Speakers will address issues of migration

INVERCARGILL Mayor Tim Shadbolt will be among the participants when ‘‘forced migrations and borders’’ are highlighted at the University of Otago’s latest Foreign Policy School.

About 150 people from throughout New Zealand and from several overseas countries will converge on St Margaret’s College, in Dunedin, for the threeday event from June 30.

The 52nd Otago school will focus on the forced migrations of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, the closing and enforcement of immigration borders, and the ensuing ‘‘widespread misery and geopolitical instability’’.

School codirector Associate Prof Jackie Leckie says that the impressive invited speaker lineup features international specialists on a range of topics, including globalisation, immigration borders, including the USMexico border, and Pacific climate change migrants.

Refugee policies, asylum seekers and Pacific detention centres will also be examined.

Prof Leckie said the ‘‘humanitarian tragedy’’ resulting from the Syrian conflict had highlighted forced migration issues.

‘‘But that particular horror is only one of dozens being played out around the world,’’ she said.

This year’s school is titled ‘‘Open and Closed Borders: The Geopolitics of Migration’’.

There had been an ongoing increase in New Zealand’s refugee quota, and Invercargill had recently been announced as a new resettlement centre.

This had caused ‘‘some disquiet among civic leaders’’ there because of a ‘‘perceived lack of consultation’’ about the centre’s establishment.

Forced migration and border issues were ‘‘very topical’’ and had recently generated considerable media coverage both in New Zealand and elsewhere, she said.

Other speakers include York University, Toronto, refugee studies centre director Prof Jennifer Hyndman, Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture chief executive Paris Aristotle and Australian ambassador for people smuggling Andrew Goledzinowski.

john.gibb@odt.co.nz