Dr. Maria Koinova will this week speak at a high profile policy event on “Global Diaspora Mobilization” at the University of Warwick Brussels Office.

The global refugee crisis brings pressing concerns how to manage refugees on the move and deal with fragile sending states in conflict and disarray. While such concerns take the limelight, long-term effects of refugee and large-scale migration movements remain in the shadow. Over time refugees may return home, but many will remain in their new destinations, or move on to others, and eventually turn into conflict-generated diasporas with durable links to their original homelands. ​

Conflict-generated diasporas can be a source of economic development, but also of further conflict from afar, and engage in a variety of long-distance practices. Lessons learned from experiences of previous refugee waves, their diaspora engagement, and the management of large-scale migration, including fragile and developing states, can inform meaningful policies towards refugees and migrants today.

The seminar seeks to enhance the conversation between academics and policy-makers in European institutions by focusing on lessons learned from diaspora mobilisations and their management, and to bring their implications for policy areas such as: conflict and security, state-building, economic and social development, migration governance, transitional justice and democratisation.

The event will also highlight the links between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and human mobility that needs to be understood more comprehensively to support and leverage different types of diaspora populations and link integration policies in countries of settlement with the transnational activities of mobile populations.

The event, takes place on Tuesday 28th March. For more details, and to register, please see: http://cdn.flxml.eu/r-0f785137d0e4bf0627dc5b97e804a8a93ec6f29b0b059ec1