The Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR) is an interdisciplinary consortium within Ghent University. CESSMIR includes ca. 50 promotors and 80 PhD researchers from seven different faculties. Three elements form the key thread in CESSMIR’s activities: interdisciplinarity, societal impact, and participation. Hence we stimulate interdisciplinary research projects and university-wide courses, organize practical trainings for practitioners and policy-makers, and we maximize the involvement of stakeholders through the research process.

Every two years, CESSMIR centres some of its activities on a main theme. In 2020-2022 our theme is ‘Contemporary forms of racism and discrimination in society’. Stay tuned on our website, Facebook and Twitter for more information on upcoming study days, trainings, lectures and other activities!

Mission and Vision

CESSMIR was established at Ghent University as an interdisciplinary centre focusing on the social impact of migration and fleeing.

Migration and fleeing may largely impact people's lives, the lives of the migrants themselves as well as the lives of the people in the societies in which the migrants temporarily or permanently reside or return to. As an interfaculty consortium, CESSMIR focuses on these 'social aspects' of migration. We understand 'migration' as any possible form of mobility, such as asylum, resettlement, transit migration, return migration, re-/expatriation, labour migration, family reunion, temporary migration,... .

Because migration processes and the social groups that form part of these processes involve many different aspects, they touch several diverse scientific disciplines, such as economics, sociology, pedagogy, psychology, history, linguistics, criminology, political science, law, (migration) policy, social work and medical sciences. Therefore, an interdisciplinary approaches are crucial to achieve a better understanding of these processes and to support the societal debate on these topics. Promotors from no less than seven different faculties at the University of Ghent are involved in CESSMIR.

CESSMIR develops activities in the areas of research, education and service to society, activities that are also connected one to the other. Research, for example, is translated to education and in the service to society, and special efforts are made to bring research in and to practice. As such, research can be conducted on practices (e.g., the impact of training or support), or education can have a specific focus on practitioners and other stakeholders (e.g., the organisation of a training course).

Organization

CESSMIR is coordinated by a team with fixed and changing members: prof. Ilse Derluyn (director), dr. Floor Verhaeghe (coordinator), prof. Sorana Toma (lecturer in migration and refugee studies), prof. Robin Vandevoordt (lecturer in migration and refugee studies), prof. Peter Stevens, dr. Fanny D’Hondt, dr. Olga Petintseva, drs. Ella Van Hest, drs. Marjolein De Pau, drs. Sarah De Vos, and drs. Sara Lembrechts.

Activities

CESSMIR develops activities in the areas of research, education and service to society. Moreover, the activities within these three pillars are linked to each other. Research, for example, is translated to education and in the service to society, and special efforts are made to bring research in and to practice. As such, research can be conducted on practices (e.g., the impact of training or support), or education can have a specific focus on practitioners and other stakeholders (e.g., the organisation of a training course).

More concretely, we organize these regular activities for the broader public:

• Migration Research in Practice. Annual workshop in April or May in which CESSMIR researchers present their work and engage in discussion with practitioners.
• Trainings for practitioners, volunteers and policy-makers. These trainings are given by speakers from different academic disciplines, and from practitioners (eg lawyers, pedagogues, social workers,…). In 2020-2021 we organized 2 trainings, on ‘Children in a migration context’ and ‘Future-oriented work with/for migrants without legal residence documents’.
• CESSMIR Public Seminars: public lectures from internationally reputed researchers.

For researchers we also organize several specialist, interdisciplinary courses and activities:

• PhD Meetings: regular meetings in which our PhD researchers discuss specific themes (e.g. positionality, working with translaters/interpreters, decolonizing migration studies,…).
• Seasonal school for PhD students. In 2021 we organized a seasonal schools on ‘Contemporary forms of racism and discrimination’, in collaboration with BIRMM (VUB) and CEMIS (UA).
• CESSMIR Public Seminars: public lectures from internationally reputed researchers.

For students:

• Migration and Society. In this university-wide optional course, we offer an interdisciplinary introduction to migration studies, to all 3^rd Bachelor and Master students at UGent. This course was first given in 2021-2022 by a team of around 20 lecturers and coaches from different disciplines.