WiSe21-22: International Social Work Master (MRM)

MRM 2.2 MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT: POLICIES AND ACTORS

The growing interest in analyzing migration movements globally has led to a variety of attempts to theorize, assess and compare countries’ and regional migration policies and governance, including immigration, emigration and integration. This effort is also enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In SDG target 10.7. UN Member States commit to facilitate by 2030 the “orderly, safe, and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies”. Although migration has been integrated into the global sustainable development discourse, there is a continuous high-level academic debate and policy interest in immigration policy mainly positioned in and influenced from the Global North. In this module, we aim to explore a wide range of theory making, perspectives and policy processes around the world that shape the dynamics and impacts of migration. The module provides students with the opportunity to engage critically with the complex configurations of migration and development theories from a Southern and Northern perspective, including a look at relevant institutions, politics and normative claims that underpin migration-related policy. In particular, we will examine the positions taken by a variety of stakeholders, including civil society actors, emigration states, host states, regional bodies and international development agencies. We emphasize throughout the lived migrant perspective and the agency that migrants and refugees have and the roles that race, gender and class play in the migration process.
Students shall develop the following competencies towards the end of the module:
- Demonstrate awareness of the ways that migration policies have been an aspect of development processes around the world and start to understand and assess the meaningfulness of different theories used to describe and analyze migration;
- Articulate differentiated arguments about the role and position of a wide range of policy processes and actors relevant for mediating the relationship between migration and development; identify the configurations of institutions, politics and normative claims underpinning particular policy measures; critically assess the aims and impact of migration-related policy initiatives and explore alternative policy approaches;
- Apply an inter-disciplinary lens on the impact of migration and development relevant policy processes, drawing questions and evidence from different perspectives and sources; demonstrate awareness of the challenges of assessing the impact of migration and migration-related policy and be able to ask critical questions about methodological approaches.