Carnegie Mellon Qatar lecture series to focus on immigrant labour AS PART of its “distinguished lecture series”, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar is hosting three events on immigrant labour issues. All events will feature Alejandro Portes, professor of sociology and director of the Center for Migration and Development at Princeton University. Portes is an expert in the field of immigration. He is the author of some 220 articles and chapters on national development, international migration, Latin American & Caribbean urbanisation and economic sociology. “Carnegie Mellon Qatar is very pleased to host Alejandro Portes. He is a world expert on immigration from whom our students and the Qatar community will learn a great deal about the opportunities and challenges of immigration internationally,” says Silvia Pessoa, Carnegie Mellon faculty member. The first event is a panel on “Immigrant labour in Qatar”. Joining Portes on the panel are Philippines ambassador Isaias F. Begonia, Pindie Stephen, International Organisation for Migration; Hala al-Ali, National Human Rights Committee, Sadoum Rashid al-Healy, National Office for Combating Human Trafficking, Abdelkader Latreche, Qatar Permanent Population Committee; and Fadwa el-Guindi, Qatar University. The second event is “Migration and Social Change: A Conceptual Reflection.” Portes will be the speaker at this public event. He will draw from his vast experiences in this field. A Question & Answer session will follow the talk. The final event is a student conference entitled “Educating student leaders who can make a difference.” At this event students from Carnegie Mellon and Georgetown universities will present their research on immigration issues in Qatar. All research projects were performed as part of the Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP), which is sponsored by the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF). With this conference, students aim to promote awareness about immigrant worker issues in Qatar and the community, with a particular emphasis on increasing awareness among Education City student leaders. “These events provide a great opportunity for our students to interact with someone as knowledgeable and well respected in his field as Portes. The panel discussion and student conference on immigrant labour in Qatar will be great opportunities to shed light on such an important issue in Qatar and promote awareness in the community, especially among Education City students, about the challenges experienced by the thousands of immigrant workers that greatly contribute to the development of Qatar,” Pessoa said. The public is welcome to attend the lecture on “Migration and Social Change: A Conceptual Reflection.” This will be held tomorrow at the Four Seasons at 6pm. More information can be had from Kara Nesimiuk at [email protected].

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