Wide Annual Conference 2010:”Migration in the context of globalisation”

Source: WIDE (Women in Development Europe)

June 4-5 2010-Bucharest, Romania. This year´s Conference marks also the 25th anniversary of WIDE. The UN Women´s world conference in Kenya 1985 marked the start for WIDE when feminists in Europe decided it was time to join hands and work together. In the past 25 years WIDE has become a strong network with 12 national and regional platforms in Europe, bringing together over 400 organisations and working with women from the South, form all continents. WIDE is the only European network focusing on trade, development and women´s rights, employing three kind of strategies to bring about change: through networking, capacity building and advocacy. This conference will build on WIDE´s long experience, activism and expertise.This Conference “Migration in the context of globalisation” will bring together and voice the experiences of migrant women from Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. And most importantly it will facilitate dialogue to come to common positions and actions for the coming years to take. Migration is an important process that is impacting people in Europe and worldwide.

The Conference will scrutinize critically the European policies that affect migrant women and men and their dynamic relationships within the societies they live and the ones they come from. European migration policies intersect with European labour, trade and development policies, negatively impacting on the sustainable development of societies in the Global South. How can we ensure that the rights of migrants are protected? How can we build towards alternatives of global development that is based on social justice and equality? What are the main issues in the policies we need to address and what are the best strategies? Debate about the interdependence between migration and development has grown significantly the past decade. Policymakers have become aware of contributions migrants can make to development, like remittances. The remittances migrants send to their country of origin is in total amount higher than the total amount of aid given by governments. There are many questions that need to be asked when policymakers incorporate this into development strategies. Migration is also deeply interwoven with global economic development and policies, with people needing to find jobs elsewhere; trade and labour policies that put migrants in insecure and vulnerable positions and an exploitation of migrants as cheap labour force. Migration is transnational and affects everybody.

Read more about the specific objectives of the conference and the programme.

Photo credit: michelphoto53

Written by: Federica Lomiri

Filed Under: Events, Gender, Migration

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About Federica

Socio-economic analyst for developing countries. Membership Officer in SID.

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