Program

Program (draft)

Week 1

Monday, 24/09/2018 (Course: Interdisciplinary Research in Migration Studies 1/2)

Interdisciplinary reflections on migration, mobility, transnationalism, diaspora
Russell King
This first lecture will define and explore the interdisciplinary research area of ‘migration studies’, which has emerged as a vibrant and tightly packed field across the social sciences (and beyond) in recent decades. Whilst noting that each discipline (principally sociology, geography, anthropology, economics, politics and history) has its own ‘take’ and contribution to make to research on migration, the most convincing advances are usually made when there is some kind of interdisciplinary synthesis. The lecture will be mainly about migration as a process which unfolds in space and time, rather than about the effects of migration in terms of integration or development etc. Much of what I want to say will be built around a critical and comparative analysis of four key terms – migration, mobility, transnationalism and disaspora – which compete for primacy in theoretical framings of human spatial mobility.
New European youth migrations in times of Brexit
Russell King
This lecture will be based on my research for the Horizon 2020 YMOBILITY project on ‘New European Youth Mobilities’. After a general description of the project, its objectives and its methods, the lecture will be in two parts: a theoretical section on how the new youth mobilities (of students, graduate employees and professionals, and low-skilled workers) can be conceptualised; and an empirical part based on 180 interviews with migrants in the London area, some carried out in the months leading up to Brexit, others in the months after the referendum and its unanticipated result. Whilst most post-Brexit interviewees were still in a ‘let’s wait and see’ mode, for others Brexit constituted a kind of existential and practical rupture in their lives and planning for the future. They thought differently about their relationship to Britain and their future mobility intentions – to stay put, return home or move on.
Colloquium 1
Students presentations
Current debates, challenges trends in research on forced migration and displacement
R. Zetter
From the many issues and challenges in contemporary research on refugees and forced displacement, the opening lecture surveys three themes which have been the focus of my research interest in recent years. 1. Labelling refugees and the shifting discourse towards forced displacement and forcibly displaced people. 2. From humanitarianism to development: the reframing of the refugee regime. 3. From humanitarian object to othering: refugees and securitisation.

Tuesday, 25/09/2018 (Course: Interdisciplinary Research in Migration Studies 2/2)

How to do good migration research: mixed methods, multi-sited fieldwork and strategies for publication
Russell King
My third lecture is mainly methodological – about strategies for doing ‘good’ empirically grounded research on migrants and about tactics for publishing the results in peer-reviewed journals. The lecture is in three parts. The first, relatively brief, will be about the value of ‘mixed methods’, mainly the combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques. The second, more substantial section will be about multi-sited fieldwork as arguably the most logical way to capture the essence of migration as a space–time process involving two or more locations as well as border crossing and routes of travel. In the third part of the lecture I draw on my own experience with publishing, and my editorship of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, to give some tips on publishing the results of doctoral research.
The political economy of climate change and population displacement – a macro and micro analysis
R. Zetter
This lecture will argue that the environmental variables shaping (im-)mobility decisions in the context of climate change are strongly mediated by national and local level structures of political and social power and disempowerment. Both current politics and migration histories shape the way in which migration policy regimes are conceived and framed, and how these impact people susceptible to displacement in contexts of environmental stress and climate change. Analysing these political conditions reveals the dominant ‘hinge points’ of power and the paradox that governments of highly impacted countries resist the provision of legal and normative frameworks to protect those who are displaced, or threatened by displacement.
Colloquium 2
Students presentations
Forced Displacement and Development: Evaluating Policy Coherence
R. Zetter
This lecture will report a ‘live’ policy research project which evaluates the coherence between government policies for development and forcibly displaced populations – a key challenge in contemporary refugee studies and policy fields. The aim is to provide a ‘hands on’ account of conducting policy research. The lecture will first review the concept of policy coherence and its importance. The lecture will then outline the research methodology – theory of change, evaluation tools and research methods – applied to assess the strategies for and the extent of coherence between polices for forcibly displaced people and development.

