International conference ʽBetween the Worlds: Migrants, Margins, and Social Environmentʼ (BEW 2021)
Sofia, 1-2 December 2021.
The teams of the ‘Between the Worlds’ Conference and the research project ʽCultural Integration and Adaptation of Immigrants in Bulgariaʼ (funded by the Bulgarian Science Fund (DN 20/8 (11.12.2017) are pleased to announce their joint international conference ʽBetween the Worlds: Migrants, Margins, and Social Environmentʼ which is to be held on 1st and 2nd of December 2021 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The dynamic social, political, and economic transformations globally in the past three decades have led to significant changes in the public and academic discourses concerning the migrations, mobilities, but also the perceptions of the national identities – their construction, creation and maintenance. Some state borders were or remain closed, while others have accelerated the active cross-border migration by ‘opening-up’, thus becoming the main catalyst for public and academic discussions regarding the concept of homogenization of national identities and cultures – an idea which is now a part of the political agenda in a number of countries.
In this perspective migration is becoming a key issue and challenge for both the European Union and its individual member states and promises to be stay for the decades to come. Taking the migrant communities as a central objective of our research we are motivated to study the dialectics between them and both the sending and receiving countries. Due to the diverse nature and varying intensity over time, the migration processes are bringing to the fore the idea that migrants are not a homogeneous mass, but rather a colourful mosaic of different groups and communities with specific ethnocultural, confessional and linguistic features, as well as motivated by a plethora of political, economic and social factors in the past and now. Therefore, focus of discussions would be the patterns of adaptation and integration of migrant group, their success or failure, reasons for that and thus – the migrant milieu – at the social margins or in the core of their new societies. We are interested in how these processes impact the migrant group’s cultural specifics, their lifestyle, day-to-day life, but also how these accelerated movements from and to countries affect the social perceptions, stereotypization of migrants and attitudes towards them.
To ensure a fruitful and rich academic debate on the topic we are inviting scholars and researchers from all fields of the Humanities to take part in the conference with their work on topics concerning, but not limited to:
– Student migrations, training and specialization mobility;
– Labour migration;
– Lifestyle and marital migration
– Refugee movements;
For more information about ‘Between the Worlds’ conferences visit: Between the Worlds website
For more information about the research project ʽCultural Integration and Adaptation of Immigrants in Bulgariaʼ visit: project webpage
We are looking forward to receiving your proposals!