Our third annual International Conference on Intersectionality – this year the theme was Migration!
On the 4th of November, we could finally open the doors at Sentralen and invite the audience in to experience and enjoy our conference, which was the culmination of almost a year’s work.
The day kicked off with opening remaks from Thomas Syvertsen, the leader of the board, who spoke about why migration is a central topic to our organization, and touches the lives of many in our Skeiv Verden community.
Farah Abdi, the first key-note speaker, engaged the audience by weaving her lived experiences as a trans refugee with her work as a policy advocate in TGEU. Mahmoud Hassino spoke about «Recognition without delivery» – how we can identify vulnerable groups and best help them when they arrive as refugees. Dr. S Chelvan spoke about credibility assessments for queer refugees, and advocated for the idea of how instead of demanding that a refugee can credibly prove that they are queer, we ask why we don’t require anyone to «prove straight.»
Before lunch, the panel discussion between Joseph Mardelli, Jon Ole Martinsen and Andrea Vige Grønningsæter dove into the asylum process in Norway for queer refugees, what challenges the system faces and appealed to policy makers to implement change.
The parallel sessions divided the 80+ physical audience members into three. Continuing the conversation about the European asylum system, with Mahmoud Hassino and Farah Abdi asked questions about how we best can help asylum seekers as professionals, policy makers, carers. Jon Ole Martinsen gave the audience an introduction into the history of the Norwegian asylum seekers, and engaged the audience with Dr S Chelvan to explore the path ahead. Leiv Igor Devold in the parallel session about working migration from Europe to Norway, talked about the intersectional challenges Polish migrants face, contextualized by his film Norwegian Dream. He was joined by Aleks Ita Olszewska and Anastasia Izotova to shed light on the experiences of this diverse group of working migrants.
We want to thank all our contributors, both on and off stage. Thank you to the audience for your engaging questions and passion for these topics.
We will see you again next year, for our conference on Intersectionality and Labour. Stay tuned!
Photographs by Hanna Adam
