Dear colleagues, Jörg Plöger and I are organizing a session at the 2020 IMISCOE conference in Luxemburg on The (re)production and (de)valuation of migrants' skills. If you are interested in presenting in the session, please send your abstract to us by Thursday, November 21st 2019. The CFP is included below. Best wishes, Micheline and Jörg IMISCOE, 30 June – 2 July 2020, Luxemburg Call for Papers Session Title: The (re)production and (de)valuation of migrants’ skills Session Organisers: • Micheline van Riemsdijk – Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University • Jörg Plöger, ILS – Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development, Dortmund Skills have become a key element of migration research, especially as states are competing to attract the ‘best and brightest’, and high-income states are experiencing skill shortages in various professions. In different spatial contexts and at various scales of decision-making (supra-national, national, regional, local), policy-makers have adopted skills approaches to address shortages of skilled labour, demographic challenges or to engage in the competition for ‘talent’. In addition, states have developed instruments to assess the value of educational and professional qualifications that have been obtained abroad. In an era of “large flows” it is increasingly complicated to value the skills of migrants. Yet, what exactly is meant by skills is open for discussion, varies depending on the context and may be answered quite differently by different actors. How do employers shape their recruiting practices with regard to securing a sufficiently skilled workforce? How do policy-makers respond to labour shortages in specific professions or sectors? How do cities or regions position themselves in the competition for ‘talent’? How and by whom are skills of migrants (formally or informally) recognised? What are the roles of labour unions and employer organizations as “gatekeepers” for professions? How and by whom are skills produced (e.g. educational institutions)? How to deal with the devaluation of skills and the lack of recognition of skills and qualifications? Our session addresses these questions around the (de)valuation of skills from the perspectives of various actors and geographical contexts. If interested, please send your abstract (250 words maximum) including title, institutional affiliation and contact details (including email) to micheline.vanriemsdijk at kultgeog.uu.se<mailto:micheline.vanriemsdijk at kultgeog.uu.se> and joerg.ploeger at ils-forschung.de<mailto:joerg.ploeger at ils-forschung.de> by Thursday November 21st 2019. När du har kontakt med oss på Uppsala universitet med e-post så innebär det att vi behandlar dina personuppgifter. För att läsa mer om hur vi gör det kan du läsa här: http://www.uu.se/om-uu/dataskydd-personuppgifter/ E-mailing Uppsala University means that we will process your personal data. For more information on how this is performed, please read here: http://www.uu.se/en/about-uu/data-protection-policy