Rethinking Complex Migration: Flows, Frames, and Futures

The Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Migration and Integration is the first ever CERC awarded to Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), building on the university’s strengths and commitments in the area of immigration and settlement studies.The CERC in Migration and Integration is producing innovative and usable knowledge on the links between migration and post-migration processes, forced and voluntary mobility, internal and international migration, and the role of countries of origin and transit. The CERC pays special attention to Canadian realities while also engaging in comparative research with and among other countries in various global regions.

CERC in Migration and Integration

Inaugural Conference for the Global Migration Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University

Toronto Metropolitan University

April 15 -17, 2026 , At Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLaunch event: April 15, 2026, 5–8 PM EDTVenue : Sears Atrium- George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre, Third Floor , 245 Church St, Toronto, ON M5B 2R2Conference program:April 16, 2026, 9 AM-6 PM EDTApril 17, 2026, 9 AM - 5:30 PM EDTVenue : Oakham House, 55 Gould St, Toronto, ON M5B 1E9OverviewInternational migration is increasingly diverging from the neat categories that policy and scholarship use to describe it. Unlike the past, when migration was thought to be a linear trajectory from a country of origin to a country of destination, with the intention of settlement, migration today is becoming more complex, often involving multiple journeys and under different policy categories. Migrants today do not easily fit the policy categories of labour migrant, refugee, or international student – they tend to have mixed motivations: economic, political, and family-related. Digital mobility further complicates migration: digital nomads have emerged as a new type of lifestyle migration while many migrant workers are engaged in digital platforms to provide their services to overseas employers. Further, international migration is often intertwined with internal migration or forced displacement making it even more difficult to fit human mobility into legal structures of ‘safe, orderly and regular’ migration.This conference offers a reflection on what is considered ‘regular’ or ‘normal’ migration, and what is now viewed as ‘complex’ migration, through a series of dedicated plenary panels. We will examine the weaponization of migration and the emergence of migration diplomacy in an increasingly unstable world. We will also offer analytical reflections on the dimensions of complexity that characterize migration and its governance today. The conference also presents two sets of panels discussing different methodologies in studying complex migration – big data and AI on one hand, and participatory creative methods on the other.This conference serves as the concluding annual event of the <a href="https://www.torontomu.ca/content/ryerson/cerc-migration/" title="https://www.torontomu.ca/content/ryerson/cerc-migration/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration program</a> at Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as the Inaugural Conference of the <a href="https://www.torontomu.ca/content/ryerson/global-migration-institute/" title="https://www.torontomu.ca/content/ryerson/global-migration-institute/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Global Migration Institute</a> at TMU.For more information, please visit our <a href="https://www.torontomu.ca/global-migration-institute/events/2026/04/conference-2026/" title="https://www.torontomu.ca/international-migration-conference/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">website.</a>

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Rethinking Complex Migration: Flows, Frames, and Futures

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