Wednesday, 26/09/2018 (Course: Migration Theories and Policies 1/4)

The Politics and Effectiveness of Migration Policy
Mathias Czaika
This lecture will focus on two aspects: first, it will give an overview into the nature and meaning of immigration policy in a context of a globalizing world. We will discuss some theories and empirical evidence about the role economic, socio-cultural and political factors play in shaping immigration policy outputs and outcomes. In the second part, the effectiveness of immigration policies is the object of our conversation. We will discuss why migration policies are often perceived as ineffective despite having significant effects on immigration. Based on some conceptual considerations about how to approach and measure immigration policy effects, we will assess recent empirical findings on the effects and effectiveness of migration policy on international migration flows.
High-skilled migration and skill-selective immigration policy
Mathias Czaika
Immigration policies are increasingly characterised by a stark contrast between policies towards high-skilled migration and those targeting low-skilled migration. While the immigration of lower-skilled migrants from poorer countries is often perceived as a problem in need of control, over the past decades a growing number of countries have pursued policies to attract skilled and high-skilled migrants as well as students. We will discuss questions such as: How do countries fare in this global competition for talent? What type of policies do states implement in order to retain or attract back highly skilled people, and how effective are these policies?
Colloquium 3
Students presentations
Deconstructing a construct: irregular migration
A. Kraler
By the 1990s, irregular migration has become a major concern in Western countries of immigration – and beyond, leading to the proliferation of a wide range of frequently reformed policy measures on the domestic, supranational and international level aimed at “combating” irregular migration. Yet as I argue in this lecture, irregular migration is essential a residual concept – it is defined in relation to its opposite, what is regarded as “regular” or “legal” migration. As a result, its meaning has undergone significant shifts over time. In this lecture I will discuss these shifting meanings of irregular migration, its relationship to the changing forms of regulation of migration, citizenship and belonging as well as policy responses addressing irregular migration. In addition, we will also discuss empirical trends and how this elusive type of migration can be studied.

Thursday, 27/09/2018 (Course: Migration Scenario Workshop 1/3)

Looking at the Future of Migration: Scenarios as an Alternative Approach
Simona Vezzoli
This workshop is designed to provide a general overview of the scenario methodology and its application as a complementary research method to explore the future of international migration. Scenarios are plausible descriptions of what the future may bring. They are developed through a series of group exercises that encourage participants to examine their knowledge of international migration, challenge their assumptions and broaden their understanding of how disparate factors such as aging, technological changes, ideologies and institutional change may bring about future shifts in migration patterns. Students will work in small groups throughout the workshop. Students are expected to come to the workshop ready to share their knowledge, listen and consider others’ perspectives, challenge common assumptions and think innovatively about the future.

Different ways of looking at the future: advantages, limitations and options
Predictions, forecasts and the future of migration
Scenarios: what they are, why we use them and how they have been used in the past
Applying the scenario methodology to social science research & migration
Assessing our knowledge of the past: areas of focus and assumptions
Exercise 1
Working with scenario elements: Assessing our knowledge of the future
Exercise 2a
Working with scenario elements: Ranking uncertainties
Exercise 2b

Friday, 28/09/2018 (Course: Migration Scenario Workshop 2/3)

Looking at the Future of Migration: Scenarios as an Alternative Approach (continued)
Simona Vezzoli

Generating scenarios: sketching four scenarios
Exercise 3a
Generating scenarios: selecting and developing two scenarios
Exercise 3b
Generating scenarios: deepening two fully developed scenarios
Exercise 3c

Saturday, 29/09/2018 (Course: Migration Scenario Workshop 3/3)

(half day only)

Looking at the Future of Migration: Scenarios as an Alternative Approach (continued)
Simona Vezzoli

Continue preparation of scenario presentations
Plenary presentations, analysis and critique of scenarios
Using scenarios to prepare for the future, concluding remarks and final discussion

Week 2

Monday, 01/10/2018 (Course: Law and Migration 1/2)

