Dr Theo Papadopoulos invited speaker at major events in South Korea
25 June 2012
Dr Theo Papadopoulos from the Department of Social & Policy Sciences, presented his research in South Korea following a double invitation, as a key-note speaker in the Annual National Conference of the Korean Association of Social Policy held between 30 May - 2 June 2012, and as an invited speaker of KIHASA (Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs) the policy think-tank of Korea's Ministry for Health and Social Affairs.
Dr Papadopoulos presentations focused on his current research about social policy and the Greek crisis, as well as the comparative study of public policies towards immigration in the European Union.
Based on his article on the Greek crisis published in Social Policy Review in 2012 (co-authored with Antonios Roumpakis), Dr Papadopoulos argued that the austerity measures enacted by consecutive governments in Greece culminated in an anti-social policy which not only did nothing to help the economy to recover but also seriously weakened social cohesion and politically polarised the Greek society.
The presentation of his comparative research on public policies towards immigration in the European Union was based on a recently published book (in paperback, 2012) on Migration and Welfare in the New Europe, co-edited with Dr Emma Carmel and Alfio Cerami.
Dr Papadopoulos states that at the EU-level policies seem to favour some political economies but not others. Further, the diversity of public policies at the member state level points to the differential inclusion of immigrants within the national political economies (with marked differences between Southern, Eastern and Nordic member states). As far as the UK's experience is concerned, comparative research indicates that foreign born residents as a percentage of total population are lower than other EU countries such as France, Spain, Sweden and Germany, pointing to the fact that the fears regarding the numbers of migrants in the UK are rather exaggerated.
Photos and materials from Dr Theo Papadopoulos' presentations in KIASHA and KSPA can be found on his blog.
