How global shifts reshape migration and refugee regimes
How are geopolitical change, new technologies, and shifting norms transforming migration and asylum regimes? These questions will be at the centre of a symposium, co-organised by UiB, held in Tijuana, Mexico, on 22 April 2026.
Hovedinnhold
The symposium The Shifting Global Order and the Transformation of Refugee and Migration Regimes (programme) brings together scholars, policymakers, and practitioners from Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Asia to examine how changes in the global order are affecting migration governance, bordering practices, and the lived experiences of migrants and refugees.
Across world regions, migration and asylum policies have increasingly moved in a more restrictive direction. The symposium addresses how this convergence is shaped by geopolitical tensions, public attitudes, and the expanding use of technologies such as biometrics, digital surveillance, robotics, and artificial intelligence.
A central aim of the symposium is to explore how these developments influence not only state policies, but also the everyday realities of migrants, refugees, and host societies.
Interdisciplinary perspectives
The programme adopts a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, with panels focusing on themes such as regional integration, the transformation of borders, migration governance, and social and political responses to mobility.
By bringing together perspectives from different parts of the world, the symposium seeks to identify both shared patterns and important regional differences, and to advance new theoretical and empirical insights in migration research.
Hosting the symposium in Tijuana highlights how abstract global shifts in migration regimes are experienced in places where bordering, mobility, and asylum are part of everyday life.
Hakan G. Sicakkan, Department of Comparative Politics, UiB
The choice of Tijuana as the venue is integral to the symposium’s thematic focus. Situated at the Mexico–US border, the city is profoundly shaped by global and regional migration dynamics.
UiB and IMER Bergen involvement
The symposium's scientific organiser Hakan G. Sicakkan, Professor of Comparative Politics at UiB, will deliver the opening keynote on how transformations in the global order are reshaping migration and refugee regimes.
Researchers affiliated with UiB and IMER Bergen will also contribute to several panels, highlighting UiB’s strong international engagement in migration research.
The symposium is co‑organised by the University of Bergen and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). IMER Bergen plays a central role in the scientific programme.