Global Individual Responsibility. The Role of the Citizen in Refugee Integration

25-27 April 2018 | Munich Center for Ethics | Room M210

With close to 250 million international migrants, and almost 70 million refugees and many more displaced persons worldwide, the topic of newcomer integration into host societies has become a pressing issue of our time. In the wake of the recent influx of refugees in Europe, private individuals often have stepped up to support the well-being of refugees in multiple ways: they welcomed strangers upon their arrival, donated money, clothes or furniture, and dedicated their time and energy to support newcomers to find their way around in the new environment. Yet, their acts have been considered gestures of goodwill – voluntarism, charity, philanthropy, Willkommenskultur – rather than as examples of a more stringent moral responsibility. An adequate conceptual understanding and comprehensive normative evaluation of such individual contributions to integrate newcomers into society, however, is still largely unavailable.

The aim of the expert workshop is to develop an understanding of, and new scholarly insights about the role of individual citizens in the integration of newcomers in host societies – a large-scale, global challenge. Analysing the concrete case of refugee integration from different disciplinary perspectives will promote a novel and in-depth understanding of the philosophical, psychological, historical, and legal foundations of individual responsibility, its potential and its limitations.

Speakers
Alison Phipps (Glasgow, UK)
André Grahle (Munich, Germany)
Annemiek Dresen (Amsterdam, NL)
Debora Kayembe (Edinburgh, UK)
Eva Alisic (Melbourne, Australia)
Jan-Christoph Heilinger (Munich, Germany)
Liav Orgad (Berlin, Germany/Fiesole, Italy)
Matthew Gibney (Oxford, UK)
S. Karly Kehoe (Halifax, Canada)
Stephen Wordsworth (London, UK)
Tawona Sitholé (Glasgow, UK)
Verina Wild (Munich, Germany)
Yayha Al-Abdulla (Budapest, Hungary)
Yves Frenette (Winnipeg, Canada)

Convenors
Eva Alisic (Melbourne), Jan-Christoph Heilinger (Munich), S. Karly Kehoe (Halifax)

The expert workshop is on invitation only.

The keynotes by Alison Phipps (25 April, 6pm) and Matthew Gibney (27 April, 5pm) are public. Seating is limited, please register at mke@lmu.de (first come, first serve). The public lectures take place at LMU Munich, Center for Ethics, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539 Munich (room M210).

The workshop is funded by Fritz-Thyssen-Foundation, the Global Young Academy and the Munich Center for Ethics.