Arbeitsgruppe Prof. PhD Faist: Soziologie der Transnationalisierung

Current projects

Establishment of Degree Programmes at the Turkish-German University (TGU) (2021- )

This DAAD-funded project started in 2019. The Turkish-German University (TGU) in Istanbul is a joint venture between the Turkish and the German governments. The languages of instruction are mainly Turkish and German. In Sociology, the first step was the establishment of an undergraduate study programme at the TGU in close cooperation with the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University (UBI). The Bielefeld curriculum served as a point of departure for the programme at TGU. The BA degree program in Sociology at TGU was successfully launched in the winter semester 2021/22. Currently, the Turkish and German partners continue the development of sociology degree programmes at the TGU. The project now aims to expand and intensify the implementation of further degree programmes on the MA and PhD level. These future degree programmes are meant to correspond to the local context (e.g. requirements of the Turkish university authority YÖK, status of TGU expansion) and the state of the art in Sociology.

Central aspects of the project are:

1. Intensification of cooperation between TGU and UBI through joint research projects, publications, workshops, etc.

2. Implementation of the Flying Faculty, in which lecturers from German universities are sent to the TGU each semester for teaching courses.

3. Establishment of a double degree program. The first degree of the program will be the BA Sociology, further degrees are being planned. A scholarship program for TGU students will be established in conjunction with the double degree program.

4. Strengthening the methodological training at the TGU through workshops conducted by members of the Flying Faculty.

 

Funder: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)

Funded since 2019

Project director: Prof. Thomas Faist, PhD

Project staff: Kristoffer Klement

Encyclopedia of Citizenship Studies (2021-2024)

Editors: Marisol García (University of Barcelona) and Thomas Faist
(Bielefeld University).

Edward Elgar Publishing

The Encyclopedia of Citizenship Studies aims to provide a state-of-the
art tool in social sciences focusing on issues and approaches around the
core concept of citizenship. The distinctive features of this
publication project are: theoretical considerations along with normative
concerns in the context of empirical research; comparative and global
perspectives; regional variations in and beyond Europe; and citizenship
in the Anthropocene. The Encyclopedia of Citizenship Studies will have
around 80 peer-reviewed articles. The Editorial Advisory Board consists
of Willem Duyvendak, Yuri Kazepov, Peter Kivisto, Margaret Somers,
Jürgen Mackert, Lydia Morris, Alejandro Portes, and Bryan Turner.

Civil society integration through conflict? Functions, histories and consequences of migrant and non-migrant conflicts in Duisburg (2021- )

The change in conflict issues and constellations accompanies the development of modern urban societies just as much as the synchronous and diachronic crossing of different lines of conflict (crisscrossings). This change implies, among other things, that local conflict parties dissolve again over time and that the actors active in them align and form themselves along newly formed lines of conflict . Sometimes actors also act simultaneously in completely different conflict constellations. The
related questions are: What does it do to the actors in an urban society characterised by migration-related diversity when
opponents become allies and partisans become adversaries as a result of changing or intersecting conflict and
alliance constellations? And: Do the intersecting lines of conflict contribute to the development of new local forms of
civil society integration? Is this even the lifeworld foundation for what some migration researchers call a "post-migrant society"?

Project management: Prof. Dr Thomas Faist

Project staff: Kai-Sören Falkenhain, Dr Jörg Hüttermann, Johannes
Ebner
 

Protection on the move. Transnational social protection trajectories of African migrants in Mexico (2021-2023)

This project investigates the trajectories of social protection of African migrants in Mexico, a new but increasingly visible migrant group that has emerged in the past years as a result of a combination of global processes. Migration is a social-protection strategy for individuals and families throughout the globe. At the same time, however, increasingly restrictive migration policies are pushing many migrants to seek new and more risky migration routes. In the past decades, migration and social protection have taken new forms and consequently different relations between the State and society. Many studies have investigated aspects of social protection for migrants from the Global South in industrialized countries of the Global North, with powerful welfare-states. Yet, such focus on origin and destination countries has failed to understand the complexities during the migration process, where people often spend uncertain periods of time in transit countries, frequently affected by violence, socio-economic crises, and a volatile formal social-protection system. Through a mixed-methods approach (ethnographic methods and social network analysis), this project aims to advance our understanding on how mobile populations devise and shape their social protection strategies during their migration trajectories in a transnational manner, beyond sending and receiving states. To do so, this research draws on the case of African migrants in Mexico, a context characterized by inefficient state protection and where social protection practices are carried out informally by individuals and their social networks. By exploring alternative mechanisms of social protection, the findings of this project will aim to inform social policy and ameliorate social inequalities throughout migration processes. Besides being empirically innovative, this study will contribute to the theorisation of current approaches of transnational social protection, which to date have only focused on the circulation of resources across sending and receiving countries.

