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Acknowledgements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2022

Moritz Baumgärtel
Affiliation:
Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands
Sara Miellet
Affiliation:
Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands

Summary

Type
Chapter
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022
Creative Commons
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This content is Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC-BY-NC 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/cclicenses/

Acknowledgements

Editing this volume has been a tremendous learning experience for both of us. The first and most important lesson is that nothing in this world should be taken for granted, not even life itself. Christopher Lasch, who had been a contributor to this project from its beginning, passed away on 13 June 2021, after a period of illness. We were sitting together in Utrecht when we suddenly received this sad news. After a few speechless moments, we reminisced how we had met Chris during the conference panels that would eventually give rise to this volume and the jovial dinner afterwards. One meeting was enough to appreciate Chris as the warm and genuine person, the inspiring scholar that he was. We therefore dedicate this volume to Chris and his seminal scholarship, tireless advocacy for migrant rights and remarkable life’s work.

The second lesson that we take from editing this volume is that there are those who step up selflessly when it comes to paying homage to a respected colleague and friend. The fact that Chris’ chapter is published here posthumously is possible only because of Linus Chan’s dedicated and meticulous effort to put the final touches on a well-advanced but not fully finished piece. We would also like to thank Ingrid Eagly and Juliet Stumpf, who offered edits in this process, and Toshesh Bantha, for her research assistance. As editors, we cannot stress enough how grateful we are that Chris’ passionate and crucial exposé in favour of robust sanctuary values remains a part of this collection. This, of course, was made possible also by Elizabeth Stovall’s kind agreement to our request.

We are also immensely thankful to all the contributors to this volume, who taught us that steady, constructive and caring academic collaboration is possible even during a global pandemic. The memory of our two joint panels at the Law and Society Association Conference in Washington, DC, in June 2019 feels like from another era; our second, virtual get-together in October 2020 took place in the same positive spirit, against all odds. The fact that we can see this project through is a testimony to everyone’s individual and shared commitment to being scholars. We also want to nacknowledge the colleagues whose contributions are not reflected in the final volume: Helene Heuser, Berna Turam and Asad Asad, whose papers enriched our panel discussions, as well Martha Davis and Judith Resnik, who provided insightful feedback as discussants.

This volume is one of the main scholarly contributions of the ‘Cities of Refuge Research’ project, which we both joined in summer 2017 and which was concluded in June 2022. During that time, we have benefitted greatly from working alongside wonderful colleagues. Ideas that derive from numerous exchanges with Elif Durmuş and Tihomir Sabchev can be found throughout this volume and especially in the introduction; both also provided direct substantive input on several occasions. Gladys Ngare’s research assistance was key in the final phase of the editing process. Finally, and it goes without saying that nothing – not team, not this volume, nor many of its ideas – would have ever come about without Barbara Oomen. The Vici grant that Barbara received from the Dutch Research Council for ‘Cities of Refuge’ also provided the generous funding that made it possible to publish this entire volume open access.

While being able to count on the support of the publisher is always important, we learnt that it is even more crucial when a global pandemic puts all projects in jeopardy. We would therefore like to thank the entire team at Cambridge University Press and especially Marianne Nield for her patience, not least on the matter of the final delivery, and for the clear and constructive guidance that was offered to us throughout the publication process. Finola O’Sullivan played a pivotal role in the early stages of this project, where she helped us turn two loosely related conference panels into one coherent, meaningful volume. We would also like to express our gratitude to the three anonymous reviewers of our initial proposal, whose input truly guided the editorial process, and all the reviewers of the individual chapters who did not hesitate to offer feedback when we reached out to them, at times on rather short notice.

A special thanks goes to those closest to us who, each single day, imbue us with the purpose and energy to take on a project like this. Moritz would like to thank his parents Dragica and Hans Georg and his sister Lilian, true rocks always and especially in recent, more stormy times. Sara would like to thank Špela Drnovšek Zorko and Els Verplanke, curious and critical readers on every occasion, for sharing in the excitement and for being ‘at home in this world’ together during these challenging times.

The genesis of this work falls in a prolonged period of assaults on the rights of vulnerable migrants. As we are writing these words, refugees are currently being locked out, teargassed and beaten at the Poland–Belarus border. There are also struggles for rights that fade into oblivion during pandemic times, of those who are forced to endure protracted uncertainty in remote corners of the world, such as the island of Bhasan Char in the Bay of Bengal, where Rohingya refugees are being detained. In the face of such immediate and persistent violence and suffering, any efforts at theorizing local migration law and governance might appear futile. We still do not believe that this is the case. First, for all their shortcomings, the actions of local authorities and actors remind us that restriction and repression are not the only – or even the primary – policies that people and their governments will support. Second, if local migration governance truly represents a more humane alternative to the untenable status quo, then we will have to better understand both. This volume hopeits potential and limitationss to make a modest but real contribution in this regard.

Moritz Baumgärtel and Sara Miellet, November 2021

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