Meet in a village near Eskisehir: Asylum and Immigrant Research Village

AIRVillage Project

Asylum and Immigrant Research Village

AIRVillage is an ambitious and unique creative and educational project that aims to bring together researchers and experts to discuss asylum and immigration issues face-to-face.  

Informal Interactions

These experts, who work on immigration and asylum issues, will create an intellectual village, allowing them to better understand each other through close, informal interactions.  

Members of the Village

These experts will gather to celebrate holidays, to spend a few days or weeks interacting with the local flora and fauna and to share their experiences.  As members of the village, these experts will meet and develop friendships, foster regional cooperation with similar projects, and exchange and compare their varied experiences as researchers, activists and administrators.  

Cooperate on Projects

The informal space for living and working together will help the educators cooperate to create and participate in workshops, round table forums, and conferences.  A congress can be conducted in the village, inviting influential international investors and graduate students to attend.  The village’s relative isolation will help experts plan national and international projects, collaborations, exhibitions, conferences and fairs.

A cafe at Kozlu Bahçe, an ecotourism center near Eskisehir with wifi service

Face-to-face discussions

Communication via Skype, social media and email can take place before the asylum and immigration experts arrive in the Village.  Online discussion groups can lay the groundwork for educational and research partnerships.  "The international village is intended to bring people together,” says Ugur Demiray, founder of AIRVillage, “face-to-face in a welcoming and comfortable environment that helps people make connections.”

Support by local staff

The village will offer an information desk staffed 24 hours a day by Conferences and Institutes staff members, meeting rooms, music and other entertainment, dining halls and a snack bar, computer lab, Bookstore, travel services, shopping information, banking services and message centers.