Workshop on Security, Borders and International Development

^{Photo: Migrant Boat by Matt Brown}

25 - 26 April 2019, University of Warwick

Jointly organised by the Criminal Justice Centre (CJC) and the Centre for Law, Regulation and Governance of the Global Economy (GLOBE), Warwick Law School

As an unprecedented number of people are on the move, international mobility has become one of the most important global challenges of our times. Mounting economic inequality, climate change, natural disasters, civil conflict and political instability, have triggered mass migration on a regional and global scale. This mobility has been increasingly framed as a security problem, linked to terrorism and organized crime, and managed through increasingly punitive and coercive measures, including through criminal justice practices and institutions, to identify, eject and repel irregular migrants and foreign convicts. The containment of migration is also taking place outside the territorial borders of the receiving state with increased border controls, processes and institutions established in migrant transit or home countries aimed at controlling emigration and enabling the repatriation and rehabilitation of foreigners.

This strategic shift towards externalizing border controls is blurring the boundaries between international development, humanitarian aid, and national migration and criminal justice policies. Global mobility has been framed as a development and humanitarian challenge and addressing the purported drivers of transnational migration – poverty, political conflict and instability, and human insecurity – has become a priority for humanitarian aid and international development cooperation. Measures to externalize border controls are increasingly being funded by official development assistance (ODA) and, in the process, reframing the tenets that underpin international development cooperation. Domestic security concerns have been progressively interwoven into the discourse, policy and practice of international development to justify the growing proportion of ODA that is being routed towards border control and repatriation programmes.

This workshop will bring together scholars on migration, development and criminology to map the novel interconnections between international development cooperation and the securitization of border controls, and to critically assess the legal, social, economic and political implications of this policy trend. The workshop will also facilitate a broader platform to chart emerging frontiers in criminal justice, migration and international development policy.

There are limited spaces left for workshop attendance. Participants will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. There will be no fee to attend the conference but as we will be catering for participants, we kindly request that once you have registered, you are firmly committed to attending.

Non-speaking participants are responsible for organising their own travel and accommodation.

You can register for the workshop here. Registration will close on Thursday, 18 April 2019 or when spaces are full.

The Workshop Call for Papers can be downloaded here

The Programme of the workshop can be downloaded here

This workshop is supported by:

GRP ID