Opening symposium 2016-2017
Since summer 2015, the massive influx of refugees leaving the Middle East has generally been presented in public debate as a "migrant crisis" that would test Europe's security defenses. On the other hand, it could be argued that this humanitarian challenge confronts refugees with Europe's own crisis. It calls into question not only the universality of human rights, but the very history of societies' relations with the great waves of migration that make them up.
This opening symposium at the Collège de France will take a long-term, deliberately interdisciplinary look at these issues. Whether voluntary or forced, large-scale population movements will be examined in their historical, demographic, anthropological, biological, psychological, sociological, economic, geographical, linguistic and legal dimensions. Going beyond the diffusionist model that has long been the lecture of migration archaeology, the colloquium will question the effects of contacts between migrants and societies, addressing in turn the notions of diaspora, colonization, asylum and refuge.
While the focus will be on the new cosmopolitan exoduses in the context of transnational migration induced by globalization, we will also be tackling head-on the political issues raised by this question today. This is why the symposium will exceptionally open with a round-table discussion bringing together some of Europe's leading political figures and associations who, by taking charge of the situation of displaced populations today, are bringing a different perspective to Europe. In a place like the Collège de France, it is no doubt worth recalling the extent to which Europe has also been built as an open community of destinies and knowledge, with the figure of the exile challenging us to give new meaning to the philosophical values of hospitality.