21st Century Borders in Japan — Early Career Researcher Writing Workshop

Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan | February 15–16, 2024

The International Research Center for Japanese Studies will be hosting an Early Career Writing Workshop titled “21st Century Borders in Japan” on February 15–16, 2024 at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan. This workshop aims to develop academic articles and policy papers from early career researchers at both the graduate and postgraduate levels. More info can be found here.

21st Century Borders in Japan Writing Workshop

15 & 16 February, 9:30am–5pm

Room W302, Humanities and Social Sciences Building

Pre-Workshop Seminar

14 February, 4:30pm–6pm

“Quantifying Borders: Border Dyads and OSCE Disputes”

Prof. Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly (University of Victoria, Borders in Globalization Coordinator)

Co-Sponsored by the SRC (UBRJ/EES)

Slavic-Eurasia Research Center, Room 401 (Fourth floor)

21st Century Borders in Japan Writing Workshop

15 & 16 February

Room W302, Humanities and Social Sciences Building

21st Century Borders in Japan — Early Career Researcher Writing Workshop

JMN Workshop #2: Borders and Human Security to Military Security Database

Strasbourg, France | November 30 – December 1, 2022

This workshop was hosted between November 30th and December 1st, 2022 at the Château de Pourtalès in France. Workshop participants attended both in person and virtually.

Participants:

Frédérique Berrod (University of Strasbourg)

Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly (University of Victoria)

Maria Finnsdottir (University of Toronto)

Gregory Hamez (University of Lorraine)

Wojciech Opiola (University of Opole)

Bernard Reitel (University of Artois)

Niklas Schulz (University of Lorraine)

Shoukia van Beek (University of Victoria)

Birte Wassenberg (University of Strasbourg)

Hynek Böhm (University of Opole)

Ágnes Eross (University of Opole)

Stephanie Gruhlke (University of Victoria)

Roland Hesz (Central European Service for Cross- border Initiatives)

Benjamin Perrier (University of Victoria)

Jean Rubio (Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière)

Jules Soupault (University of Victoria)

Ari Finnsson (University of Toronto)

Kasra Ghorbeninejad (University of Victoria)

Caitriona Mullan (Association of European Border Regions)

Halina Sapeha (University of British Columbia)

JMN Workshop #2: Borders and Human Security to Military Security Database

Jean Monnet Network Launch Workshop

Zoom | June 17, 2022

This workshop’s prime activity was launching the Network. This workshop allowed us to (1) virtually host our partners and invite them to propose specific indicators or variables for the database based on their own work and specializations, and (2) connect with a wide range of local, regional and national partners, including non-academic organizations, with an interest in developing this research and training.

Our Network hypothesizes that EU responses to crisis are shaping policies with implications for human and state security, and that these responses are often exemplary as international models though not implemented with consistency across the EU.

To assess this situation, our Jean Monnet Network Team Human-to-Military Security Data Base discussed ideas/proposals for the development of database indicators at our first workshop.

Our core research focus is to challenge the well-established conception that borders are primarily territorial boundaries that emerge out of international treaties and thus that security issues should naturally be dealt with at the boundary line. Our contention is that contemporary borders in our era of globalization are processes that are in many instances ‘a-territorial’ (de-territorialized) because the border is ultimately carried out on individuals, goods and/or information on the move. Bordering processes have moved away from the boundary line and are individualized to persons and goods, occurring at sites in countries of origin, across transit countries, and within their country of destination.

Our methodology relies on the construction of datasets concerning the interplay between border policy and human/state security, with emphasis on instances of cooperation and collaboration straddling border internal and external to the European Union. We include maritime borders as well as borders within the EU and along its periphery.

Jean Monnet Network Launch Workshop

Summer Workshop: Canadian Borders Policies in Comparative Perspectives

Victoria, Canada | July 12, 2019

UVic’s Borders in Globalization (BIG) research program in partnership with Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), and with funding from the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission, hosted a one-day workshop to explore specific policy-relevant questions on Canadian borders.  The workshop had approximately 10 students present and discuss research papers with experts, scholars and border officials.  This workshop provided an outstanding opportunity to conduct and present targeted research to the policy-makers who will use the knowledge, in addition to professional development and networking opportunities.

The research papers covered three topics:

Topic 1: Asylum. What border policy reforms have been introduced in EU Member States over the past 5 years in response to the significant influx of asylum seekers in Europe? For example, reforms to entry / exit controls, identity management, public safety, security screening, and immigration enforcement measures.

Topic 2: Immigration Enforcement. Propose an analytical framework for assessing the gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) considerations with respect to developing immigration enforcement policy, including detention and removal.