Duration: 1st December 2021 to 1st June 2023

Funding: DAAD

Principal Investigator: Dr Ester Serra Mingot, Bielefeld University

Host institution in Mexico: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (​CIESAS)

Transnational mobility and social positioning in the European Union (2016-2019)

Cross-border mobility is increasingly seen as a key factor in improving life chances. Accordingly, research into the effects of freedom of movement within the European Union on the life chances of mobile population groups has increased in recent years. A key finding of these studies is that not all migrants benefit equally from mobility opportunities. These differences are mainly attributed to heterogeneities such as legal status, gender, ethnicity and class. Research on this topic to date has focussed particularly on disadvantaged or favoured groups, supranational social policy or the living conditions of migrants in the country of origin or the country of arrival. This results in a research gap with regard to the general question of how spatial mobility within the social space of the EU in interaction with other heterogeneities influences social positioning - by which is meant both objective and subjective social status. Furthermore, it is not known how migrants position themselves within the social structure of the EU. The interplay between objective and subjective social position is primarily determined by the mechanism of social comparison along different frames of reference. A special feature of migrants is that they can potentially use both national and transnational frames of reference for their subjective positioning.

The project starts at this point and deals with three focuses of research:

(1) analysing the spatial mobility trajectories of heterogeneous migrant groups;

(2) analysing the connection between spatial mobility trajectories and social position in relation to socio-economic status and its subjective perception and evaluation, and

(3) the investigation of social comparison as a mechanism that influences the subjective perception of social position.

The focus is on analysing the choice of reference frames and groups for social comparisons of migrants. The sequential, mixed methods design of the research projects draws on data from the migrant sample of the SOEP-IAB sample in order to analyse typical mobility trajectories of migrants in Germany as well as their socio-economic status and their life and area satisfaction using quantitative methods. In addition, qualitative interviews will be conducted with a subsample of SOEP respondents, as well as with staff, people without migration experience in an EU country with high emigration rates (Poland), in order to analyse interpretations and meanings of spatial mobility trajectories for the respondents' own perception of their social position.

The aim of the project ending date is to investigate social comparisons as a mechanism conditioning the relationship between spatial mobility and social positions.

Duration: since October 2016

Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG)

Project management: Prof Thomas Faist, PhD, Bielefeld University

Cooperation partner: Dr. Ingrid Tucci, CNRS Institute of Labour Economics and Industrial Sociology (LEST), Aix en Provence, France

(Former) researchers: Dr Karolina Barglowski, Dr Joanna J. Fröhlich, Inka Stock, PhD

 

Presentations from the project

Positioning Strategies of Migrants in Transnational Social Spaces. A contribution to research on spatial and social mobility. Presentation by Inka Stock at the Congress of the German Sociological Association. 14-24 September 2020

Using Social Comparison to Study Migrants' Social Positions in Transnational Perspective. Presentation by Inka Stock at the 16th IMISCOE Conference on 26-28 June in Malmö, Sweden

Symbolic Boundaries and Subjective Approaches to Stratification": A Reinterpretation of an Empirical Study from a Migration Perspective. Presentation by Joanna Fröhlich at the 16th IMISCOE Conference from 26-28 June in Malmö, Sweden

Processes of subjective status localisation in transnational spaces. Presentation with Thomas Faist, Joanna Fröhlich and Inka Stock in the panel: "Complex Inequalities" of the section "Social Inequalities and Social Structure Analysis" at the 39th Congress of the German Sociological Association (DGS) from 24-28 September 2018, Göttingen

