Cairo Winter School 26 January – 30 January
For the banks of the Rhine to the Nile’s corniche, students have crossed borders to discuss border crossings. University of Cologne (UoC) students spent the final week of their winter course alongside AUC students, studying migration within the Global South.
The Dialogue on Migration Governance in the Euro-Mediterranean (DiaMiGo) has brought AUC students to Germany and UoC students to Egypt, allowing them to discuss the transitory nature of migration across the Mediterranean. With migration rooted across the world, students analyzed Egypt as a gateway, a hub and a home.
“The experience was impactful for not just the students visiting from Cologne, but also the AUC students who came from not just a CMRS [Center for Migration and Refugee Studies] program, but multiple different programs,” shared Emma Stotlemyer, CMRS graduate student and research assistant. Stotlemyer coordinated DiaMiGo’s winter session alongside fellow research assistant Alaa Kasmo and Fatima Salah, Reem Adel and Hiba Aaseem M. Sharif. “We're able to bring their expertise, perspectives and experience to the program, and they were able to learn a lot more about refugees in Cairo.”
The Program
The winter school encouraged participants to focus on integration in the everyday — dissecting Egypt’s role as host and transit hub for migrants, as well as the intersection of heritage, labor, health, activism and local governance on integration.
Side by side, students and refugee fellows attended lectures at AUC Tahrir Square, led by CMRS and SEA faculty Amira Ahmed and Gerda Heck, discussing the Egyptian social context, the area of (mental) health, the role of media, culinary connections to migration and musical heritage. After the presentations, there was time for discussions and interactive workshops with room for reflections. Dialogue encouraged participants to analyse what makes a place a home, and how they can expand these lessons into place-making for migrants and refugees.
On the first day, the professors Sabine Damir-Geilsdorf, Amira Ahmed and Gerda Heck introduced the main topic of the research academy and expressed the need for re-theorization in the context of shifting dynamics in migration. Afterwards, the speakers Al-baraa Ahmed Quradi, Sami Al Ahmed and Samia Nihar Tagir talked about socioeconomic pathways, refugee lives and (informal) economies in Cairo. Finally, a panel on the role of media gathered case studies from different regions, presented by Michaela Pelican, Sabine Damir-Geilsdorf, Husam Mohamed and Fatmh Al-Zahraa Salah. The sessions were moderated by the researchers Christoph Lange, Stephan Milich and Helen Rizzo.
The second day started with a session on legal access and mental health for refugees based in Cairo, with the speakers Ahmed Badawy, Akram Ali Eltom, Einas Elhadi and Diaelhag Abaker, moderated by Katrin Sowa. In the afternoon, Elena Habersky moderated a session on memories and cultural heritage by migrants in Cairo, where the project team of “TRACES” presented their attempts to establish a digital archive with a focus on Sudan (speakers: Angelina Sika, Amro Shaaban, Hiba Ibrahim, Hatim Ali, Waiil Mahgoub, Osama Alnour, and others). One of the highlights was the musical contribution by Dafallah Al-Haj and his fellow musicians, who presented Sudanese musical heritage. Finally, an exhibition gave insights into Sudanese culture and heritage.
Apart from academic lectures and discussions, the winter school included excursions. On Tuesday, the participants visited the NGO Tafawol in the neighbourhood of Faysal. The head of the NGO, Eman Mohammed, as well as the director, Salah Mohamed, warmly welcomed the guests and provided insights into Tafawol’s community-led services to refugee students, women, children with disabilities, as well as other community members. Speakers such as Fathm Al-Zahraa Salah, Ayham Dalal and Neima Alhessen shared their insights about community-led placemaking, moderated by Parastou Hassouri.
The Experience
“The DiaMiGo Winter School was a truly enriching experience for our AUC scholars and students, as well as for the students from University of Cologne,” shared Ahmed, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, Egyptology and Anthropology. “It created a dynamic and engaging environment where participants could delve into the key issues affecting migrants and refugees in both Egypt and Germany.”
While the lectures were an important facet of the winter school, what was perhaps more impactful was the dialogue between the international students and the fellows. Ahmed added, “One of the highlights of the school was the incredible diversity of backgrounds and experiences, thanks to the refugee fellowships, which offered a unique opportunity for refugees from Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Somalia and Eritrea to present their perspectives and insights.”
One CMRS student, Rya Hammuod Hamuod Alhosin, described how important it has been for her to share her migrant background in an academic setting. “Writing my thesis on my experience as a Syrian refugee put me on a journey to find my own voice,” she said. Participants in DiaMiGo uncovered the ways that centering migrant history, culture and heritage in integration can be both successful and empowering.
Narratives around migration often revolve around the Global North. Engaging in migration dialogues while being based in the Global South helped reframe the field for students and decolonize migration perspectives. “Egypt is one of the most important actors in the region to understand global migration routes,” shared Hannah Walsken, a student from the University of Cologne. “Talking to students and refugees in Egypt gives an important perspective. It’s not theory alone, but also the everyday lives of people.”
The variety of perspectives from refugees based in Cairo displayed how important the Egyptian context is as a case study for global migration. The refugee fellows as well as presenters got to share their stories with both AUCians and UoC students, lending their perspectives and humanizing otherwise abstract concepts. “It was impactful because the narratives around integration often focus on how refugees can change themselves in order to fit into a community or society,” said Stotlemyer. “Speaking with the refugee fellows and scholars allowed us to see how refugees are continuing to integrate within their new society in a way that involves their skills, talents, experiences, traditions, customs, food, language, dialects — how they make a place for themselves.”
Partnerships like DiaMiGo lend perspectives between the Global South and Global North, which is essential in an inherently international field like migration studies. “Being able to unpack and learn how refugees engage in place-making in Cairo is incredibly important for migration studies, for refugee studies and for anybody who engages with any sort of migrant and refugee population — so that we can continue to de-center the narratives of the Global North and re-center narratives coming from the Global South and the refugee community. This allows refugees to create those narratives themselves,” affirmed Stotlemyer.
