Human Migration: Law, Policy and Human Rights
July 20-27, 2019
As long as borders have existed, people have crossed them, legally or not. Human migration has become one of our most pressing global issues. Driven by war, civil and domestic violence, climate change, political oppression, and economic inequality, flows of refugees and other migrants have swelled in many parts of the world. Anxiety about migration often fosters violent and hyper-nationalist reactions.
The 2019 International Affairs Conference will consider causes and effects of human migration. We’ll learn about national immigration policies, international agreements, and the rights and aspirations of migrating people — including some of the most vulnerable, resourceful, and inspiring members of our species.
Our faith traditions call us to extend hospitality and care to travelers and strangers. Global covenants assert the human rights of every person. A core ethical challenge of our time is to foster the attitudes, relationships, policies, laws, and agreements most likely to produce a world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all — including migrants.
IA 2019 has reached capacity, however you are encouraged to register for the waiting list in case cancellations occur. Please contact Kristin Laverty with any questions at kristin@laverty.org.
Speakers
Pardis Mahdavi is currently Acting Dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, and is the author of Crossing the Gulf, a pathbreaking study of the lives of migrants in the cities of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Kuwait City.
Daniel Kanstroom is professor of law and Thomas F. Carney Distinguished Scholar at Boston College Law School, where he teaches immigration and refugee law, international human rights law, Constitutional law, and administrative law, and is the author of Deportation Nation, Outsiders in American History.
Maddalena Marinari teaches history at Gustavus Adolphus College, and is the author of the forthcoming Unwanted: Italian And Jewish Mobilization Against Restrictive Immigration Laws, 1882–1965.
Julie Dahlstrom is a clinical associate professor at Boston University School of Law, where she teaches in the areas of immigration, human trafficking, gender-based violence, and public interest law. She also founded and directs the Immigrants’ Rights & Human Trafficking Program, which offers law students at BU the opportunity to represent noncitizen and survivor clients.
Mónica Ortiz Uribe is a freelance radio reporter who specializes in covering the U.S.–Mexico border and the American Southwest. Her reports on the impact of the Trump administration’s immigration and border enforcement policies air regularly on National Public Radio and Public Radio International.
Minister of the Week
The Reverend Ana Levy-Lyons serves as senior minister of First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn, and is the author of No Other Gods: The Politics of the Ten Commandments.
