London Summer School is about to start at the University of Westminster on 5-8 September 2022 and brings together more than 100 experts, teachers, PhD candidates, NGOs, including teachers and professionals from the Universita Degli Studi di Palermo, the Université de Tunis El Manar, the Université de Tunis, the Université de La Manouba, the University of Westminster, Universidad de Granada, Unione delle Università del Mediterraneo (Unimed), and the organizations Cooperazione Per Lo Sviluppo Dei Paesi Emergenti Onlus (COSPE) and Clinica Legale Per I Diritti Umani (CLEDU).

This is the second Summer School organised by the Erasmus Plus Project MIGRANTS.  The first one took place in Granada in July 2022.

The London Summer School will be a unique opportunity to share ideas and perspectives on issues related to migration, its management and representation. This will be done through a series of Roundtables with speakers from all the International Institutions involved on the topics of discourses and representation, human rights and labour. The impact of multiculturalism in London will be celebrated through City Tours in three of the areas most affected by migration (Arabic community in Edgware, Chinese community in Soho and French community in Kensington).

A roundtable with doctoral students from the Erasmus Plus Project and the Westminster University research centre HOMELandS will take place on Wednesday 7 September.

On Thursday 8 September, the Summer School will host an Advocacy Roundtable organised in partnership with Migrant Voice around the topic of externalisation of borders that will involve a series of London-based organisations including Amnesty International, Migration Observatory, Migrant Organise, Women for Refugee Women, and others.

The Screening of the documentary Hostile and a Q&A with director Sonita Gale will close the event. The film focuses on the UK’s complicated relationship with its migrant communities. Told through the stories of four participants from Black and Asian backgrounds, the film focuses on the impact of the evolving ‘hostile environment’ policies, which are designed to make living conditions so difficult for migrants that they voluntarily leave the country.
The programme has been curated by Federica Mazzara with the support of the other University of Westminster colleaugues including Hayet Bahri, Saskia Huc-Hepher, Rob William, Ailsa Peate and the Partners of the MIGRANTS project.

The Summer School does not accept external participants since it is sponsored by the Erasmus Plus Migrants Project and it is reserved to the partners except for the last activity: the screening of Hostile, the documentary of Sonita Gale which is open to the public (registration is required to attend the documentary). However, it is possible to follow the Roundtables online (except for the one held on Thursday 8 September), through the Zoom links that you can find in the full programme here.