Mapping “Integration Research Futures”

Two-day workshop organised by the Centre for Refugee Studies (York University, Canada) and IRIS on 26-27 September 2024 offers an opportunity for early career researchers to share their thinking and contributions about the future of refugee integration research.  

Intellectual debate around migrant settlement and adaptation has been ongoing in Western nations for nearly a century. While scholarly attention has shifted from focussing on the responsibilities of migrants to include those of all stakeholders, the extent to which the general population will accept migration-driven diversification is said to depend on successful migrant integration (Larin 2019). The salience of integration for refugee newcomers is perhaps even higher. With the more than doubling of forced migration in the past decade (UNHCR 2023) and increase in numbers seeking asylum, coupled with a decline in resettlement places, the success of permanent solutions to displacement is often judged by how well refugees integrate (Bornstein 2017; Hynie 2018). Further, it is crucial that refugees enjoy positive integration experiences since those experiences impact on wellbeing and moderate the effects of prior trauma (Hynie 2018; Li, Liddell and Nickerson 2016; Miller and Rasmussen 2017). 

There is no agreement on how to define integration. Scholars have become increasingly critical of the term, particularly around its close connections to policy and associated normative interpretations of what it means to be a good migrant (Schinkel 2018). Yet the policy salience of integration (Klarenbeek 2021; Vertovec 2020), and its polysemic nature (Abdou and Geddes 2017), have ensured its resilience in scholarship, policy and practice. Much of what Rytter (2019) refers to as ‘integration talk’ as expressed through policy focus on employment, health, social networks etc. is also articulated as important by refugees (Mestheneos and Ioannidi 2002). But the emphasis on largely functional and social outcomes has perhaps overlooked other aspects of integration around developing emotional attachments to a new place, feeling safe, belonging, feeling confident and fulfilled. Further there tends to be a reliance on either interview or survey methods although interest in other approaches is increasing and includes visual and other techniques.

This two-day workshop offers an opportunity for early career researchers to share their thinking and contributions about the future of refugee integration research.  It will address questions such as:

• What is the state of knowledge on refugee integration?

• Should we research refugee integration?  What are the main gaps in knowledge and how should we address them?

• How can we undertake integration research in collaboration with refugee researchers, activists and others?

• How can we decolonise research in refugee integration?

It features a keynote from Professor Jenny Phillimore and consecutive panels, discussion sessions and opportunities for networking and contemplation of joint projects.