International Conference: "Peoples in Migration in the 21st century"

14 - 16 December 2006
Nicosia, Cyprus

The Daedalos Institute of Geopolitics in Cyprus cordially invites you to its first international conference "Peoples in Migration in the 21st Century:" which will be held in Nicosia on the 14th, 15th and 16th December 2006.

Migration will be one of the biggest issues in world geopolitics in the years to come. Huge populations flows are one of the key phenomena of the contemporary world. The conference brings together specialists, politicians and journalists from Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The purpose is to map current migrations, to hold debates about the problems caused by migration and to discuss possible actions to take.

The conference will stress the following points:

1) A discussion of Kofi Annan’s concept of the “globalisation of the globe” and of his idea that nation-states have had their day. Do the world’s major institutions share this view? What is the view of the Holy See, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and non-governmental organisations?

2) The increasing problem of “Eurabia”. Opinion polls in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands show that societies are divided while politically correct ideas are imposed. Countries are in the process of disappearing. What is the relationship between established right-wing parties and nationalist right-wing parties? Will the conflict between the two be the principal political conflict in years to come?

3) There is a debate in the Arab world on migration. What is the relationship between Arab Africa and Black Africa, between North and South? What is the purpose of Euro-Mediterranean summits? Is immigration an arm in the hands of the Maghreb (North Africa) and the Mashreq (the Arabic speaking counties East of Egypt)?

4) Africa itself is ever more destabilised by migratory flows. Political elites remain settled while ordinary people undertake ever more dangerous migrations in search of a better life. The Ivory Coast is case in point. What is the point of view of Burkina Faso and Mali on the crisis in Ivory Coast? And what about the situation in Darfur and Chad: is the refugee crisis there being manipulated for political purposes?

5) Is there a conflict between East and South? Western Europe has seen immigration from Africa and Eastern Europe. What is the relationship between migrants and the Mafia, especially people traffickers? The examples of Albanians, Kosovars and Nigerians are relevant.

This conference,organised with the cooperation of the Geopolitical Observatory for Nations and the World, Sorbonne, Paris,is intended to make a contribution to the elaboration of a European policy on migration. It will ask questions without shying away from taboos.

For further information please contact Anna Papasavva
papasavva@daedalosinstitute.org, +357 22875087
+357 99511436

Day One: 14th December 2006, Famagusta Gate, Nicosia

21.00 Opening ceremony

21.30 General Director of Daedalos, Professor Michel Korinman

21.50 President of the Parliament, Dimitris Christofias

22.00 Minister of the Interior, Neoklis Sylikiotis

22.10 Mayor of Nicosia, Michalis Zambelas

22.20 Reception

Day Two: 15th December 2006, Hilton Park Hotel, Nicosia

08:30 Registration of participants

09.00 History and Geopolitics

Chairperson: Michel Korinman
Professor at the Sorbonne-Paris IV, Director of the Daedalos Institute of Geopolitics (Paris)

Migration in the Western Mediterranean in ancient times: the case of Carthage, a Mediterranean megalopolis
Mhamed Fantar
Director of Research at the National Heritage Institute
(Tunis)

An introduction to the general history of migrations in the Mediterranean in the 19th and 20th centuries
Émile Témime
Emeritus Professor of Contemporary History (Marseille)

The new logic of migration in the 21st century
Rector Gérard-François Dumont
Sorbonne-Paris IV, Director of “Population et Avenir” (Paris)

Perpetual motion

Chairperson: Michel Korinman

* The position of the World Bank
Paul Wolfowitz
President of the World Bank (Washington)

The Geopolitics of flight: the hypocrisy of the international community towards the law and towards the need for Africans to emigrate
Georges Tadonki
Programme Manager, Director of SAHIMS (Johannesburg)

The Catholic Church and the 'others': a universalist strategy
Manlio Graziano
Professor (Paris)

Discussion

11.10 Coffee Break

11.30 Fortress Europe?

Chairperson: Michalis Attalides
Rector of Intercollege Daedalos Insitute of Geopolitics (Nicosia)

What should be the European Union's immigration policy?
Eberhard Rhein
European Policy Center (Brussels)

Immigration, colonialism, Europe
Josep Carles Laínez
Writer (Valencia)

Immigration: a French taboo
Ivan Rioufol
Journalist, Le Figaro (Paris)

The geopolitical representations of immigration and Islam in France and in Europe
Alexandre del Valle
Local council official (Paris)

The Germans and Islam
Thomas Petersen
Project Manager, Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach (Germany)

