Two international students from the University of Chichester have showcased their work on a global scale by appearing at the Metropolis Conference at The Hague.
Carolene Ayaka from Kenya and Amanda Muscat from Malta are both studying for PhDs at the University, and were invited to be part of a conference panel looking at a range of migration issues. The panel was assembled by Professor Chris Gaine, a leading expert in migration and Chair of Social Policy at the University.
The conference was held at The Hague in the Netherlands, next door to the International War Crimes Tribunal, between 3-4 October 2010, and was attended by experts in migration from around the world.
The panel examined the experience of different groups of Africans in Europe: French-speaking people from Cameroon now living in London, educated Kenyan and Nigerian women in Leeds negotiating their identities in relation to their pasts and futures, Zambian and Zimbabwean nurses recruited into the UK’s care homes, and Somalian, Sudanese and Eritrean refugees arriving by boat in Malta.
Prof Gaine said: “The conference insisted that all panels contained researchers, policy analysts, and people from non-government organisations, as well as speakers from more than one country. Because of my networks and work in this field, I was able to get Carolene and Amanda to present at the conference, which was an excellent experience for them both. It was also a useful networking opportunity for them, as the other members of the panel were Sarah Isal, Deputy Director of the Runnymede Trust, Britain’s leading think tank on issues of ethnicity and migration, and Amina Chitembo, who runs the Black and Minority Ethnic Community Services NGO in West Sussex.”
Prof Gaine also contributed to another workshop discussing different work he has been engaged in, looking at the perceptions of young people of migrant backgrounds in Lisbon, Paris and London. The conference attendance for Prof Gaine followed an appearance at the European Education Research Association conference in Helsinki in August, where he was joint convenor of the Social Justice network for his tenth year. As well as chairing several sessions, he gave a special seminar to doctoral students from Iceland who are studying migration. It is likely he will be invited to Reykjavik early next year.
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