Short Abstract

This panel challenges migration categories by examining intersections, e.g. religion, work, education, tourism, displacement and marriage, and considers their implications for everyday lives, policy and research. The focus is on Southeast Asia(ns), both characterized by high decrees of mobility.

Long Abstract

Migration – whether for marital, educational, religious or economic aspirations or due to forced displacement – continues to be a crucial part of people’s social realities in Southeast Asia. We explore different types of migration and mobilities with a focus on discussing specific intersections in “mixed migration” and “double categories” (e.g. religion and work, education and tourism, displacement and marriage). We are interested in understanding how such intersections play out in everyday lives and what that means for state policies governing migrants and for academics working on migration related issues. More specifically, we aim to deliberate on the necessity, usefulness and limitations of the existing narrow and exclusive categorisations of migrants and discuss to what extent different perspectives on what makes people moves can be included into our epistemologies. Depending on the temporal aspects that underlie people’s mobility and the legal conditions that shape their mobility, several forms and experiences of mobility defy simplistic categorizations and cut across established migration categories, e.g. , labour migrants can become refugees sur place in times of conflict, During those transitions migrants often face regulatory pitfalls and other short-comings as states fail to accommodate migrants’ needs for protection and/or labour, health and welfare rights.

This panel aligns to the conference’s theme and asks what moves people in Southeast Asia - physically, socially and emotionally. By combining different aspects of movement, we seek to challenge simplistic categorizations in migration studies and migration governance. For this panel, we especially invite early career researchers.