The Affinity Group “Migrations” held its first meeting on November 10th, aiming to reconnect the community of researchers interested in the topic of migration challenges within the SE field.
The participants of the online meeting included some researchers who had been part of the 2018 workshop in Trento on “WG2 COST Research Workshop “Tackling the migration and refugee challenge”, as well as newcomers to the community. The webinar began with a short introduction and update where each person shared their current project and initiatives in which they are involved while answering why they were interested in this Affinity Group. Researchers coming from different countries namely Italy, Belgium, Ireland, and Denmark explained how their work involved in topics such as social innovations, work integration social enterprises, rural development, ethnographic research and public services delivered by third sector organisations is related to the issue of migration. The group commented on future events, projects and possible collaborations and the possibility of presenting a panel for the next 9th EMES Conference in Frankfurt. One of the aims of EMES Affinity groups is to organise focused conference sessions within the Network.
In the case of this Affinity Group, the Conference thematic line 13, entitled “The role and potential of social enterprises in tackling the migration and refugee challenge” is convened by Giulia Galera and Giorgia Trasciani, co-leaders of the Affinity Group “Migrations”.
Some members of this group will start soon working together on projects and it was suggested a possible on-site meeting in Como (Italy) as a way to develop future collaborations.