Hosted virtually in collaboration with the
Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy,
University of Regina and University of Saskatchewan
The current refugee protection regime embodies legacies, aspirations, and compromises inherited from post-Second World War geopolitics and law. Increasing recognition of its Eurocentrism, state, local, and translocal resistances and growing fragmentation at multiple scales is spurring new understandings of belonging, community, and membership outside of the mainstream legal framework. People in situations of forced migration are also forging autonomous collectives, bargaining units, mutual aid collectives, and other local utopic communities. Some observers consider the UN Global Compacts on Refugees and Migration or the 2019 Call to Action of the CIGI World Refugee Council as key steps towards increasing available pathways to safety.
The CARFMS 2021 Organizing Committee wishes to invite you to explore utopias and new visions of the future. Scholars, practitioners, and experts with lived experience will come together to reflect on the transformative potential of utopic thinking and practices in forced migration studies.