We look back on two days of fruitful discussion on the ‘Future of Work’ organized by RUNOMI, IMISCOE, CMR and CESS. The conference was opened by keynote speaker Piotr Lewandowski, funded by CESS, who delivered a presentation titled ‘lessons from the economics of technology for labour migration research’, which set the tone for an exchange between economic-minded researchers and scholars of migration studies.
During the conference we discussed 10 papers on this topic, divided into three themes: ‘digital skills and adaptation to technological change’, ‘technological transformation of work, migration, regulation and control’ and ‘labour shortages, (skilled) migration and automation’. Each participant was asked to deliver a presentation with a review of the paper of another participant, after which we opened the floor for questions and remarks. This way everybody received a review and got the change to discuss their own prospective paper. The central theme ‘Future of Work’ allowed for a broad application from digital skills, automation, labour gaps, to the technological transformation of production and increased control of (migrant) works with use of technology taking us from migrant street vendors in Kashmir to Ukrainian migrants in the EU.
With participants from all over Europe and beyond, and participants online, we had a rich discussion about the ever-changing environment of work and migration with perspectives from multiple disciplines. We thank all the participants for coming and being part of our conference on the Future of Work. We thank IMISCOE and CSES in particular for help funding the event.