Towards a European Migration Policy
H. Schneider
During this first lecture we want to address the various migration movements towards the Member States in the last six decades. We shall give an overview of the developments since the Maastricht Treaty towards a European Migration policy. The relevant changes since the entering into force of the Lisbon treaty shall be highlighted explicitly. The relevant legal instruments concerning legal migration will be discussed. Special attention will be given to the developments since the migration crisis 2014-2016 and the measures taken concerning migration management.
European Citizenship and the nationality law of the Member States
H. Schneider
In this lecture 25 years of EU citizenship will be considered. The rights given to Third Country family members will be discussed as well as the relationship of this concept with the nationality of the Member States. This relationship with the nationality of a Member States is most relevant in light of the pending case Tjebbes and the ongoing discussion of the consequences of BREXIT for the the position of UK nationals in the EU and visa versa.
Colloquium 4
Students presentations
Towards a European Asylum Law Policy
H. Schneider
The Europeanisation of the Asylum Policy in the last decades will be addressed. Hereby the shortcomings of the system will be discussed in light of the European response to the refugee crisis.

Tuesday, 02/10/2018 (Course: Migration Theories and Policies 2/4)

Migration as optimization: Functionalist migration theories
H. de Haas
This lecture will outline and discuss ‘push-pull’, ‘gravity’, neoclassical and human capital theories that see (internal and international) migration as a response of utility-maximizing, rational individual actors to opportunity differentials. Notwithstanding their different disciplinary origins, all these theories are rooted in functionalist social theory, which presume that social processes, including migration, tend towards equilibrium. They see migration as a ‘gravitational’ response to spatial disequilibria, and postulate that, ceteris paribus, migration will decrease these disequilibria. In this process, networks help to make migration accessible for increasing groups of people, allowing them to reap the benefits of increased opportunities for study, work, and improved wellbeing. In this perspective, migration boosts development in origin areas through remittances and a ‘brain gain – reverse flow of people, ideas and expertise.
Migration as exploitation: historical-structural theories
H. de Haas
This lecture will address a set of theories hat criticize the assumptions of functionalist theories and offer a radically different view on migration. While neo-Marxist, world systems, dependency, dual/segmented labour market and globalization theories have rather different specific disciplinary origins and analytical angles, they share a common emphasis on the role of structural inequalities and state agency and violence in shaping migration processes and facilitating the exploitation of migrant workers in dual or segmented labour markets. They see migration as an outgrowth of imperialist aggression, capitalist expansion and neoliberal globalisation, which subjugate, marginalize and uproot populations of poor countries, and which weakens the power of organized labor, while a ‘brain drain’ deprives these societies of their ‘best and brightest’. Migration will therefore increase, rather than decrease, social and class inequalities with and between societies.
Colloquium 5
Students presentations
Recent theoretical advances: Migration as an intrinsic part of broader social transformation
H. de Haas
This lecture argued that we can only advance our understanding of human mobility if we conceptualize migration as an intrinsic part of broader processes of development and social transformation rather than a ‘problem to be solved’ or a reaction to push-pull factors. The lecture discusses and synthesizes perspectives (e.g., new economics of labour migration, livelihood perspectives; aspirations-capabilities models) that have attempted to overcome the structure-agency divide, by embedding micro-level explanations of migration into broader contexts of macro-structural conditions. This perspective conceptualizes migration as a function of aspirations and capabilities to migrate within broader sets of constraints and opportunity structures. This questions the dominant, but flawed sedentary assumptions of functionalist as well as historical-structural migration theories (and dominant policy paradigms) and helps to understand the paradox why ‘development’ has historically often been associated to more, instead of less, migration.

Wednesday, 03/10/2018 (Course: Law and Migration 2/2)

