Representing the American University of Iraq-Baghdad (AUIB), Associate Professor of Social and Public Policy and Director of the Center for Policy Research at AUIB, Dr. Muslih Irwani, contributed to the “4th World Congress of Kurdish Studies” held at the University of Kurdistan Hewler in Erbil last April, co-organized by the Kurdish Institute of Paris, under the auspices of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, and the French embassy in Baghdad.
The themes of the two-day conference varied, covering Kurdish history, language, cultural heritage, migration, security, contemporary politics, and gender issues. At the conference were delegations of scholars and interested parties from many countries, from east Asia to North America, including from Europe. The focal point of the discussions, according to Dr. Irwani, was “Kurds in neighboring states… Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran,” but also in the diaspora, in North America and Europe.
Dr. Irwani chaired two of the many sessions of the conference, one on literature and poetry, and the other on migration, focusing on workers’ and women’s migration. He delivered a presentation on “Migrant Workers’ Inclusion in the Social Security System in Iraq and KRG,” drawing on two research projects he is involved in, one with the London School of Economics, on international labor migration, and the other with the International Labor Organization, on the expansion of the social security system in Iraq to include all informal workers in the country, especially those in the agricultural sector, manufacturing sector, and construction sector, together constituting around 80% of the total workforce in Iraq, according to Dr. Irwani.