Dear Colleagues,
**Apologies for cross-posting**
We are delighted to announce that ICMS 2021 conference sub-theme 10 titled 'The Business of (Im)Migration: Bodies Across the Borders' is inviting extended abstracts of approx. 1000 words by the 6th of November 2021.
Please see the detailed call below. If you have any queries, please feel free to reach out to any of us.
Best Wishes,
Vijayta Doshi (vijayta.doshi@iimu.ac.in), Marco Distinto (marco.distinto@gmail.com), Paulina Segarra (paulina.segarra@anahuac.mx), Arturo E. Osorio (osorio@business.rutgers.edu), Martyna Śliwa (martyna.sliwa@essex.ac.uk)
The 12th International Conference in Critical Management Studies (ICMS)
Diversalising and Intern(ation)alising CMS: Places, Spaces, Bodies and Praxistical Theories
BML Munjal University, India
16-18th December, 2021
A Virtual Conference
https://internationalcms.org/2021/03/26/call-for-submissions-12th-icms-conference/
Sub-Theme 10: The Business of (Im)Migration: Bodies Across the Borders
Migration is the phenomenon of the movement of bodies from one's place of origin or last residence to another, for various voluntary or involuntary reasons ranging from education, work, marriage, ambition, or crisis. It involves movement of bodies across places and spaces such as borders of their village/city/state/nation of origin (Doshi, 2020; Segarra & Prasad, 2020). The migrant bodies on the surface may look or contribute to the discourse of 'diversity' and 'internationalization', however, at a deep level, they are clearly excluded (Johansson & Śliwa, 2014).
From a micro-perspective, migrants face cultural, economical, social, psychological, political, and emotional challenges. Their challenges range from the issues of integration and/or (dis)integration (Hinger & Schweitzer, 2020) into the new society and workplace in terms of housing, (un/under)-employment (Risberg & Romani, 2021), language, local norms, foreignness (Johansson & Śliwa, 2014), or stigmatization of "polluting" an otherwise "normal" place and space (Risberg & Romani, 2021). Migrants are often granted a marginalized status irrespective of the class or background of the migrants in their places of origin (Doshi, 2020). The challenges of migration can also be understood by exploring the processes of (re/de)subjectification linked to the movements of individuals from one place/culture to another and the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion affected by the relationships between migrant and local communities (Balch, 2016). Critical and alternative explorations of the representations of migrants/refugees/asylum seekers as post/trans/non-humans and how migration can potentially disrupt the modern and Western conception of the human being (Bone & Blaise, 2015; Mouflard, 2016).
On a meso level, migration management also involves the level of organisations, such as inter- and intra-national reception systems; civil society organisations offering support to migrants, refugees and asylum seekers; hybrid organisations, halfway between public institutions and voluntary associations (Valtonen, 2016). The consideration of this dimension also asks us to indirectly reflect on the challenges of migration from the perspective of the social workers supporting migrants or reproducing the securitarian and exclusionary policies introduced by many governments after the 2016 refugee crisis (Distinto, 2020).
From a macro-perspective, the geopolitics of migration policies and migrant settlement programs remain questionable. These policies themselves are shaped and influenced by the Discourse of inter(natio)nalization, (anti)globalization, post/neocolonialism, nationalism, and capitalism (Segarra & Prasad, 2020). COVID-19 as a challenge for migration policies, pending (im)migrations, and reverse-migrations cannot be understated.
The 'business' of migration can be understood in various ways such as the business of pre-(im)migration, represented by (im)migration agents and the associated frauds, as well as the business of post-(im)migration, exemplified by migrants' integration agencies, the labour market for migrant workers and their presence in lower organisational levels (Distinto et al. 2021). More broadly, the 'business' of migration refers to the importance of migration for the sustenance and reproduction of capitalism, including – within higher education – business schools' agenda of attracting 'international' students and employing migrant employees as 'international' faculty (Distinto et al. 2021).
In terms of the theoretical perspectives, this sub-theme is interested in a range of perspectives from feminist and intersectional perspectives (e.g. age, gender, caste, class, ethnicity, language, race, religion, or sexuality), embodiment theory (e.g. migrant as less-able bodies), post-structuralist and post-humanist theories (e.g. migrant subjectivities, migration assemblages) to neo/post/decolonial perspectives (e.g. migrants from Global South are marked with the additional axis of inequality belonging to a "developing" country; rural to urban migrants in the Global South face status and (un)employment challenges).
In terms of the methodological interests, the sub-theme is open to both conceptual as well as empirical work using qualitative, post-qualitative and/or quantitative methods.
We invite submissions on the following topics (indicative and not exhaustive):
- (Anti) Globalisation, nationalism and right-wing anti-immigration discourses around (im)migration
- (Im)Migrant employment and/or migrant settlement programs and policies
- Borders and bodies
- COVID-19, pending/cancelled (im)migration, and reverse migration
- Feminist and intersectional approaches to migration: Intersections of migrant identity with age, gender, caste, class, ethnicity, language, race, religion, or sexuality
- Geopolitical complexities in (im)migration
- Governmentality of (im)migration
- Inferior bodies or inferior places?
