Who do we welcome into our societies? Whom do we deny asylum and accommodation? Over the last years, we have witnessed rather emotional debates in the media and the public sphere pointing to the so-called “migrant crisis” – in France, Germany and in many other European countries. These debates reveal a much-forgotten reality: individuals and groups in need do not find ipso facto asylum and support in a given country, even if the latter claims to comply with human rights law and humanitarian principles. Asylum has to be negotiated. Asylum is asked for, solicited and argued for. The actors involved develop specific strategies, they negotiate, they sometimes make deals and they quite often have to plead or to contend for international aid.

Argument

Who do we welcome into our societies? Whom do we deny asylum and accommodation? Over the last years, we have witnessed rather emotional debates in the media and the public sphere pointing to the so-called »migrant crisis« – in France, Germany and in many other European countries. These debates reveal a much-forgotten reality: individuals and groups in need do not find ipso facto asylum and support in a given country, even if the latter claims to comply with human rights law and humanitarian principles. Asylum has to be negotiated. Asylum is asked for, solicited and argued for. The actors involved develop specific strategies, they negotiate, they sometimes make deals and they quite often have to plead or to contend for international aid. There is much at stake: helping people in need means that we draw on a given country’s resources to allow »alien people« to benefit from it – in the form of food, accommodation, diplomatic or even military aid. With the conference »Negotiating Asylum« we intend to bring together and compare examples from the early modern and modern periods. This should allow us to better understand practices of negotiation by highlighting differences or similarities and raising new sets of questions.

Programme

Wednesday, 20 March 2019

Institut historique allemand, 8 rue du Parc royal, 75003 Paris

13:00 Meet & Greet

13:30 Welcome: Stefan MARTENS (GHI Paris) Introduction by the convenors

14:15 Issues of Power: welcoming religious refugees | Accueillir: un enjeu au service de la puissance

Chair: Naïma GHERMANI (Grenoble) 

• Cecilia TARRUELL (Oxford): Migrations et conversions entre Islam et Chrétienté: Les politiques d’accueil de la monarchie hispanique, XVIe–XVIIe s.

15:45 Naïma GHERMANI (Grenoble)

• Richard KIRWAN (Limerick): Universities of Asylum: Religious Refugees and the Confessional University in Early Modern Germany
• Bruno POMARA (Valencia): Looking for Refugees. The Italian States Authorities Trying to Convince the Moriscos to Populate their Land, 1609–14

18:00 Keynote lecture Delphine DIAZ (Reims): Demander l’asile, négocier l’accueil. Les réfugiés et leurs pétitions aux autorités, France, Belgique, Suisse, premier XIXe siècle

Chair: Marianne AMAR (Paris)

Thursday, 21 March 2019

Centre Les Récollets, 150–154 rue du faubourg Saint-Martin, 75010 Paris

9:30 Welcome: Musée national de l’Histoire de l’immigration

Choosing refugees: participation and discrimination | Choisir, trier: discriminer l’accueil

Chair: Laure TEULIÈRES (Toulouse)

• Müge ÖZBEK (Istanbul): Sheltering the »Virtuous Daughters« of the Empire: A Study on the Widows’ House for Female Refugees in the Second Half of the 19th c. in Istanbul
• Annelise RODRIGO (Toulouse): S’organiser pour négocier? Le réseau associatif canadien pour l’accueil de réfugiés durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale

11:30 Chair: Célia KEREN (Toulouse)

• Laura HOBSON-FAURE (Paris): A Gendered Reception? Negotiating Refuge for Central European Jewish Children in France, 1938–39
• Coline RONDEAU (Angers): Les demandeurs d’asile kurdes de Turquie en France: entre négociation de l’accueil et invitation à quitter le territoire, 1980–2010

14:00 Negotiating asylum: diplomats and intermediaries | La négociation en acte: le rôle de la diplomatie et des intermédiaires

Chair: Mathilde MONGE (Toulouse)

• David DO PAÇO (Paris): Une gouvernance trans-impériale: l’accueil des migrants ottomans dans les territoires gouvernés par la maison d’Autriche dans les années 1780
• Francesco SAGGIORATO (Rome): Le rôle de la mission diplomatique du Royaume d’Italie dans les départements toscans annexés à l’Empire français dans le contrôle des migrations transfrontalières
• Alexandre MASSÉ (Toulouse): Le droit d’asile dans les consulats de France: l’accueil des Grecs et des Turcs durant la guerre d’indépendance grecque, 1821–1830

17:00 2nd Keynote lecture Olaf KLEIST (Osnabrück): History and Refugees: Protection of Migrants from the Past

Chair: Susanne LACHENICHT (Bayreuth)

Friday, 22 March 2019

Institut historique allemand, 8 rue du Parc royal, 75003 Paris

9:30 Categories and representations | Catégories et représentations: sous quelles figures se joue l’accueil?

Chair: Jürgen FINGER (Paris)

• Anindita GHOSHAL (Sarisha): Journey from »Migration Certificate« to »Citizenship Card«: Bengali Refugee Voices from Assam
• Margarita LIPATOVA (Halle): »Desirable« Migrants in Today’s Greece?

11:30 Chair: Isabelle LACOUE-LABARTHE (Paris)

• Antoine BURGARD (Manchester): Négocier le départ: accompagner et construire des demandes de visa pour le Canada dans l’immédiat après-Seconde Guerre mondiale
• Bill NIVEN and Amy WILLIAMS (Nottingham): The Role of Memory in the Negotiation of the Refugee Crisis

14:00 Welcoming refugees: Ideologies and confrontations | L’accueil, au prisme de l’affrontement idéologique

Chair: Catherine GOUSSEFF (Paris)

• Caroline MOINE (Versailles): Négocier l’accueil des réfugiés chiliens après le 11 septembre 1973: le cas ouest-allemand
• Phi-Vân NGUYEN (Winnipeg): The Cold War Politics of Refugee Protection: The Transnational Support to Victims of Communist Persecution in Wartime Vietnam, 1949–89
• Matti VÄLIMÄKI (Turku): Securitization in Authorities Discourse and Practice: Refugee Reception in Finland, 1986–95

16:00 Wrap up, departure

Advisory board

Marianne AMAR, Rainer BABEL, Catherine BRICE, Jürgen FINGER, Naïma GHERMANI, Catherine GOUSSEF, Mathieu GRENET, Chris HODSON, Célia KEREN, Susanne LACHENICHT, Isabelle LACOUE-LABARTHE, Annalisa LENDARO, Mathilde MONGE, Jose Javier RUIZ IBÁÑEZ, Laure TEULIÈRES

Academic and Financial Partners

DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft – Institut Convergences Migrations/Investir l’Avenir – Institut historique allemand Paris – Musée de l’Histoire de l’immigration – Sciences Po Toulouse/LASSP – Universität Bayreuth – Université Grenoble Alpes/LUHCIE – Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès/Framespa/CNRS – UPEC – Laboratoire CRHEC – Institut universitaire de France