Prof Adrian J Bailey, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), gave a speech on Migration and Transnational Biopower at the 62nd High Table Dinner at UIC on 9 April.
Prof Bailey is the Chair of the Geography Department at HKBU. He said the European Commission proclaimed in 2011 that across Europe, migration, not climate change or terrorism, was the most important global issue of the day.
Using evidence of migration in Europe, Prof Bailey explained why Europe has built its society on a migration ideology. For one thing, Europe’s economy boosts the growth of tourism and trade around the world. For the other, migrants promote cultural exchanges.
Prof Bailey introduced some of European countries’ policies towards migration, making a point that migration creates a home without national borders.
“The migration ideology also permeates critical thinking about late capitalism problems,” Prof Bailey added.
As they have debated Karl Marx’s concept of the annihilation of space by time, Francis Fukuyama’s “End of History”, Samuel Huntington’s “Clash of Civilisation”, Zygmunt Bauman’s liquid modernity, Thomas L Friedman’s “Flat World” and Jan Nederveen Pieterse’s multipolar world, social scientists still remain at odds over the nature and path of changes brought by migration.
Prof Bailey also spoke of transnational biopolitics with examples from his previous collaborative efforts with Czech scholars on European migration systems.
At the end of his speech, Prof Bailey appreciated UIC’s liberal arts education and expresses his hopes to create a more global view for UIC students.
The High Table Dinner is a practice in line with UIC’s Liberal Arts spirit, Whole Person Education and Four Points Philosophy. The 62nd High Table Dinner was organised as a part of the Mentor Care Programme, which enhances communication between Year One students from the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences and their mentors.
Reporter: Cai Yixuan
Photographers: Deng Wenwen and Deen He
Editor: Deen He
(from MPRO, with special thanks to the ELC)