The end of the ideology of multiculturalism in the United Kingdom
John Laughland
Editor of 'Geopolitical Affairs', the quarterly journal of the Daedalos Institute of Geopolitics (London)

Immigration from Eastern Europe to Britain and its consequences, 2004-2006
Sir Andrew Green
Former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chairman of Migration Watch (London)

Discussion

13.45 Lunch

15.00 Parallel Sessions

I. Fortress Europe ?

Chairperson: Anna Papasavva
Project Director, Daedalos Insitute of Geopolitics (Nicosia)

Why is the Vlaams Belang so popular?
Paul Belien
Editor of The Brussels Journal (Brussels)

Migration as an instrument of cooperation and stabilisation
Guido Lenzi
Diplomatic adviser to the Italian Ministry of the Interior (Rome)

'Italia addio!': demography and migrations in Italy
Giuseppe Sacco
Professor of International Relations, University of Rome (Rome)

Italy: when a country of emigrants becomes a country of immigrants
Valeria Palumbo
Journalist (Milan)

Islam in Italy, Islam in Europe: is there integration in spite of the conflict?
Stefano Allievi
Professor of Sociology, University of Padua (Padova)

The Political and juridical perspectives on the integration of immigrants in Greece
Markos Papakonstantis
Advocate, recearch fellow, Institute for strategic and development studies (ISTAME)

Albanians and Greeks:mutual representations in the press, 1991-2001
Gazmant Kapplani
Writer, PhD in history and political science(Athens)

Discussion

II. Fortress Europe ?

Chairperson: Mezri Haddad
Philosopher and writer Daedalos Insitute of Geopolitics (Tunis)

Immigration and multinationalism: the Catalan case
Ricard Zapata Barrero
Visiting Professor, Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona)

Integration strategies for different categories of immigrants in Spain
Rosa Aparicio Gomez
Professor and researcher (Madrid)

Are the Spanish for or against immigration?
Marisa Ortún Rubio
Spanish consulate (Paris)

The re-birth of Islam in Spain
Rosa Maria Rodríguez Magda
Philosopher and Writer (Valencia)

How to reduce the causes of mobility: state structures and cooperation in Portugal
Major Francisco Proença Garcia
PhD, Professor of strategy, Institute of Higher Military Studies (Lisbon)

Experiences at a consulate in Africa
Alexandre Leitao
Permanent representation of Portugal to the European Union, responsible for relations with the European Parliament (Brussels)

Discussion

17.00 Coffee Break

17.20 IV. The Northern frontier

Chairperson : Pierre-Aimée Kipré
Emeritus professor, Ecole Normale Supérieure, former Minister of Education, special advisor to the permanent delegate of Ivory Coast to UNESCO (Abidjan)

The situation of immigration in the Canaries
Javier Morales Febles
Foreign relations department, Autonomous Community of the Canaries

The observatory of Lampedusa
Bruno Siracusa
Mayor of Lampedusa

Lilliputian states and the 'waves' of migration: Cyprus as a migrant destination
Nicos Trimikliniotis
Director of ‘Peripeteies Ideon’ [Adventures of Ideas] and of the Observatory for Racism and Xenophobia (Nicosia)

Chinese versus Palestinians in Israel
Yohanan Manor
President of the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (Jerusalem)

Discussion

Day Three: 16th December 2006, Hilton Park Hotel, Nicosia

09.00 Parallel Sessions

I. The Southern frontier

Chairperson : Mhamed Fantar
Director of Research at the National Heritage Institute (Tunis)

The need to institutionalise Euro-Mediterranean summits
Hassan Abouyoub
Ambassador at Large (Morocco)

Algeria-France: a shared responsibility
Sid Ahmed Ghozali
Former Prime Minister of Algeria (Alger)

Immigration and human rights in the Arab world
Mezri Haddad
Philosopher and writer (Paris)

The debate about immigration in Arab countries
Ahmed El Sheikh
Journalist and editor (Cairo)

Discussion

II. The South of the South

Chairperson : Yohanan Manor
President of the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, Daedalos Insitute of Geopolitics (Jerusalem)

* The African Union and migration
Rodolphe Adada
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and the Francophonie, Republic of Congo

The strategic dimension of humanitarian NGOs: a financial analysis
Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos
Researcher, Institute for Research and Development Institut d'Etudes Politiques (IEP) (Paris)