Social Comparison and Visual Methods: Manifesting the Latent in Accounts of Social Status. Presentation by Inka Stock at the ISA World Congress of Sociology from 15-21 July in Toronto, Canada

Unpacking the Social and Spatial Mobility Nexus: Migrants' Mobility Trajectories and Their Perceptions of Social Positions. Presentation by Joanna Fröhlich and Inka Stock at the ISA World Congress of Sociology, Panel: "Classes on the Move: The Everyday Experiences of Social Mobility" RC 28, 21 July, Toronto, Canada and the IMISCOE Conference, 3 July 2018, Barcelona, Spain

Transnational mobility and Social Positions in the European Union: The Role of Social Comparison. Presentation by Inka Stock at the 25th International Conference of Europeanists. Council for European Studies at Columbia University from 28-31 March 2018 in Chicago, USA

Challenges of a Qualitative Research Design to Investigate Social Comparison and Social Mobility. Guest lecture by Joanna Fröhlich and Inka Stock at the research colloquium "Qualitative Methods" by Prof. Ruth Ayaß on 23 November 2017 at Bielefeld University, Germany

 

Publications

Faist, T., Fröhlich, J. J., Stock, I., & Tucci, I. (2021). Introduction: Migration and Unequal Positions in a Transnational Perspective. Social Inclusion, 9(1), 85-90. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v9i1.4031

Stock, I., & Fröhlich, J. J. (2021). Migrants' Social Positioning Strategies in Transnational Social Spaces. Social Inclusion, 9(1), 91-103. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v9i1.3584

Stock, I. (2021). Insights into the Use of Social Comparison in Migrants' Transnational Social Positioning Strategies. Social Inclusion, 9(1), 104-113. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v9i1.3583

Tucci, I., Fröhlich, J. J., & Stock, I. (2021). Exploring the Nexus between Migration and Social Positions using a Mixed Methods Approach. Social Inclusion, 9(1), 114-129. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v9i1.3538

Faist, T., Fröhlich, J. J., & Stock, I. (2019). Processes of subjective status localisation in transnational spaces. In N. Burzan (Ed.), Complex dynamics of global and local developments. Proceedings of the 39th Congress of the German Sociological Association in Göttingen 2018 (pp. 1-10).

 

Bright Futures - Japan: A comparative study of the international migration of Japanese and Chinese students (2016-2022)

A comparative study of the international migration of Japanese and Chinese students

The project will conduct a systematic and comparative analysis of Asian student mobility. This is one of the world's strongest education-related migration movements. We want to gain new insights into the relationship between educational mobility, life planning and life course. Our research design is innovative: based on a representative sample of Japanese and Chinese students, we propose a threefold comparison: between (1) Japanese and Chinese students at British and German universities, (2) Chinese and Japanese students who stayed at home, and (3) Chinese students who migrated to Japan. Through such comparisons, and using various multivariate methods and network analyses, we expect to uncover some theoretical aspects, such as the selectivity of educational mobility, the formation of individual preferences for regional or interregional migration, and the differential impact of such preferences on the perceived value and opportunities of tertiary education for future life planning. In addition to generating valuable survey data on the migration of Chinese and Japanese students, the research will benefit a range of non-academic stakeholders, including governments, tertiary education institutions, think tanks and organisations involved in providing information and support for international students. The proposed project is based on the currently funded survey project 'Bright Futures: Internal and International Mobility of Chinese Students' by the European partners and their co-operation with researchers at Kyoto University.

 

The 'Asian Educational Mobility' project is a sibling project of 'Bright Futures'

 

Involved in this project are:

University of Essex, England
Bielefeld University, Germany
University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain
Tsinghua University, China

 

At Bielefeld University, the project is led by Prof Thomas Faist, PhD. Current project members are Isabell Diekmann and Takuma Fujii. Former members are Dr Başak Bilecen, Dr Andrés Cardona, Dr Mengyao Zhao and Janina Jaeckel.

 

Publications:

Bilecen, B., Diekmann, I., Faist, T. and Fujii, T. (in progress): Future Mobility Plans of Chinese International Students in Germany: Micro- and Meso-Level Explanations.

Fujii. T. (in progress): Transnational art fields: Educational decisions of international art students.