Integration of Migrants: Theoretical approaches
Gudrun Biffl
At the heart of integration theories is the question of how and where migrants position themselves socially, culturally, economically and politically and how their situations depend on the structural contexts within which they act. Theoretical concepts move between the antipodes of assimilation and transnationalism. Assimilation theory focuses on immigrants’ adaptation to the institutions and culture of the country of residence, while transnationalism focuses on the country of origin. The first tends to neglect the source country and the second tends to overlook the role of the host country as a frame of reference relevant to (im-)migrant participation and integration. Questions of who immigrants identify with, where they spend their money, what language they use in their everyday lives etc. are relevant to both. Between the antipodes a continuum of degrees of ‘integration’ and the concomitant theories emerged over time, with the various social science disciplines focusing on one or the other aspect.This lecture presents key theories of integration from various disciplinary perspectives, primarily sociology, political science and psychology, but including elements of anthropology and economics. The lecture also refers to the challenges raised by super-diversity to integration theory.
Integration Policy and its Challenges: An international comparison
Gudrun Biffl
Integration policy and migration policy are intertwined as integration strategies differ for various migrant groups, e.g. labour migrants, students, family members or refugees. The sudden increase in refugee inflows in Europe in 2015/16 is an example of quick policy responses to this migrant group. The free mobility of workers across Europe has also surfaced as a challenge for integration policy as the increasing diversity of migrants has brought different value systems into close contact, resulting in misunderstandings and conflicts. The lecture has a focus on the various aspects and areas of integration policy, in particular the labour market, the education and health system, housing, communities and social cohesion and value systems. An evaluation of the effectiveness of integration policies rounds the lecture up (MIPEX & Zaragoza indicators).
Colloquium 6
Students presentations
Religion, Migration and Settlement
Ernst Fürlinger
From a historical perspective, the geographic movements of religions and migrants were intertwined. Today, the increased dynamics and complexity of global migrations affect also religions in motion. The lecture presents the results of a new database of the religious affiliation of migrants worldwide. It retraces the development of the research field of religion and migration, and finally considers the future of religions in a world in motion.

Thursday, 04/10/2018 (Course: Migration Theories and Policies 3/4)

The historical roots of the ‘Refugee Crisis’
Leo Lucassen
How to explain the moral panic and apocalyptical doom scenario that accompanied the sudden surge of asylum seekers in the EU between 2014-2016? Was this migration indeed so different from earlier ones?
Migration and social change: a global historical approach
Leo Lucassen
Migration is often defined rather narrowly (people crossing international borders) and tends to reproduce 19^th-20^th century nation state concerns. If we really want to understand how human mobility changes societies through social and cultural changes, we need to take a much broader and long term view.
Colloquium 7
Students presentations
Migration in European history
Leo Lucassen
Most people assume that migration is a rather recent phenomenon and as far as they are aware of earlier migrations, they argue that these were internal European moves which had a much smaller social and cultural impact. Such a juxtaposition, however, is simply wrong and comparisons between then and now crucial to understand current mechanisms and trends.

Friday, 05/10/2018 (Course: Migration Theories and Policies 4/4)

Introduction to Spaces of Transnational Migration
Johanna Waters
By the end of this session, students will be able to critically appraise contemporary transnational population migrations using theoretical insights from geography and cognate disciplines. Concepts introduced will include transnationalism, mobilities, legality, citizenship & statelessness, forced migration, detainment, responsibility and morality vis-à-vis state responses to migration.
Transnational elites
Johanna Waters
This session will focus on the migration of a relatively ‘desired’ group of migrants and the spaces and conflicts that have arisen as a consequence of their migration – contemporary wealthy Chinese families. It draws on an expensive literature from Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand to consider the causes and consequences of contemporary Chinese mobilities to the West.
Colloquium 8
Students presentations
Sustaining families transnationally
Johanna Waters
This session examines the extensive academic literature on transnational families and households, looking at how and why families decide to live apart whilst maintain the household ‘at a distance’. The session will cover topics such as Filipina domestic workers, astronaut families, parachute children, kirogi families and study mothers. The regional focus will be East and Southeast Asia.

Students presentations

Throughout the entire program, colloquia (time slots to present and discus the state of participants’ PhD project) are arranged. Every participant is kindly asked to prepare a presentation on his/her PhD project, or of a distinct part of this project.

Course structure

For participants of the PhD Summer School, it is possible to acquire up to 18 ECTS, if the required additional assignments are completed.

Course: Interdisciplinary Research in Migration Studies (4 ECTS)
Course: Migration Theories and Policies (6 ECTS)
Course: Migration Scenario Workshop (4 ECTS)
Course: Law and Migration (4 ECTS)