Call for Papers - Thematic Dossiers: REMHU, volume 32, 2024 (continuous publication)

Dossier 1: "Abdelmalek Sayad: Migration, State and Historical Amnesia". Deadline for submission of articles, February 29, 2024. Gustavo Dias and Gennaro Avallone (Guest Editors)

Dossier 2: "Human mobility and climate crisis". Deadline for submission of articles, May 31, 2024. Joan Lacomba and Beatriz Felipe (Guest editors)

Dossier 3: "Entrepreneurship and self-employment initiatives by migrants". Deadline for delivery of articles, August 31, 2024.

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DOSSIER 1: "Abdelmalek Sayad: Migration, State and Historical Amnesia". Deadline for submission of articles, February 29, 2024.

Gustavo Dias and Gennaro Avallone (Guest Editors)

Abdelmalek Sayad (1933-1998) is an important analyst of the migration phenomenon. However, he is an author whose work is still not yet well-known in the Brazilian academia, as well as in in the Spanish and English ones. The reasons range from the limited translation of his texts - primarily written in French - to the small number of Brazilian (and Spanish and English speaking) researchers dedicated to studying and interpreting his work. Through a consistent bibliographic production mainly dedicated to Algerian migration, Sayad denounced the brutal French colonial system in the Maghreb and, subsequently, the ambiguous Algerian nationalism and the contradictory migration policies driven by Europe since the Cold War. Throughout his intellectual trajectory, he developed important and still relevant conceptual tools to understand the state control over the ongoing migration movements.

Sayad approaches the migration phenomenon through a meticulous socio-historical analysis that critically exposes how the subject, under migratory conditions, is produced and managed both by the country of origin and the receiving country. Locked in an asymmetric power relationship, the migrants, the country of origin, and the receiving country share, as defined by Sayad himself, the “illusion of temporality”. This burden is exclusively carried by the migrants. Reduced to the dimension of temporary labour and devoid of political life “here” and “there”, their existential condition is constantly dependent on the political decisions between the two states, which, in turn, do not equally share the power of decision-making regarding migrants. Not by chance, the constant evidence of the colonial legacy, present in the unequal agreements signed between an industrialized France in need of cheap labour and a newly independent Algeria sustained by an exclusionary nationalism, were constant and present concerns for Sayad in his studies on the control of Algerian migration across the Mediterranean.

For Sayad, the critical scrutiny of state narratives, considered official, becomes an important epistemological tool to expose to the public the intentional “Historical Amnesia” produced by them, which aims to erase the historical power relations present in the management of migrant groups. In this vein, terms recurrently used by the state, academia, and the media such as “migration crisis”, “integration”, “asylum”, “naturalization”, “exile”, “minorities”, and “identity” demand a critical socio-historical understanding of their respective formulations and uses. More than seemingly technical terms, they veil historical relationships of violence and state domination over migrant populations in conditions of vulnerability or structural subalternity.

Therefore, it is around the strategic production of “historical amnesia” by the countries of origin and receiving countries, critically unfolded by Sayad, and its implications for migrant population, that we intend to focus our reflection in the dossier “Abdelmalek Sayad: Migration, State, and Historical Amnesia” for REMHU, Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Mobility.

Among the possible focal points, we highlight:

• The current relevance of the categories used and developed by Sayad in the study of contemporary migrations.
• The role of state thought in the production of vocabulary used in public debate and by international organizations to define and understand migratory processes.
• Official archives and data in the potential production of “historical amnesia” regarding migrant groups.
• The intricate asymmetrical relationship between the country of origin and the destination country in the production of “historical amnesia” about migrants.
• The relationship between the structure of the international division of labor and different processes of spatial mobility.
• Current migration processes compared to international migration policies in different geographical areas of the planet.
• The condition of respect for human rights within the framework of the current migratory regime.