- Integration of migrants: The effects of anti-(im)migration discourses on the integration of migrants
- Internal migration: Rural to urban, urban to urban, urban to rural, or rural to rural
- Migrant entrepreneurs' identities and experiences (including legal/illegal business actions, hidden economic communities, and cultural intersections)
- Migrant labour/workers
- Migration assemblages
- Neo/Post/Decolonial migration research: (Im)migration perspectives from the Global South and Third World
- Organisations/Business Schools: Diversalizing and internationalizing agenda led migration
- Places as bodies and bodies as places/sites of exploitation
- Refugees' identities and experiences
- Relationship between migrants and local communities
- Undocumented/ "illegal" immigrants
How to Submit
The submissions have to be made directly to us.
Vijayta Doshi (vijayta.doshi@iimu.ac.in), Marco Distinto (marco.distinto@gmail.com), Paulina Segarra (paulina.segarra@anahuac.mx), Arturo E. Osorio (osorio@business.rutgers.edu), Martyna Śliwa (martyna.sliwa@essex.ac.uk)
Submissions will be in the form of extended abstracts of 1000 words. Submissions should clearly indicate the sub-theme to which they are submitting. Submissions should also briefly state in 100 words how their submission is suitable for the sub-theme. Please note that this is a virtual conference.
Last date for Submission: 6th November 2021
Registration
Due to an overwhelming preference for the online virtual mode of the conference, the ICMS conference of 2021 is being converted to a purely online conference. This has been felt safer also from a public health point of view in view of the continuous second and further waves of the covid 19 and continuing travel restrictions.
The registration fees for the virtual conference is INR 6,500.00 or GBP 70 per participant.
If you have any queries with regards to the registration fees and process please write in to payalk1@gmail.com
References
Balch, A. (2016). Immigration and the state: Fear, greed and hospitality. Springer.
Bone, J., & Blaise, M. (2015). An uneasy assemblage: Prisoners, animals, asylum-seeking children and posthuman packaging. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 16(1), 18-31.
Distinto, M. (2020). 'Pastoral power and the integration of migrants': an exploratory study of discourses and practices of integration within Italian refugee reception centres. PhD thesis The Open University.
Distinto, M., Doshi, V., Osorio, A. E., Śliwa, A., & Segarra, P. (2021). The business of (Im)Migration. In Alakavuklar, O., Bristow, A., Doshi, V., Ferraro, H., Osorio, A E., & Riach, K. (Eds.). CMS InTouch Webinar Series, March 23rd. Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2qqGcLyUEQ&t=21s.
Doshi, V. (2020). Symbolic violence in embodying customer service work across the urban/rural divide. Gender, Work & Organization, https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12571.
Hinger, S., & Schweitzer, R. (Eds.) (2020). Politics of (dis) integration. Springer Nature.
Mouflard, C. (2016). Zombies and refugees: Variations on the "post-human" and the "non-human" in Robin Campillo's Les Revenants (2004) and Fabrice Gobert's Les Revenants (2012–2015). Humanities, 5(3), 48.
Śliwa, M., & Johansson, M. (2014). Gender, foreignness and academia: An intersectional analysis of the experiences of foreign women academics in UK business schools. Gender, Work & Organization, 21(1), 18-36.
Risberg, A., & Romani, L. (2021). Underemploying highly skilled migrants: An organizational logic protecting corporate 'normality'. Human Relations, https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726721992854.
Segarra, P., & Prasad, A. (2020). Colonization, migration, and right-wing extremism: The constitution of embodied life of a dispossessed undocumented immigrant woman. Organization, 27(1), 174-187.
Valtonen, K. (2016). Social work and migration: Immigrant and refugee settlement and integration. Routledge.
Conveners' Profiles:
Vijayta Doshi is Associate Professor in the Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management Area at the Indian Institute of Management Udaipur, India. Her current research work focuses on rural to urban migration, gender, and class in service work in India. Her work has been published in the Gender, Work & Organization, Journal of Business Ethics, Management Communication Quarterly, and Personnel Review.
Marco Distinto has recently finished his PhD at the Open University Business School with a thesis titled "Pastoral power and the integration of migrants: an exploratory study of discourses and practices of integration within Italian refugee reception centers". His research work focuses on the integration of migrants and the work experiences of social workers in (im)migration reception centres in Europe.
Paulina Segarra is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Business and Economics, Universidad Anáhuac México. She is interested in using Hannah Arendt's political philosophy to understand organisational phenomena and the immigrant experience at work. Her past research has appeared in Human Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, Organization, and Studies in Higher Education.
Arturo E. Osorio is Associate Professor of Practice in Entrepreneurship at Rutgers Buiness School Newark and New Brunswick. His work focuses on urban entrepreneurship and social determinants of health including socioeconomic dynamics within minority communities. Arturo has co-edited two books on entrepreneurship, has been involved in several projects on regional socioeconomic development for the US Federal Reserve, the Macau Foundation, and the City of Buenos Aires, among other government and non-government agencies. His most recent work considers the socioeconomic health of communities during COVID-19, including issues of labor and (im)migration.
Martyna Śliwa is Professor of Management and Organisation Studies at Essex Business School, University of Essex, UK. Her current research projects focus on diversity, inclusivity and intersectionality in organisations; linguistic diversity and its effects on organisational hierarchies and power relations; and the importance of everyday resistance and solidarity in organisations and society. Her work has been published in a range of journals, including British Journal of Management, ephemera, Human Relations, Journal of International Business Studies, Management Learning and Organization Studies. She is currently a Co-Editor-in-Chief of Management Learning.
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Vijayta Doshi
Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur
Udaipur
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