Topic 3: Screening. Which countries, over the past 15 years, have had governments that have been involved in terrorism, systematic or gross human rights violations, a war crime, crimes against humanity or genocide? Compare and contrast Canada’s designated regime list with similar measures in place in other countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and/or EU Member States.

Summer Workshop: Canadian Borders Policies in Comparative Perspectives

Canada Workshop – Canada’s border and migration policies in comparative perspective

Victoria, Canada | November 13, 2018

This closed workshop focused on exploring comparative border and migration policy coming out of the European migration crisis from a Canadian perspective. This is the last workshop of the project; we have already conducted workshops in Strasbourg (internal EU borders, Schengen), Brussels (on external EU borders, Dublin), Japan (on “immigration” policies). The purpose of the workshop is to present, discuss, review and analyze, border and migration literatures and policies and to do so from a comparative perspective. There is a public talk, connected to this workshop, by Birte Wassenberg – see below.

Comparing and Contrasting EU Border and Migration Policy – Are They Exemplary?

Organized by the Jean Monnet Network

Panel 1 – Setting the context: Ethical questions / humanitarian issues regarding global border and migration policies was moderated by Oliver Schmidtke (University of Victoria), and featured speakers Scott Watson (University of Victoria) on Canada and the International Refugee and Migration Regime; Asad Kiyani (University of Victoria) on The Three Dimensions of Canada’s Migration Crisis; Nicole Bates-Eamer, (PhD Student at University of Victoria) on Climate Change & Migration to Canada. The panel also featured Discussant Jean McRae (Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria).

Panel 2 – National Policies in Comparison – Canada & Comparisons EU was moderated by Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly (University of Victoria), and featured speakers Birte Wassenburg (University of Strasbourg) on EU Internal Borders; Can Mutlu (Acadia University) on EU External Borders; Donald Galloway (Law, retired) on Canadian legal perspectives; and Oliver Schmidtke (University of Victoria) on Canadian political & historical perspectives. The panel also featured Discussant Michael Carpenter (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Borders in Globalization at UVic).

Panel 3 – Perspectives from the Field was moderated by Jean McRae (Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria), and featured speakers Solomon Wong (INTERVistas – speaking remotely) on Beyond Preclearance and Border Policy; Sabine Lehr (Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria) on “Exporting” refugee sponsorship: Navigating the borders of expansion or restriction of the protection regime; and Claude Beaupre (MA Student Sciences Po) on Analysis of the Canadian Media Coverage of the Migrant and Refugee Crisis in Europe, 2015 2016. The panel also featured Discussants Scott Watson and Can Mutlu.

Finally, the workshop held a recap roundtable led by Michael Carpenter (University of Victoria).

The Workshop also featured a public lecture from Birte Wassenburg, European Border Regions

Canada Workshop – Canada’s border and migration policies in comparative perspective

Workshop: Borders and Regionalism in South Asia

New Delhi, India | August 25, 2018

South Asia is regarded as one of the least integrated regions of the world. This is despite the fact that the region shares a common history, culture and developmental challenges. Indeed, some hard borders and boundaries act as hurdles for regional integration in South Asia. Contrary to this dominant representation of the region, other realities are quite often ignored. One such important aspect is the socio-cultural and historical ties that exist among the people of the region. Thus, while acknowledging the official borders, we can also see that there are prospects for progress. The commonality between the people opens the possibilities for soft regionalism and in a way, could lead to regional integration in South Asia. This one day workshop invited papers from young scholars to discuss the possibilities of regional integration in South Asia by bridging the existing borders and boundaries. Young faculty members and doctoral students submitted abstracts on themes related to borders and regionalism in South Asia.

Some of the suggested topics were Culture and Borders in South Asia, Border Regions in South Asia, Economic Integration and Borders, South Asian Connectivity, The Mental Borders and Boundaries in South Asia, and Comparative Borders: Examples from Other Regions.

Workshop: Borders and Regionalism in South Asia

Workshop: Immigration Policy and Border Security in Japan

Sapporo, Japan | April 21, 2018

Organized by the Jean Monnet Network, this workshop brought together scholars and policymakers to discuss border and migration policy in Japan. Panels will feature Japan-based experts, as well as other international BIG partners.

As an island nation with a declining population that nevertheless steadfastly refuses to countenance a migration policy, Japan provides an important test case when considering the potential universality of the EU’s border and migration experience. The globalization of borders as a particular technique, associated with various technologies, has appeared to presage the homogenization of specific practices associated with national or supranational border policies. Nevertheless, while many of the institutions of border control utilized by Japan appear to bear a resemblance to those of other countries, the ways in which they are implemented is frequently at odds with how superficially similar methods are deployed elsewhere. Expansive notions of global governmentality, particularly associated with the institutional development of supranational bodies like the EU, continue to find their actual practices of implementation refracted through the political cultures of the administrative bodies responsible. As a consequence, greater attention to both the historical and geographical context within which such an administrative culture exists is necessary, and these factors were consequently central to our Hokkaido Workshop. The three panels situated Japan’s current policies within the context of their historical development, described their contemporary performance, and reflected upon the wider regional context within which Japan’s immigration and security policies find expression. In doing so, it provided a standpoint from which to reflect upon the possibilities and limits inherent in claims for the imitative potential offered by the migration and security policies of the EU.