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The article (unpublished; between 35,000 to 45,000 characters with spaces) can be written in Spanish, English, Italian, French, or Portuguese and will be evaluated by two referees. The publication guidelines are available at: http://remhu.csem.org.br/index.php/remhu/about/submissions

Manuscripts should be submitted to the REMHU Journal through the electronic manuscript submission portal: http://remhu.csem.org.br/index.php/remhu/index

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DOSSIER 2: "Human mobility and climate crisis". Deadline for submission of articles, May 31, 2024.

Joan Lacomba and Beatriz Felipe (Guest editors)

Climate change has become one of the major challenges for humanity, especially for the most vulnerable populations that have contributed the least to this global catastrophe. Moreover, the evidence is increasingly strong regarding the impact it will have on the future of life on the planet. Since the Paris Agreement on climate change came into force in 2016, in which 194 countries have committed to take measures to limit the increase in global temperature, we have witnessed an acceleration of extreme weather events and an increase in temperatures previously unknown. Ineffectively for the time being, many States and international organizations have implemented public policies and deployed some initiatives that advocate either mitigation or adaptation to a changing climate.

One of the consequences of climate change, sudden catastrophes (floods, fires, hurricanes...), and the slow development changes associated with it (drought, desertification, sea level rise...), has also been the increase and variation of migratory flows. According to data from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), more than 32.6 million new displacements associated with disasters occurred in 2022 alone. In addition, displaced persons in these contexts face multiple human rights violations, including their rights to food, water, sanitation, housing, health, and education, as UN Special Rapporteur Ian Fry on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change commented in his 2023 thematic report on these realities.

Numerous studies by international agencies and academic research and civil society organizations have been reporting in recent years on the impact of climate change and the plundering and pollution of ecosystems on the (in)mobility of people in different directions, but many questions remain to be answered. For example, how do the impacts of climate change relate to economic, social, or political factors? How much impact is climate change having on migration in and from certain regions? How do these mobilities specifically affect women? What about people living in poverty or belonging to discriminated groups? What happens when people are unable or unwilling to migrate? What legal frameworks are applicable and which ones should be adapted?

With this thematic dossier, we want to deepen the knowledge of the current state of human mobility related to the climate crisis and its implications at different levels, as well as to promote studies on this subject that allow for greater social and political awareness of these realities. Authors are invited to present current and innovative proposals on this subject that will help to advance the knowledge of these realities and the protection of the people affected.

Thematic lines:

- Public policies on migration and climate change.

- Critical reflections on the role of climate change in human (in)mobilities.

- Climate migration and climate justice. Normative and innovative advances to overcome the legal vacuum.

- Impacts of climate change on migration flows and flows.

- Trapped populations.

- Case studies in communities affected by climate change (relocations, internal displacements, international mobilities, etc.).

- Gender dimension in climate migration.

- Role of local populations, civil society, and diasporas in climate migration.

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Submitted articles should be between 35,000-45,000 characters with spaces (including notes and bibliography) and may be written in English, Italian, Portuguese, French or Spanish. They must describe original research which is not published nor currently under review elsewhere. All submissions will go through the REMHU’s regular peer (double blind) review process. Other information such as bibliographic standards with which all authors are obliged to comply may be found on the REMHU website or on the website of SciELO: http://remhu.csem.org.br/index.php/remhu/about/submissions 

Manuscripts should be submitted online at: http://www.csem.org.br/remhu.

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DOSSIER 3: "Entrepreneurship and self-employment initiatives by migrants". Deadline for delivery of articles, August 31, 2024.

***

Submitted articles should be between 35,000-45,000 characters with spaces (including notes and bibliography) and may be written in English, Italian, Portuguese, French or Spanish. They must describe original research which is not published nor currently under review elsewhere. All submissions will go through the REMHU’s regular peer (double blind) review process. Other information such as bibliographic standards with which all authors are obliged to comply may be found on the REMHU website or on the website of SciELO: http://remhu.csem.org.br/index.php/remhu/about/submissions 

Manuscripts should be submitted online at: http://www.csem.org.br/remhu.