Introductory description

The topic of 'migration' can be a contentious issue. During the Brexit debates, the migration of EU citizens to the UK was one of the main areas of contention. This module examines how policymakers present migration as a problem in specific contexts. By drawing on examples from around the world, this module delves into the distinctions between who is perceived as a migrant and who is perceived as the ‘host’. Additionally, it explores the differences between migration and displacement and analyses the creation and use of various categories, such as labour migrants, skilled/unskilled migrants, refugees, and displaced persons, in the media and public policy. The module also examines who is considered risky and who is not when it comes to travel, as well as who is deserving of protection. The key terms used in public policy and the wider media will be introduced, and the various discourses around which they are constructed will be analysed. The module will cover the main themes of migration studies, with a specific focus on the role of migration in broader social transformation processes and how borders are created and recreated in this process. It will examine how borders categorise, differentiate, and prioritise some groups over others. Finally, the module will conclude by analysing recent developments around ‘smart borders’ and the extent to which they change existing patterns.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Week 1: Key Concepts and State Created Categories
Week 2: Construction of Migration as a Problem
Week 3: Migration, State and Inequality
Week 4: Transnational Migration
Week 5: Migration and Displacement
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7: Displacement, Protection and Humanitarianism
Week 8: Borders, State Controls and Securitisation
Week 9: Externalisation of Borders
Week 10: Migration and Digital Technologies

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Have the knowledge and understanding of fundamental concepts in migration studies.
• Acquire insight into how the discourses around migration are socially constructed.
• Have the knowledge and ability to analyse the relationship between migration and structures of power, including those based on class, race, gender, and nation.
• Develop the ability to conduct critical analyses of migration policies, assessing their intended aims and social implications.
• Be able to describe and critically participate in political and intellectual discussions on borders, migration, and securitisation.
• Address the aims and objectives of the module demonstrating close engagement with module materials

Indicative reading list

Week 1: Key Concepts and State Created Categories

Required readings:

• Torpey, J. (1998) 'Coming and Going: On the State Monopolization of the Legitimate ‘Means of Movement’.' Sociological Theory, 16(3), 239-259.
• Kalm, S. (2020) 'Citizenship Capital.' Global Society, 34(4), 528-551.

Secondary readings:

• Bertram, D., Poros, M., & Monforte, P. (2014) Key Concepts in Migration. London: Sage.
• Balibar, E. (2002) Politics and the Other Scene. London: Verso. (Chapter 4: What is a Border?)
• Benson, M., & O’Reilly, K. (2016) 'From lifestyle migration to lifestyle in migration: Categories, concepts and ways of thinking.' Migration Studies, 4(1), 20–37.
• Aradau, C., Huysmans, J., & Squire, V. (2010) 'Acts of European Citizenship: A Political Sociology of Mobility.' JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 48, 945-965.

Week 2: Construction of Migration as a Problem

Required readings:

• Castles, S. (2010) 'Understanding Global Migration: A Social Transformation Perspective.' Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 36(10), 1565-1586.
• De Haas, H. (2023) How Migration Really Works. London: Penguin. [Identify specific chapters]

Secondary readings:

• Sqiure, V. (2021) The construction and contestation of illegality in Carmel, E., Lenner, K., & Paul, R. (eds.) Handbook on the Governance and Politics of Migration. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
• Goodfellow, M. (2019) Hostile Environment: How Immigrants Became Scapegoats. London: Verso.
• Walia, H. (2022) “There is No Migrant Crisis,” Boston Review. https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/there-is-no-migrant-crisis/
• Flores, R.D., & Schachter, A. (2018) 'Who Are the ‘Illegals’? The Social Construction of Illegality in the United States.' American Sociological Review, 83(5), 839–68.

Week 3: Migration, State and Inequality

Required readings:

• Castles, S. (2004) 'Why migration policies fail.' Ethnic and Racial Studies, 27(2), 205-227.
• Wise, R.D. (2015) 'Migration and Labour under Neoliberal Globalization: Key Issues and Challenges.' In: Schierup, C.-U., et al. (eds) Migration, Precarity, and Global Governance: Challenges and Opportunities for Labour. Oxford. [Online] Available at: Oxford Academic.

