About the conference
Over the last decades, scholars have been searching for better tools, concepts and methods to describe and analyze new social patterns of diversity and identity arising from migration-driven diversification of the political, social, economic and cultural landscapes. The term ‘super-diversity’ has been coined to describe a condition in cities where the arrival of migrants from many different countries, combined with longer established minority populations, has resulted in an unprecedented variety of cultures, social conditions, identities, languages, and immigration statuses. All these factors combine meaning that super-diversity presents unparalleled challenges and opportunities to researchers, policymakers and practitioners, as well as to communities.
Key questions to be addressed:
- To what extent is the concept of super-diversity useful to describe and analyze new social patterns, forms and identities arising from migration-driven diversification?
- How can ‘super-diversity’ shape new thinking on migration and better strategies for immigrant integration?
- How can diversity research engage with different academic and policy agendas?
- What methodological challenges and opportunities are diversity researchers facing?
Key-note speaker
Professor Jenny Phillimore, Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology, Professor of Migration and Superdiversity, University of Birmingham.
Jenny Phillimore is Professor of Migration and Superdiversity. She is a world leading scholar in refugee integration, superdiversity and access to social welfare with a particular focus on public health. Jenny is also an expert on Community Sponsorship. She manages teams of researchers focusing on access to health, education, employment, training, and housing integration with a particular focus on integration and organisational change in the UK and EU. Jenny is a Fellow of the RSA and of the Academy of the Social Sciences. She has advised local, regional, national and European Government. Jenny led the ESRC/Norface funded UPWEB project which is developing a new concept of welfare bricolage to explore how residents in superdiverse areas address health concerns.