2024 ASA Annual Meeting: Our Team Explores New Horizons in Decolonizing Migration Studies

At the 2024 ASA Annual Meeting held from August 9-13 at the Palais des congrès de Montréal, our team presented fresh insights into the decolonization of migration studies. During a panel session on August 13, Nadya Jaworsky delivered our talk, titled “Decolonizing, Decentering, and Deracializing: A Critical Cultural Sociology of Migration.” Nadya discussed innovative ways to bring critical cultural sociology into dialogue with the field’s recent reflexive turn.

In line with recent discussions in Sociological Forum (2023) on decolonizing migration studies, Nadya’s presentation centered on “decentering” European perspectives and integrating Du Boisian frameworks that emphasize race and racism. She demonstrated how concepts and analytical tools like symbolic boundaries, cultural repertoires, and “reverse sociology” offer a robust theoretical bridge for understanding migration-related phenomena.

Drawing on our recent studies in Czechia, Nadya illustrated these ideas with findings on mainstream attitudes toward migration and the experiences of people crossing borders as they engage with “locals,” institutions, and other migrants. Czechia provides an especially intriguing context for this research: migration is a major issue in public and political discourse despite a relatively low number of migrants, and there is a lack of reflection on Czechia’s colonial history, even as the country has both exerted and experienced colonial influences.

Nadya’s presentation sparked engaging discussions and showed the potential of critical cultural analysis to expand our understanding of migration. We’re excited to continue exploring these questions as our work evolves.