Forced migration has been a subject of heated public debate since at least the 2015 ‘Summer of Migration’. Within migration studies, too, there is much discussion of the crisis of the European borders regime – symbolised by the numerous rules, repeatedly amended of the Dublin Regulation – made apparent by the continuing flow of migrants into Europe. On the one hand, the expansion of the European single market, the Schengen Agreement, and the successive enlargements of the European Union have brought greater prosperity and a new freedom of movement to many EU citizens; on the other hand, these reforms have been accompanied by an increasingly rigid and extreme policy of exclusion towards those states whose citizens are regarded, on the basis of purportedly immutable cultural or national attachments, as incapable of integrating.

The June 2026 reform of the European Union’s Common European Asylum System (CEAS) must be seen in the context of this policy of exclusion. The official aim of the CEAS is to manage and regulate migration in Europe as a whole, to limit ‘irregular’ migration and to uphold humanitarian standards for those seeking protection. The reforms are intended to maintain open borders within the Schengen Area whilst limiting the right to protection and asylum to those fleeing war and persecution from outside it. Asylum procedures are to be standardised throughout the EU in order to enforce clear rules and curb secondary migration. Civil society organisations such as Pro Asyl criticise this reform for making the flight to EU countries even more difficult and genuine protection for asylum seekers and other persecuted people even less realistic. As early as 2024, PRO ASYL criticised the European Parliament’s approval of the CEAS reform as a ‘historic low point for refugee protection in Europe’. Now, two years later, the initial effects of this comprehensive tightening of the law on refugees can be analysed and criticised.

Many recent asylum applications have been processed using fast-track procedures that afford limited legal protection and it is to be expected that in future too numerous applications will be inadequately assessed and wrongly rejected. These effects are already devastating for asylum seekers as a whole, but are significantly more severe for particularly vulnerable groups among them, including women, people with disabilities, and unaccompanied minors.

The new rules have led to the systematic restriction of freedoms and the detention of asylum seekers on a scale not previously seen in the EU. This is particularly evident at the EU’s external borders, where more people are forced to undergo the Asylum Border Procedure and are, in effect, being detained there. Access to protection within the EU has also become more difficult for persecuted and threatened individuals, meaning that human rights-based support in the forms of legal advice, social work, and civil society groups is becoming both more difficult and more important.

This year’s International Conference on Migration is being organised in collaboration with the Cologne Refugee Council (Kölner Flüchtlingsrat e.V.) against the backdrop of these developments. Thus, the conference welcomes not only theoretical and empirical papers on forced migration, but also contributions drawing on practical experiences of social work with asylum seekers, refugees, and other persecuted people.

In the open session of the International Migration Conference, papers about current challenges in the context of migration may be presented. Of particular interest are interdisciplinary and international studies on belonging, participation, solidarity, recognition, and protection. Papers may also focus on issues relating to (new) minorities – that is, individuals and groups who, whilst not being migrants, are nonetheless portrayed as such in public discourse or in social media. Contributions on sustainable global social work and education, philosophy and migration, and approaches to migration societies oriented towards sustainable development and peace-building are also welcome.

For both parts of the conference, we welcome theoretical and empirical papers based on recent, international and cross-national comparative studies, particularly from countries of the Global South, as well as papers on current migration and refugee flows (e.g. from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Gaza and Lebanon).