Migration and nation-building in Black Africa: Ivory Coast since the middle of the 20th century
Pierre-Aimée Kipré
Emeritus professor, Ecole Normale Supérieure, former Minister of Education, special advisor to the permanent delegate of Ivory Coast to UNESCO (Abidjan)

The partition of Ivory Coast: a consequence of migrations in the colonial period?
Christian Bouquet
Professor of political geography, vice-president, University Michel de Montaigne (Bordeaux)

Discussion

10.30 Coffee Break

10.50 Parallel Sessions

I. The Southern frontier (I) (continued)

Chairperson: Mhamed Fantar

Immigration, radicalization and Islamic rhetoric the Sufi Case
Nir Boms
Vice-president, Center for Freedom in the Middle East (Washington)

Emigration: the need for cooperation between the Maghreb, Africa and Europe
Taieb Zahar
Director of 'Realités' [Realities] (Tunis)

Sudanese immigration in Egypt
Doreya Awny
Journalist (Cairo)

The Turks in Germany: problems and perspectives
Asiye Öztürk
Doctoral student, University of Bonn (Berlin)

Discussion

II. The South of the South (II) (continued)

Chairperson : Yohanan Manor

Migrations in the past and current problems: Burkina Faso’s view of the case of Ivory Coast
Adama Compaore
Head of the Political and Judicial Affairs, Department of the Prime Minister’s Office, Burkina Faso

The point of view of Burkina Faso
Augustin Marie Gervais Loada
Professor at the University of Ouagadougou

The point of view of Mali
Alhamdou Diagne
Vice-president of GPARD (A pan-African development studies group) (Bamako)

Darfur: conflicting agendas
Hassan Ibrahim
Presenter and report, Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar)

Darfur: the view of politicians and civil society in Chad
Doual Mbainaissem
Consultant (N'Djamena-Paris)

Discussion

12.15 Coffee Break

12.35 Round Table of Mayors and policy makers

Chairperson : Luigi Vittorio Ferraris
Honorary president of the Section of State Council, ambassador of Italy (in pension), Titular of the Chair of International Relations, University of Roma Tre Daedalos Insitute of Geopolitics (Rome)

Athens
Dr Kalliopi Bourdara
Deputy mayor of Athens

Barcelona
Ignasi Camos Victoria
Secretariat for Immigration, Department of Welfare and the Family, Regional Government of Catalonia

Bari
Renato Franceschelli
External relations officer, Department of Civil Liberties and Immigration

Getafe
Pedro Castro Vazquez
Mayor of Getafe

Jerusalem
Ofir Pines
Former Minister of the Interior

Nicosia
Maria Mavrou
Department of Urbanism and European Affairs, Municipality of Nicosia

Tunis

Valréas
Thierry Mariani
Member of the French National Assembly for the 4th constituency of Vaucluse

13.45 Lunch

15.00 The Conflicts between Southern, Eastern and Far Eastern Immigrations

Chairperson: Michel Carmona
Professor of Geography, Sorbonne-Paris IV

Migration and migration narratives in the era of globalisation
Attila Melegh
Researcher at the Institute of Demographic Research (Budapest)

Eastern European immigration to the West: a 'new South' or an 'anti-South'?
Bruno Drweski
Lecturer at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilisations (INALCO) (Paris)

Criminal trade and human trafficking in the Eastern Mediterranean: the role of organised crime and the Mafia
Xavier Raufer
Director studies, Department of Research into Contemporary Criminal Threats, Paris Institute of Criminology, University of Paris II (Pantheon-Assas)

Transnational networks: the example of the Chinese of Zheijang
Véronique Poisson
PhD in social sciences EHESS (Paris)

Discussion

16.30 Coffee Break

16.50 War and Migration

Chairperson: Gérard-François Dumont
Sorbonne-Paris IV, Director of “Population et Avenir” (Paris)

Lebanon upside down
Simon Haddad
Visiting Professor, Notre Dame University (Beirut)

Migrants' right of return and the bilateral duties of states
Pascale Warda
Adviser on human rights to the Speaker of the Iraqi parliament, President of the Iraqi Women's Centre for
Development, former minister of migration and displacement (Baghdad)

Forced deportations in democratic Iraq: a political and constitutional perspective
Muhammed Said Sahib
Specialist in constitutional law (Paris, Suleimaniya)

The internal displacement and the migration of Assyro-Chaldeans
Françoise Brié
Director of association (Paris)

Discussion

18.15 Conclusions

Michel Korinman
Professor at the Sorbonne-Paris IV, Director of the Daedalos Institute of Geopolitics