Scholars of Excellence Workshop – The global governance of migration

The Scholars of Excellence Workshop series is a series of day-long sessions where international scholars are invited to contribute to complex topics of interest to the academic community. The Workshops are convened by CERC Migration's visiting Scholars of Excellence.

Co-convened by CERC Scholar of Excellence Thomas Lacroix, Sciences Po, and Anna Triandafyllidou, Chair, CERC Migration, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU).

Migration has become a touchpoint for highly contested debate often characterized by misleading imagery, baseless information, distorted facts, and biased framings. Over recent years, overly simplified paradigms of the public’s understanding of migration have emerged, from why people move to the range of governance options to the impacts of migrants in communities of destination and origin. Given that migration is a highly contested issue at the intersection of security, human rights and economic development, it is important that a more impartial and scientific effort to understand these factors be available to policy-makers and to the wider public. Indeed, at no time has the public discourse on migration been as polarized and as polarizing as it is today. Misinformation and data manipulation override scientific facts concerning migration trends and impacts, policy options and people’s preferences and beliefs.

The need for scientific evidence in the public debate is more important than ever, not least as the number of people affected by forced displacement hit a record high last year: 108 million and millions more are likely to be affected due to the anticipated effects of climate change. Meanwhile, across the global academic community, there is a wealth of high quality and reliable data, knowledge and theoretical understanding that should–must–be made available as a public good to better inform the wider public with substantiated facts about migration. This is the rationale behind efforts made to establish an International Panel on Migration (IPM/GIEM).

This workshop brings together academics and practitioners from around the world to explore the relationship between scientific research on migration and related policies. We consider how we can combine scientific independence with policy relevance, as well as advocacy with critical analytical work that not only provides answers to existing questions but also sets the questions.

CERC Migration has a commitment to ensure all of our events are accessible. Please email if you are unable to pay, and we will be happy to waive the admission fee.

PLEASE NOTE: CERC Migration cannot provide letters of invitation for event attendees for our non-conference events such as this one.

For the program agenda, please visit the website.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

CERC Migration, 220 Yonge Street, Toronto, Canada