June 2022

A study visit to Thessaloniki was organized from 14 to 17 June as part of the MIGREC project, and the coordinators and hosts were team members from the South-East European Research Centre – SEERC. In total, 7 researchers, doctoral students, and one representative of the NGO “Group 484” visited Thessaloniki in the context of H2020 MIGREC Project.

During the first day of the study visit, a discussion and introduction were organized with Dr. Hatziprokopiou (School of Spatial Planning and Development, AUTH), Prof. Tsitselikis (Department of Balkan, Slavic, and Oriental Studies, UoM), Dr. Chatzibirros (PSYD, CITY College), Dr. Pasmatzi (HumD, CITY College), followed by a lecture on Discourse Analysis by Dr. Kelmali, HumD, CITY College.

On the second day of the study visit, the participants had workshops on ethics in research led by Dr. Prodromidou, BAED, CITY College, and Ms. Ververidou, SEERC Research Associate. After the workshops, participants had the opportunity to talk to representatives of NGOs in Thessaloniki (NGO Arsis and IOM Greece).

On the last day of the study visit, participants had a Netnography Workshop (Dr. Kapoulas and Ms. Xharavina, BAED, CITY College), a lecture on Applied research on the integration of immigrants in European societies and beyond (Dr. Aristea Ladas, PSYD, CITY College) and a discussion on doctoral academic studies within the MIGREC project.

The list of staff and PhD students:

Anita Burgund Isakov – Assistant Professor, University of Belgrade – Faculty of Political Science

Dragana Stoeckel – Assistant Professor, University of Belgrade – Faculty of Political Science

Stefan Surlić – Assistant Professor, University of Belgrade – Faculty of Political Science

Danijela Pavlović – teaching assistant and PhD student, University of Belgrade – Faculty of Political Science

Violeta Marković – teaching assistant and PhD student, University of Belgrade – Faculty of Political Science

Jelena Birmančević – junior researcher and PhD student, University of Belgrade – Faculty of Political Science

Marijana Matović – researcher, University of Belgrade – Faculty of Political Science

Gordana Grujičić – representative of the NGO “Group 484”

MIGREC team members Danica Šantić, Dejan Pavlović and Natalija Perišić participated at the conference “Continuities and Change in a Migration World” organized by the Migration Policy Centre of the European University Institute from Florence, Italy from May 23 to 25, 2022.

MIGREC team members presented the topic of the migration development nexus from the point of view of Serbia. They pointed that empirical evidence of who benefits most, where, why and how in development strategies centred on diaspora and immigration are numerous, but increasingly ambiguous . The links between migration and development have been of great importance in the national context in the long-term perspective, but also neglected. Namely, versatile trends, both internal and external to Serbia, have been contributing to this with intensive emigration of young, population and the requirements for the EU accession being among the most important. In their presentation, MIGREC team members focused on exploring migration-development links in terms of reinforcing the view of migrants as agents of development who can produce beneficial outcomes for Serbia, both in terms of hard outcomes (migrant and diaspora and the direct effects on aid and development and remittances) and the soft ones (transfer of expertise and skills).

MIGREC team members had a meeting with Andrew Giddes, the Director of the Migration Policy Centre of the European University Institute from Florence, Italy in order to explore the path to future cooperation.

The Conference programme can be found here: https://www.eui.eu/events?id=542484

The Faculty of Political Science hosted the First Summer School within H2020 MIGREC Project from May 31^st to June 1^st 2022.

The Migration Research Group from the University of Sheffield organized the Summer School. Lecturers and discussants were Majella Kilkey, Rebecca Murray, Aneta Piekut, Will Haynes and Ben Gardner. Senior and junior researchers as well as PhD candidates from the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Political Science and Faculty of Geography attended the School.

The School comprised of workshops, presentations and discussions on quantitative and qualitative research methods and their application in migration studies. The emphasis was on offering in-depth knowledge on the analysis of data processed in SPSS and coding transcripts from interviews.

The Second summer school will be organized by the Migration Research Group from the University of Sheffield in September from 19^th to 23^rd 2022.