Debating Displacement in Cyprus

I am now in Cyprus, attending the 12th conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM). This morning’s plenary panel – a backgrounder on refugees, displacement and exclusion in Cyprus – featured three associates of the PRIO Cyprus Centre (PCC). Mete Hatay and Nicos Trimikliniotis presented the situation in the North and South, respectively, while Rebecca Bryant chaired the panel. In Cyprus, conflict and displacement is deeply entangled. The reshuffling of population, particularly connected to the 1974 Turkish intervention, is a major challenge to any form of settlement. Less known is the fact that today, the Republic of Cyprus receives more asylum-seekers per capita than any other European country.

Yesterday, Nicos Trimikliniotis and I contributed to the book launch session here. Nicos presented a special issue of the Cyprus Review on ‘Migration, Racism and Multiculturalism’. I presented the book Irregular Migration, Informal Labour and Community: A Challenge for Europe, edited by Erik Berggren, Branka Likić-Brborić, Gülay Toksöz and Nicos Trimikliniotis. The PCC’s solid competence on a wide range of migration issues, and the migration engagement built up by PRIO in recent years, carries huge promise for further research – and for new initiatives between PCC and other PRIOites.