In frame of the agreement between the University of Szeged, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences and the European Public Law Organization (EPLO), our Faculty students enjoyed participating in the Migration Summer School Program of the EPLO for the second time (see the last year’s Migration Summer School report, here).
Migration Summer School is one of the several rich academic programs of the EPLO organized every year since 2017 in Sounion, Greece, with a specific theme. This year’s Summer School was held with the title of “Moving Beyond Crisis? From exclusion to integration of migrants and refugees in Europe”, between 22-27 July 2019. Our Faculty PhD student, Tuğçe Kılıç, and BSc student in the International Relations program, Karolina Frolyó, participated in the Summer School and represented our University and Faculty. A week long Program offered several lectures regarding the topic and the lectures were delivered by the academics and experts specialized in law and social sciences from unique European and international universities, such as, University of Bristol, University of Paris, and University of West Attica. In addition, Deputy Mayor for Immigrants, Refugees and Municipal Decentralization Municipality of Athens, and Special Envoy of the Director of the International Organization for Migration also delivered lectures.
Besides the lectures, Ms. Kılıç and Ms. Frolyó enjoyed the study visits organized by the EPLO to the two main refugee camps in Greece: one in Athens and the other in Thiva. There, the students had the opportunity to take a closer look at the everyday life of the migrants and the refugees, and experienced the way of several actors in civil society delivering range of help and support for them. Ms. Frolyó summarizes her experiences at the Summer School, as it paved the way for her to understand the importance of field study besides a theoretical research which made the Summer School unique for her.
Ms. Kılıç, who has been conducting researches on the migration topic, noted that the Summer School was successful in a way that it could draw a general framework of the concept of migrant and refugee integration and enlighten the causes and effects of the migration and refugee issues on European societies and especially in Greece. Ms. Kılıç was also given an opportunity to present her PhD research during the PhD Seminar in which she received several constructive feedbacks related to her work.
All in all, both of our students gained positive experiences regarding the EPLO’s Migration Summer School and brought good memories together with academic knowledge back to Hungary.
