AUC appoints new Director of the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies

Ibrahim Awad, professor of practice in the Department of Public Policy and Administration, has been named the new director of the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) at The American University in Cairo (AUC). Awad, who also served as an adjunct professor in AUC’s Department of Political Science in 1991, 1992 and 1996, hopes to expand the CRMS footprint in the global conversation on refugees and migration.

"International migration is an increasingly important issue of the international system, economically, culturally and politically. There is great demand for analyzing its causes, dynamics and consequences. Situated in the Middle East, Africa and the Mediterranean, all important regions in terms of international migration, CMRS can meet a good part of this demand,” said Awad. “I trust it can attract regional and international students to its courses and research on international migration, as it does with respect to refugees and forced migration questions."

In addition to his experience at AUC, Awad has worked in a number of regional and international organizations, including the League of Arab States (LAS), the United Nations (UN) and the International Labour Organization (ILO). He has served in several countries in Europe, Latin America and the Arab region. His most recent assignments were Secretary of the Commission, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA), Director of the ILO Sub-regional Office for North Africa, covering Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia, and Director of the International Migration Programme, at ILO Headquarters. At UN-ESCWA, he was responsible for the inter-governmental machinery as well as for relations with member states, other entities of the United Nations system, and civil society organizations. In his ILO positions, Awad’s responsibilities included participation in the elaboration and delivery of the Organization’s program, as well as advice and support for policy formulation and implementation in member states.

Awad has served as a member of scientific boards of governmental, academic and international organizations centers, programs and projects. He has researched and published on issues of international organization, international cooperation, human rights, international migration and employment. His most recent publications include: The Global and Economic Crisis and Migrant Workers: Impact and Response. Geneva, ILO, 2009; «La question de l’emploi entre les institutions de Bretton Woods et la recherché arabe,» in Les Sciences Sociales en Voyage. « L’Afrique du Nord et el Moyen-Orient vus de l’Europe, d’Amérique et de l’intérieur, » under the direction of Eberhard Kienle, and « Special theme on International Migration in Africa, » African Yearbook of International Law, Volume 16, 2010 (forthcoming).

Awad is a graduate of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, University of Cairo. He has a Certificate of Advanced Studies in International Relations from the Graduate International Studies in Geneva and a Ph.D. degree in political science from the University of Geneva.

The Center for Migration and Refugee Studies was first established in 2000 and was expanded in 2008 into a regional center, encompassing all forms of international mobility, whether voluntary or forced, economic or political, individual or collective, temporary or permanent. CMRS activities include graduate education, research and outreach activities. CMRS graduate education includes Master of Arts in migration and refugee studies, a graduate diploma in forced migration and refugee studies, and a new graduate diploma in Applied Psychosocial Interventions for forced migrants and refugees. The outreach program includes disseminating knowledge on migration and refugee issues beyond the university’s gates, as well as providing a range of educational services to refugee communities in Cairo.

As for the research program, CMRS includes a systematic and comparative inventory of  migration and refugee movements across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), as well as in-depth studies of emerging issues in the region, including studies on the socioeconomic rights of Palestinian refugees in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria; child domestic workers in Egypt; Iraqis in Egypt; and demographic profile of Palestinian migration.