Workshop: Immigration Policy and Border Security in Japan

Workshop: Border Movements and Governance

Banff, Canada | April 19-21, 2018

Geoffrey Hale (University of Lethbridge) led a workshop for authors on border movements (flows) and governance for a book project entitled Borders in Motion: Canada’s International Policy Relations in an Era of Political and Economic Uncertainty. The workshop took place at the Banff Centre on 19-21 April, 2018.

Workshop: Border Movements and Governance

Brussels Workshop on Irregular Migration & External Border Security in Europe & Beyond

Brussels, Belgium | November 14, 2017

This workshop was the second in a Jean Monnet Network grant shared across four institutions in Canada, France, Japan and Turkey that examined how answers to the migration crisis are shaping Europe’s borders, migration and related security policies in exemplary manners and should be studied in comparative perspective and context. Activities were aimed at engaging graduate students, young researchers and professors at each partner institution along with the policy makers in each community. The Network, Comparing and Contrasting EU Border and Migration Policy – Are They Exemplary?, hosted the first workshop in Strasbourg in May 2017 and was organized by Birte Wassenberg at the University of Strasbourg. The third workshop was be organized by Dr. Ted Boyle at Kyushu University with Hokkaido University in April 2018.

The Brussels workshop convened scholars and policy-makers to examine the external borders of Europe. This workshop was organized by Dr. Can Mutlu (Acadia University, Canada; formerly Bilkent University, Turkey)

Program

The Brussels workshop featured a Welcome and Introduction from Can E. Mutlu (Acadia University, Canada) and Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly (University of Victoria, Canada) and several panels:

The Panel on EU External Border Security and Migration Management featured Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly (University of Victoria) as Chair and Discussant, along with panelists: Phillipe Mamadou-Frowd (University of York, UK) who spoke on Security intervention in Niger: what does the ‘transit state’ label do?; Julien Jeandesboz (Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium) who spoke on EU border control and data processing: from the politics of crisis to the politics of means; and Ali Bilgic (Loughborough University, UK) who spoke on The Militarization of the Mediterranean Sea and the Creation of Super-Frontex in relation to Human Security of Irregular Migrants.

The Panel on the Aegean and Mediterranean Crossings and Beyond featured Ted Boyle (Kyushu University) as Chair and Catherine Delcroix (University of Strasbourg) as Discussant, along with panelists: Polly Pallister-Wilkins (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands), who spoke on Im/mobility and the making of a humanitarian borderscape; and Debbie Lisle (Queen’s University in Belfast, UK) who spoke on Crisis Hospitality: Migrant Routes and Tourist Infrastructures.

The Panel on Turkey and the Refugee Crisis featured Can Mutlu (Acadia University) as Chair and Oliver Schmidtke (University of Victoria) as Discussant, along with panelists: Beste Isleyen (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) who spoke on Discursive Battles in Turkey over Border and Migration Management; Saime Ozcurumez (Bilkent University, Turkey) who spoke on International Protection and Socio-economic integration Nexus: Polices and Politics in Turkey; and Shoshana Fine (CERI, Science-Po, France) who spoke on Security, resettlement and refugee (un)becoming in Turkey.

The workshop finished with the Roundtable with Practitioners and Academics, was moderated by Birte Wassenberg (University of Strasbourg) and featured speakers Filippo Terruso (European Committee of the Regions), Oliver Schmidtke (University of Victoria), Can E. Mutlu (Acadia University).

Brussels Workshop on Irregular Migration & External Border Security in Europe & Beyond

Arctic Security Whole of Government Research Workshop

Kingston, Ontario | May 6-7, 2014

The Arctic Security Whole of Government Research Workshop was held in Kingston, Ontario on May 6-7, 2014. It represented a collaborative effort between Trent University, the Borders in Globalization Project, and the Department of National Defence (DND), represented by the Canadian Defence Academy (CDA), the Royal Military College of Canada (RMCC), and Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC). The purpose was to bring together Northern experts to discuss the role of Whole of Government in the DND’s approach to Arctic security, sovereignty and leadership capacity. Contributions came from a wide variety of defence, federal government departments, and academic institutions. Topics covered a range of issues including the role of the military, economic development, Indigenous inclusion, and food security. To learn more about the workshop click here.

Arctic Security Whole of Government Research Workshop