Fujii. T. (2020): Integration into the transnational art fields: Japanese fine arts students. S. 353-375. in: Faist, T. (ed.), Sociology of Migration. A systematic introduction. Berlin/Bosten: De Gruyter.

Fujii, T. (2020): Integration of aspiring artists: Japanese music students in Germany. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, Vol. 29, 3: 358-380.

Aksakal, M., Bilecen, B. and Schmidt, K. (2019): Qualitative sampling in research on international student mobility: insights from the field in Germany. Globalisation, Societies and Education. Vol. 17, 5: 610-621.

Completed projects

Bright Futures - China: A comparative study of the internal and international migration of Chinese students (2015-2022)

China

Bright Futures - China: A comparative study of internal and international migration of Chinese students deals with the mobility of Chinese students between China on the one hand and Great Britain and Germany on the other in international cooperation. Further information will be available soon.

Project partners:
GB: Prof. Yasemin Soysal, University of Essex
People's Republic of China: University of Tsinhua
FRG: Prof. Thomas Faist, University of Bielefeld

Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG), National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

For more information, please read here (German) or here (English), as well as our flyer

YMOBILITY - Youth Mobility: maximising opportunities for individuals, labour markets and regions in Europe (2015-2018)

The project is sponsored by the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 for the period March 2015 to February 2018. Detailed information in English can be found on the international YMOBILITY project page.

YMOBILITYis developing a research programme to address the following questions:

• Identify and quantify the most common forms and characteristics of youth mobility in the EU. Particular attention will be paid to the differences between and within the three most common types: Highly Skilled, Low Skilled and Educationally Mobile;
• What causes certain staff, people to use or not use international mobility as a strategy for personal and professional development: Motivations, migration routes and sources of information;
• Analysing individual outcomes in terms of employability and career (skills and competencies) as well as non-economic outcomes (welfare and identities);
• Analysing economic, demographic and cultural outcomes for regions of origin and destination;
• Distinguishing between short- and long-term outcomes, taking into account return migration and future migration plans;
• Identifying implications for migration policy, but also education policy, economy and housing.

We focus on primary qualitative and quantitative data sets, but also use secondary data from across the European Union.
The study focusses on 9 countries representing different contexts of youth migration: Romania, Slovakia and Latvia as sources of emigration and return migration; the United Kingdom and Sweden as destination regions; Germany, Italy, Ireland and Spain as destination regions and countries of origin. The policy field analysis is supplemented by interviews with relevant actors such as migrant associations and political decision-makers.

At Bielefeld University, the project is headed by Prof Thomas Faist, PhD. Project staff are Dr Mustafa Aksakal and Dr Kerstin Schmidt.

10 academic pertners from 9 countries are participating in the YMOBILITY project:

• Sapienza University of Rome (UNIROMA), Italy (Project Coordinator)
• Bielefeld University (UNIBI), Germany
• University of Almería (UAL), Spain
• University College Cork (UCC), Ireland
• University of Latvia (LU), Latvia
• University of Bucharest (UB), Romania
• Malmö University (MIM), Sweden
• Slovak Academy of Sciences (IFSAS), Slovakia
• University of Surrey (SURREY), United Kingdom
• University of Sussex (US), United Kingdom

Social inequalities and migration: A comparative longitudinal study of Germany and the USA

Analysing the long-term development of social inequalities between migrants and host societies, as well as between and within migrant groups, is an urgent task. Most of the existing studies on migration and inequality have two fundamental limitations: first, they cover only relatively short periods of time, and second, they perceive migrants as independent variables that influence inequality either in the country of origin or in the labour market of the receiving country. However, there is a lack of comparative research on social inequalities between different countries of immigration and among migrants themselves. Therefore, the questions to be answered relate to the histories of inequalities over time between immigrants and natives, between and within migrant groups, and between receiving countries. This exploratory project aims to lay the foundations for approaching these questions. To this end, comparative data sets will be compiled and initial comparisons will be made between the historical patterns, dynamics and determinants of the migration-inequality nexus in Germany and the USA.

