-course perspective", Frank Düvell from the University of Osnabrück presented "Life-course oriented studies of forced migration". During his presentation he underlined that the life-course perspective cannot be minimized to a simple saturation of events or decisions in the lives of the individuals interviewed, the proper use of this method allows to account for structure and agency on the micro, meso, and macro level. Thus, the interest lies in how such events are perceived by an individual who is involved in collective processes. He also stressed the need to further develop more holistic approaches that are able to integrate diverse social theories. Subsequently, Arne Worm, from the University of Göttingen, presented "Forced migration in biographies - Narration Analysis". In his presentation, he exhibited the benefits of carrying out narrative biographical analysis applied to the study of the processes of inclusion and participation of people in so-called "irregular migration" contexts. The most relevant is the possibility of constructing typologies, in this case on the self-positioning of irregular migrants. Finally, Anja Weiß from the University of Duisburg-Essen presented "Forced migration in biographies - Documentary Method". In her presentation she spoke about the specificities of the documentary biographical method, which is characterized by delving deeper into the content of what is said, as it focuses on how the person ("migrant under duress") says and does things. This makes it possible to connect types of practical orientations implicit to social class, migration status and gender. 

 

The second panel "Forced migration in life-course research: Formove-I" presented the most relevant aspects of the research project “Forced Migration and Organized Violence (ForMOVe)” which run from 2020 to 2022 and was directed by Ludger Pries from Ruhr-University and by Stephanie Schütze from the Free University of Berlin with Ximena Alba and Berna Zülfikar Savci as project coordinators each in Berlin and Bochum. Stephanie Schütze outlined the study design, which included biographical interviews and a standardized retrospective survey. She also explained that "life course" was treated in the double sense as trajectory (sequence of social positions and events over time) and as biography (flow of subjectively experienced and remembered social practices and incidents). Ximena Alba from the Free University of Berlin and Berna Zülfikar from the Ruhr University, respectively, presented some of the challenges and findings encountered during the research on the trajectories and biographies of people in the context of forced migration in Mexico and Turkey. In closing, Ludger Pries presented the overall comparison of the results between the two countries studied. He spoke about the different spaces and forms of violence (organized and non-specific) that migrants experience as individuals and as a collective before, at the beginning, during, and upon arrival. He also emphasized that the combined longitudinal approach of trajectories and biographies was appropriate to the forced migration perspective as it allowed for a deeper understanding of this social process and its causes. The panel closed with general comments on the project by Margit Fauser from Ruhr-University Bochum and Xóchitl Bada from the University of Illinois Chicago.

 

The second day presented two panels. In the first, entitled "Comparative perspectives", Yuliya Kosyakova from the University of Bamberg presented "The SOEP-BAMF-Survey on refugees in Germany". In her presentation, she spoke about the methodological framework of this representative longitudinal survey promoted by various German governmental agencies and offices. It was designed to analyze in detail the process of integration and inclusion of the migrants and especially the refugee population in Germany. This was followed by the section "The general scenery of forced migration", where specialists for Turkey, Jordan, Colombia and Mexico as crucial countries of forced migrants transit presented each some historical and socio-cultural aspects of interest for the next phase of the new research “ForMOVe-II”. The case of Turkey was covered by Murat Erdogan of the University of Ankara; that of Jordan by Christine Huth-Hildebrandt of the German-Jordanian University in Amman; that of Mexico by Oscar Calderón of the Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla; and that of Colombia by Gabriel Alberto Ruiz of the University of Medellín.

 

In the last panel, the new project "Stay, return or move on: Comparing the life strategies of forced migrants in the transit countries of Colombia, Jordan, Mexico and Turkey" (ForMOVe-II) was exposed. It started in 2023 and runs until 2025, again as a cooperation of the research team from Ruhr-University Bochum and Free University of Berlin. Susanne Willers from the Free University of Berlin and Berna Zülfikar Savci as project coordinators of the new project presented the related state of research and justified the selection of the four countries. The project aims to identify and analyze the biographical projects and family life course of forced migrants in transit. It addresses both, the personal biographical projects (linked to social relations, experiences, socialization, preferences, expectations, and resources) as well as their institutional contexts (referring to local, national, and transnational migration regimes). Data collection and analysis concentrates on biographical narratives and retrospective surveys, enriched by field visits and expert interviews. The four country experts for Turkey, Jordan, Mexico, and Colombia finally presented some project related characteristics of the corresponding transit countries in light of the envisioned fieldwork. 

 

Although there may be theoretical and methodological points of divergence on how forced migration should be approached, the dialogue and reflections made during this International Conference allow us to see the multiple benefits of the life course perspective, as well as longitudinal and mixed methods. Thus, the conference offered a space to continue exploring methodologies and explanatory models to better understand and explain the life-courses and biographical projects of forced migrants in a comparative perspective.