Secondary readings:

• Parreñas, R.S. (2015) Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration and Domestic Work. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press. [Chapter 1/2]
• Williamson, R., Arias Cubas, M., Ozkul, D., Maas, C., Kim, C., Koleth, E., & Castles, S. (2022) 'Migration and social transformation through the lens of locality: a multi-sited study of experiences of neighbourhood transformation.' Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(13), 3041-3059.
• Ruhs, M., & Anderson, B. (2010), 'Semi-compliance and illegality in migrant labour markets: an analysis of migrants, employers and the state in the UK.' Popul. Space Place, 16, 195-211.
• Anderson, B., Poeschel, F., & Ruhs, M. (2021) 'Rethinking labour migration: Covid-19, essential work, and systemic resilience.' Comparative Migration Studies, 9(1), 45.

Week 4: Transnational Migration

Required readings:

• Levitt, P., & Jaworsky, B. N. (2007) 'Transnational Migration Studies: Past Developments and Future Trends.' Annual Review of Sociology, 33(1), 129-156.
• Anderson, B. (2019) 'New directions in migration studies: towards methodological de-nationalism.' Comparative Migration Studies, 7:36, 1-13.

Secondary readings:

• Ozkul, D. (2019) 'Transnationalism' in SAGE Handbook of International Migration, ed. Christine Inglis, Wei Li, & Binod Khadria. New York: Sage.
• Wimmer, A., & Schiller, N.G. (2002) 'Methodological Nationalism and Beyond: Nation-State Building, Migration, and the Social Sciences.' Global Networks, 2(4), 301-334.
• Balibar, E. (2004) We the People of Europe? Reflections on Transnational Citizenship. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Week 5: Migration and Displacement

Required readings:

• Long, K, (2013) 'When refugees stopped being migrants: Movement, labour and humanitarian protection.' Migration Studies, 1(1), 4–26.
• Crawley, H., & Skleparis, D. (2018) 'Refugees, migrants, neither, both: categorical fetishism and the politics of bounding in Europe’s ‘migration crisis’.' Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 44(1), 48-64.
• Zetter, R. (2007) 'More Labels, Fewer Refugees: Remaking the Refugee Label in an Era of Globalization.' Journal of Refugee Studies, 20(2), 172–192.

Secondary readings:

• Bakewell, O. (2011) 'Conceptualising displacement and migration: Processes, conditions, and categories.' In: Koser, K. & Martin, S. (eds.) The Migration-Displacement Nexus: Patterns, Processes, and Policies. New York: Berghahn Books.
• Gatrell, P. (2013) The Making of the Modern Refugee. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Neumayer, E. (2005) 'Bogus refugees: The determinants of asylum migration to Western Europe.' International Studies Quarterly, 49(3), 389–409.
• Malkki, L. H. (1995) 'Refugees and Exile: From ‘Refugee Studies’ to the National Order of Things.' Annual Review of Anthropology, 24, 495–523.
• Welfens, N. (2023) 'Promising victimhood: contrasting deservingness requirements in refugee resettlement.' Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 49(5), 1103-1124.

Week 6: Reading Week

Week 7: Displacement, Protection and Humanitarianism

Required readings:

• Chimni, B.S. (2000) 'Globalization, Humanitarianism and the Erosion of Refugee Protection', Journal of Refugee Studies, 13(3), pp. 243–263.
• Brun, C. (2016) 'There is no Future in Humanitarianism: Emergency, Temporality and Protracted Displacement', History and Anthropology, 27(4), 393-410.

Secondary readings:

• Carpi, E. and Şenoğuz, H.P. (2019) 'Refugee Hospitality in Lebanon and Turkey. On Making ‘The Other’', International Migration, 57(1), pp. 126-142.
• Orchard, P. (2010) 'The Perils of Humanitarianism: Refugee and IDP Protection in Situations of Regime-induced Displacement', Refugee Survey Quarterly, 29(1), pp. 38–60.
• Carpi, E. (2020) 'Towards a Neo-cosmetic Humanitarianism: Refugee Self-reliance as a Social-cohesion Regime in Lebanon’s Halba', Journal of Refugee Studies, 33(1), pp. 224–244.
• Newman, E. (2017) 'The Limits of Liberal Humanitarianism in Europe: The ‘Responsibility to Protect’ and Forced Migration', European Review of International Studies, 4(2-3), pp. 59-77.

Week 8: Borders, State Controls and Securitisation

Required readings:

• Newman, D. (2006) 'Borders and Bordering: Towards an Interdisciplinary Dialogue.' European Journal of Social Theory, 9(2), 171-186.
• Cote-Boucher, K., Infantino, F., & Salter, M. (2014) 'Border security as practice: An agenda for research.' Security Dialogue, 45(3), 195-208.

