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Recent International Coverage of Migration
Migration Research Center at Koç University

Migration Research Center at Koç University

International Press Reader
July 23 - 31, 2016

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Participants of the MiReKoc and Metropolis Summer School visit Pages Bookstore in Fatih,
founded and run by Samer Alkadri from Syria 
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World Anti-Trafficking Day                    Migration This Week
MiReKoç News
WORLD ANTI-TRAFFICKING DAY

This July 30 will mark the third World Day against Trafficking in Persons. Human trafficking is the forced movement of people, within or across borders, for the purpose of sexual exploitation, forced labor, domestic servitude or organ removal. Women and girls make up 3/4 of (detected) trafficking victims. This week, the press reader pays special attention to the issue of human trafficking and shares recent articles and publications as well as more general resources on the topic.

With over 20 million persons forced into labor globally (ILO estimate), there are more slaves today than at any point in history. Nearly anything we use may be made through forced and child labor, most commonly clothing, diamonds and gold, but also products like fruit, soap, electronics, fireworks and medical supplies. You can check your "slavery footprint"  here. OpenDemocracy has a special focus on trafficking and forced labor in their BeyondSlavery section.

Many trafficked women and girls are forced into sex labor - worldwide, almost two million children are in the commercial sex trade. There is an obvious link between sex trafficking and sex work, but the conflation of the two categories as one and the same can have grave consequences for the protection of both groups. This handbook prepared by the Coalition against Trafficking in Women reveals the connections between prostitution and human trafficking, while the Sex Workers in Europe Manifesto, written by sex workers from 26 different European countries, lies out their rights.

Today’s refugee crisis in the Middle East and North Africa increases the risk for trafficking; ECRE calls for early legal intervention. In a recent article, Duncan Jepson and Nick Grono show how human trafficking is a crime made up of many crimes, caused by one major crime: corruption. Ending human trafficking thus requires far more comprehensive and deep prevention and protection mechanisms than the legal measures in place today.
MIGRATION THIS WEEK

Over the past week, news about Turkey has centered around the military coup attempt and subsequent detentions, arrests and suspensions. The plight of Syrian refugees in Turkey has become widely overshadowed, but some have brought attention to the coup's impact on Syrians - and vice versa. While Nick Ashdown explains why Syrians supported the anti-coup demonstrations, Omer Karasapan offers a wider lens on the possible impacts of the coup on Syrian lives in Turkey.

Over the past couple of months, Suzy Hansen has investigated the perception of residents of Karagumruk, an Istanbul neighborhood known as an AKP stronghold, towards the influx of Syrian refugees. Her long-read article is based on conversations with Turkish and Syrians living in the neighborhood, and offers a unique insight on questions of identity, coexistence and integration. Salih Yazun’s article on the education of Syrian youth in Turkey reveals the main possibilities and challenges of present educational opportunities for Syrians.

A number of articles this week shed light on the creative and cultural agency of refugees, such as this NY Times article about Omar Imam, a photojournalist and refugee who wishes to capture refugees’ memories, fears and dreams. Earlier, the Guardian reported on the power of poetry to voice trauma and loss. With a rare focus on Southeast-Asian immigrants in Iraq, this niqash article reports from a park in Sulaymaniyah where Indian, Bangladeshi and Nepali migrants sell their local foods.

This week, Europe, as well as other parts of the world, witnessed another wave of violent attacks. Alex Shams offers an important perspective on the Munich shooting by a German teen with an Iranian background, urging the media and public to shift from a discursive focus on Islam to a serious conversation about Whiteness, masculinity, gun control and anti-immigrant violence in the West. On a similar note, this interview with Neda Maghbouleh talks about her new book on Iranian-American identity and the limits of whiteness in the U.S. In an interview with Nando Sigona, Open Democracy discusses the concept of ‘superdiversity’ and interrogates what happens to identities in the process of  globalization and migration, while states cling onto their borders and reject a change in national identity.

Jadaliyya offers a historical overview of Europe’s wish to wall itself off from the other, including those who were once subjects of European colonial rule. With the route to Europe blocked off, many migrants get stuck in transit, as this MSF report on hazardous conditions in Libya reveals. Walid el Houri discusses how the Western narrative of exceptionalism, on whose lives matter and whose don’t, contributes to the dehumanization of refugees.

NEWS FROM MIREKOÇ
Call for Applications: Post-doctoral Research Position
 
The Migration Research Center is now welcoming applications for two post-doctoral research fellowships for "Integration and Well-Being of Syrian Youth in Turkey”, a 30-month long project with LSE, funded by RCUK and TÜBİTAK. For more information about the project,position, application procedure and important deadlines, visit our webpage.
Between July 11 and 21, MiReKoç held its sixth annual summer school, "Forced Migration: Old Phenomenon, New Challenges". This year the summer school focused on the theme of forced migration and was jointly organized with Metropolis. Around 30 fellows from all corners of the world came together for an interactive and comprehensive course that featured distinguished academics, practitioners and field visits in the city. The summer school inspired engaging discussions on migration and asylum law, the role of NGOs and civil society, research methods and ethics, and integration practices. All participants presented and reflected on their own research, encouraging new concepts and approaches to the study of forced migration.

We thank all our participants as well as speakers for making the summer school a great success!

About MiReKoç

Migration Research Center at Koç University (MiReKoc) was established in August 2004 as a grant-giving program by the joint initiation of Koç University (Istanbul) and the Foundation for Population, Migration, and Environment (PME, Zurich).

As of 2010 MiReKoc has become a fully functioning research center aimed at developing the research capacity to address migration issues in Turkey.

In addition to being an institutionalized hub for Turkey-related migration research, MiReKoc also initiates conferences, workshops, meetings and seminars aimed at engaging students, academics, bureaucrats, policymakers, stakeholders and civil society organizations (CSO).

Copyright © 2016 Migration Research Center at Koç University, All rights reserved.


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