Thailand Launching of the Sussex-Mahidol Migration Partnership (SMMP) by Professor Paul Stathem, Director of Sussex Centre for Migration Research (SCMR), and Professor Aphichat Chamratrithirong, Director of Mahidol Migration Center (MMC).
Launch of the Sussex-Mahidol Migration Partnership (SMMP)
Prof. Aphichat Chamratrittrirong
Director, Mahidol Migration Center (MMC)
12 January, 2016
Prof. Ronald Skeldon (welcome back to IPSR)
Prof. Paul Sattatham
Dr. Sarah Scuzzarello
Dr. Sureeporn Punpuing
IPSR Colleagues
Students and Distinguish guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
On behalf of MMC Director, it is a great pleasure and honor for me to be here and to be able to say something addressing to all of you on this occasion of the launching of SMMP (Sussex – Mahidol Migration Partnership) between Sussex Centre for Migration Research, U. of Sussex and Mahidol Migration Center, IPSR, Mahidol University.
On behalf of Mahidol Migration Center, I would like to Welcome you all to this important event today .
Before I begin to tell you about our partnership development, let me call upon you the important topic of migration at IPSR and in the world situation today.
Migration is one of the three demographic components of population change. Institute for Population and Social Research (IPSR) has conducted migration research since the Institute was established since 1971. While the focused on migration research has been adjusted according to the situations of population and social-economic changes in each period, which ranged from internal migration to international migration. The international migration research has been shifted from the migration within the region to between regions. Now, one of our on-going research is on transnational migration between Asia and Europe.
The United Nations states that the 21st century is an ERA of migration, and in 2015 migration was integrated into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Consider that in 2000, there were only 172 million international migrants living in the countries that they were not born, and this number reached 213 million in 2010, and recently –2015, it is 243 million migration stock in the world. The majority of them move from less-developed to more-developed countries. But the opposite stream is also becoming important.
Issues on Migration in the 2030 agenda for sustainable development goals are:
These are all the reasons our partnership comes about.
Although our partnership has been initiated about a year ago, the official launching today is still very important. Because all of the excitement and feeling good about our working together is still at a high level and still warm. We feel very fortunate to have a excellent chance to meet and to initiate collaboration, and actually many activities have already started. From several visits by Prof. Paul Sattatham Director of Sussex Centre for Migration Research and Prof. Cherith Moses, Director for International Recruitment and Development at Sussex and because of the administrative and management effort on the part of our Director Dr. Sureeporn and our IPSR academic and administrative staff by series of meetings and sending out emails, many collaborative jobs are already functioning and some already accomplished. And thanks to Prof. Paul Sattatham to accept our invitation to become a member of MMC’s advisory board.
We worked together on the Website of SMMP we sat down and work together trying to find funding support, we advised and exchange each other to come up with research interest and agenda as well as teaching programs and modules, how Master Degree Program on Migration Studies at U. of Sussex will benefit and compliment to our Post Graduate Degree at Mahidol University, we focused on the possibilities of double Masters degree in Migration and exchange of students and faculties, postdoctoral teaching collaborations, and Ph.D. scholarship for Thai student, was also discusses and progressed well.
We also worked a lot on the collaboration on publication work and networking. Sussex Centre of Migration Studies has a reputable journal with high impact factor JEMS of Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies where Paul is the Chief Editor, and we have JPSS Journal of Population and Social Studies and SSA Social Science Asia where our colleague Dr. Kerry Richter who is the main editor and the team. We already work together as a publisher network and IPSR got substantial support from JEMS a lot already.
All of these activities progressed very fast during the year. We have been working together a lot but without stress at all.
Maybe because we are migration people. Migration scholars tend to be positive in their attitudes. They allow time for people to adjust and we always promote integration.
I would say the success of partnership is because of trust between us somehow it involves the warm personality, highly scholarly atmosphere and personality and the prestige of U. of Sussex and important experience in Migration research and teaching at the Sussex Center contributing to trust and quick mutual understanding of what we want to do together. I notice from series of our meetings. There is a real spirit of partnership among us all. And this excitement still prevails. Thanks to all of you in both universities to make this partnership happen.
We are glad to have SMMP partnership for we can expand our migration study platform for new generations of academician (including not so new as well) to work together, study together and perhaps to act together on this timely topic considering the world situations and challenges today.
Cheers to our partnership. Thank you very much.