Secondary readings:

• Boswell, C. (2007) 'Migration Control in Europe After 9/11: Explaining the Absence of Securitization.' Journal of Common Market Studies, 45(3), 589-610.
• Côté-Boucher, K., Infantino, F., & Salter, M. (2014) 'Border security as practice: An agenda for research.' Security Dialogue, 45(3), 195-208.
• Bigo, D. (2002) Security and immigration: Toward a critique of the governmentality of unease. Alternatives, 27(1), 63-92.
• Huysmans, J. (2000) 'The European Union and the Securitization of Migration.' Journal of Common Market Studies, 38(5), 751-777.
• Huysmans, J. (2006) The Politics of Insecurity: Fear, Migration and Asylum in the EU. Abingdon: Routledge.
• Fassin, D. (2011) 'Policing Borders, Producing Boundaries. The Governmentality of Immigration in Dark Times.' Annual Review of Anthropology, 40, 213–26.

Week 9: Externalisation of Borders

Required readings:

• Lemberg-Pedersen, M. (2019) 'Manufacturing displacement. Externalization and postcoloniality in European migration control.' Global Affairs, 5(3), 247-271.
• Faist, T. (2019) ‘Contested externalisation: responses to global inequalities.’ Comparative Migration Studies, 7, 45.

Secondary readings:

• Norman, K.P., & Micinski, N.R. (2023) 'The European Union's migration management aid: Developing democracies or supporting authoritarianism?' International Migration, 61, 57–71.
• Czaika, M., Erdal, M.B., & Talleraas, C. (2023) 'Exploring Europe’s external migration policy mix: on the interactions of visa, readmission, and resettlement policies.' Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 49(12), 3140-3161.
• Pacciardi, A., & Berndtsson, J. (2022) 'EU border externalisation and security outsourcing: exploring the migration industry in Libya.' Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(17), 4010-4028.
• Üstübici, A. (2019). ‘The impact of externalized migration governance on Turkey: Technocratic migration governance and the production of differentiated legal status.’ Comparative Migration Studies, 7, 46.

Week 10: Migration and Digital Technologies

Required readings:

• Leese, M. (2016) 'Exploring the Security/Facilitation Nexus: Foucault at the ‘Smart’ Border', Global Society, 30(3), 412-429.
• Côté-Boucher, K. (2008) ‘The Diffuse Border: Intelligence-Sharing, Control and Confinement along Canada’s Smart Border.’ Surveillance & Society, 5(2), 142-165.

Secondary readings:

• Latonero, M. and Kift, P. (2018) 'On Digital Passages and Borders: Refugees and the New Infrastructure for Movement and Control', Social Media + Society, 4(1), 1-11.
• Leurs, K. (2023) Digital Migration. London: Sage. [Chapter 1: Infrastructures]
• Koslowski, R. (2005) 'Smart Borders, Virtual Borders or No Borders: Homeland Security Choices for the United States and Canada', Law & Business Review of the Americas, 11, pp. 527.

Research element

Students will be asked to conduct research as part of the final evaluation. They can choose to investigate a news article or a particular migration policy. They will be responsible for locating and selecting their research material. During seminars, students will have access to guidance and assistance as they work through the research process. Students will then be required to analyse their chosen case study using the themes and concepts presented in the module.

Interdisciplinary

This module covers a wide range of sociological themes, drawing on related fields such as political sociology, political economy, anthropology, political science, international relations, and critical security studies.

International

This module covers migration-related events and policies primarily centred in Europe but also the US/Mexico border, Africa, and the Middle East.

Subject specific skills

• Understanding of migration as part of broader social transformation processes
• Being able to critically analyse news items and specific portrayals of migrants, including refugees, and their long-term implications.
• Being able to critically analyse specific migration policies that facilitate or deter migrants’ entry in relation to constructions around race, class and gender.

Transferable skills

• Developing information literacy skills to gather and evaluate information from various sources.
• Critical reading skills to analyse and interpret complex texts.
• Critical thinking skills through reflection on existing policies and news and their implications.
• Communication skills by participating in seminar discussions and writing formative and summative essays.
• Research skills to conduct independent research and critically evaluate sources.
• News and/or policy analysis skills to understand the impact of current events on society.
• Analytical skills to identify and evaluate patterns and connections in data.