[URBANTH-L]Re: CORI (Committee on Refugees & Immigrants) Business Meeting at the AAAs

[David W. Haines]

Re: CORI business meeting

As both a past CORI chair and current SUNTA president, I
am sympathetic to both James and Sarah's comments, which
(to me anyway) reflect the strong needs to (1) focus
specifically on refugees, and also to (2) develop a fully
comprehensive anthropology of migration--of which refugee
issues are an absolutely crucial component.

I have already apologized to Jason for not being able to attend
this CORI meeting, but I wonder if this process of thinking
CORI's future might have a useful practical implication for the
next one or two AAA meetings: a set of panels that examine
exactly these issues: perhaps one on contemporary forced
migration (including the extremely interesting new arrivals to
the United States); one on what anthropology can contribute to
migration studies generally; and perhaps one that focuses on this
specific question of how to integrate the understanding of
humanitarian and economic migration streams (and destinies).

-- David Haines

At 02:55 PM 11/27/2007, mahlers at fiu.edu wrote:
>Dear Colleagues,
>
>In response to the couple of comments by Jason 
>Pribilsky (below)and others about CORI/SUNTA, I would like to weigh in.
>
>It has often crossed my mind that migration 
>studies and refugee studies should be integrated 
>better.  There are indeed differences but I see 
>them as differences of degree more than of kind. 
>There is value in examining border crossing 
>along continua based on different criteria such 
>as conditions of exit and entry, govt assistance 
>and barriers, people's SES, etc.  Some twenty 
>years ago I started my career studying refugees 
>who were not accorded refugee status in the U.S. 
>for old Cold War reasons; today I supervise a 
>doctoral student researching intra-company 
>transferees who are not accorded immigrant 
>status despite the fact that, as she recently 
>wrote, "the United Nations and the International 
>organization for Migration define immigrant as a 
>“non-resident intending to stay in a country 
>for more than one year” (U.N. 1998:18; IOM 
>2004:31). Thus the term “immigrant” covers a 
>plethora of people who cross international 
>borders, including low-skilled workers, 
>refugees, persons without legal documents, 
>missionaries, diplomats, foreign language 
>teachers, and the now widely increasing 
>temporary skilled and professional workers, and 
>international company transferees."
>
>SUNTA is definitely the right home for these 
>issues and care needs to be taken 
>institutionally such that the juggernaut of 
>migration studies does not ignore the 
>differences of refugees' experiences, but I 
>think it is time to restructure so that we align 
>ourselves institutionally more in line with our intellectual understanding.
>
>I will not be at the AAA but hope that this 
>issue received the attention it merits.
>
>Sarah J. Mahler
>
>---- Original message ----
> >Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2007 08:52:22 -0800
> >From: "Jason Pribilsky" <pribiljc at whitman.edu>
> >Subject: [URBANTH-L] CORI (Committee on 
> Refugees & Immigrants) Business Meeting at the AAAs
> >To:
> >
> >Dear Colleagues (old and new CORI members, scholars interested in issues
> >concerning immigration and refugees):
> >
> >CORI (Committee on Refugees and Immigrants) Business Meeting at the AAAs
> >Saturday, December 1 (6:15 - 7:30 pm).
> >Contact Jason Pribilsky, CORI Chair for more details
> >(pribiljc at whitman.edu)
> >
> >DETAILS:
> >During a migration roundtable at the 2007 Applied meetings hosted by SUNTA
> >president David Haines, a group of young and senior CORI members came
> >together to discuss the future of the group. This discussion will be
> >furthered at the AAAs in November and I strongly encourage all past and
> >present members and anyone else whose research falls under the broad agenda
> >of CORI to give their input. When CORI was founded as a group within GAD,
> >its purpose was to serve as a networking conduit to bring together scholars
> >researching and writing about similar issues. Over the years, CORI published
> >an impressive collection of "Selected Papers" and was a leader in organizing
> >panels and planning sessions on critical policy issues such as forced
> >migration and refugee resettlement. In 2003, CORI joined SUNTA and found a
> >natural home among likeminded scholars. Nearly twenty years later, we might
> >ask ourselves what is the specific purpose of CORI today? Is it necessary,
> >for instance, given the large volume of scholars who already work on
> >migration-related issues, to have a separate group devoted to this topic
> >within SUNTA? If the answer is yes, what should the new face of this group
> >be? What should be its agenda for the next twenty years? I invite all who
> >are interested in the future of CORI to attend a business meeting, Saturday,
> >December 1 (6:15 - 7:30 pm). Questions? I can be reached at
> >pribiljc at whitman.edu
> >
> >Jason Pribilsky
> >Assistant Professor and Chair
> >Department of Anthropology
> >Director, Latin American Studies Program Whitman College Walla Walla, WA
> >99362
> >509.527-5162 (tel)
> >509.527-5026 (fax)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >URBANTH-L mailing list
> >URBANTH-L at lists.ysu.edu
> >http://lists.ysu.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/urbanth-l
>
>===================================
>Sarah J. Mahler
>Director,
>Transnational & Comparative Studies Center
>  and Associate Professor,
>Dept. Sociology/Anthropology
>DM 368
>Florida International University
>Miami, FL 33199
>(o) 305.348.6561
>(fax) 305.348.6562
>email:  mahlers at fiu.edu
>
>
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