Project management: Thomas Faist (Bielefeld University, Germany) and Luis E. Guarnizo (University of California Davis, USA)

Participating scientists: Carlos Becerra (University of California Davis, USA) and Joanna J. Sienkiewicz (Bielefeld University, Germany)

Beyond Humanitarianism - The Syrian Refugees in Turkey (2016-2017)

The project 'Beyond Humanitarianism - Addressing the issues relating to Syrian refugees in Turkey' is a short-term collaboration between the Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development (COMCAD) at Bielefeld University and Oxfam in Turkey. The project deals with the challenges Turkey faces as a transit and host country for Syrian refugees.

The aim of the project is to (1) explore the conditions under which adequate participation of Syrian refugees can be ensured in areas that are essential for their survival and life chances, such as labour market participation, education and housing, and (2) propose appropriate policy approaches to achieve human security for Syrian refugees beyond immediate disaster relief.

The pressing question addressed by the project relates to the long-term presence of Syrian refugees in Turkey: What form of cooperation between local, national, transnational and international actors is necessary to ensure the human security and basic life chances of people who have experienced forced migration and are referred to here as refugee migrants? What are best practices in public policy that can ensure that these refugee migrants can have a minimum of life chances in the labour market, education system and housing?

The entanglements of national and international security interests and the human rights of migrants, as they are visible in the current management of migration movements to Turkey, form the context of this study. The central question is, how can we go beyond a purely humanitarian approach to disaster relief and address the long-term concerns of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries, especially Turkey?

COMCAD at Bielefeld University, in collaboration with Oxfam in Turkey, will undertake a literature review of the current situation of Syrian refugees in Turkey and Turkish policy responses in a comparative manner, and will seek to identify policy-making proposals that can support the handling of refugees. Future research opportunities that could support informed policy action will form part of the literature review.

Duration: 15 February 2016 - December 2017

Coordinators: Prof Thomas Faist, Bielefeld University (project management); Meryem Aslan (Oxfam Turkey)

Research team: Prof Thomas Faist, Dr Inka Stock, Johanna Paul and Victoria Volmer, Bielefeld University

The importance of volunteering for the integration of refugees in Germany: from the clothing store to sponsorship (2016-2018)

The study 'The importance of volunteering for the integration of refugees in Germany: from the clothes closet to sponsorship' was conducted in Bielefeld from February 2016 to February 2018 and financially supported by the faculty in two different funding phases.

The aim of the study was to analyse the structures and characteristics of volunteer work in the field of refugee aid, its impact on refugee policy and the integration of refugees into society. To this end, focused ethnographic research was conducted in Bielefeld, based primarily on observations, document analyses and interview data.

Against the background of the increased number of refugees in Germany since 2015, many people in the German civilian population are increasingly involved in voluntary refugee aid. Churches and associations as well as municipal departments are mobilising volunteers to better manage the accommodation and care of refugees. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and volunteers can not only play a decisive role as service providers in municipal refugee work, but can also be actively involved in municipal migration policy processes.

One focus of the study was on examining strategies used by volunteers and non-governmental organisations to deal with the possible contradiction between humanitarian services and political influence. Of particular interest in this context are the increasingly relevant refugee sponsorship projects that NGOs, informal aid structures and church organisations have been setting up with refugees since 2016.

The following research questions in particular were investigated as part of this study

• Which groups of the population are involved in helping refugees? In which areas are volunteers deployed? What are their tasks and responsibilities within the organisations?
• How do institutions and NGOs assess the importance of volunteer work in terms of their influence on migration policy at local and/or national level?
• What are the motivations of the sponsors and refugees to participate in these informal support projects and what do they personally expect from them?
• How do the participating parties of the sponsorships assess the joint activities with regard to the social role of this work in refugee and migration policy?

The aim of the first part of the study was in particular to describe the structures of voluntary refugee support in Bielefeld. To this end, a comprehensive literature review, eight interviews with coordinators from various refugee aid departments in Bielefeld, 10 interviews with volunteers and a mapping of refugee and migration work institutions in Bielefeld were conducted.

The second part of the study focused primarily on analysing existing sponsorship projects. In total, the participants of six sponsorships, six refugee staff, people and six sponsors, were interviewed. The interview data made it possible to find out the exact characteristics of the sponsorships and the expectations that the sponsors and refugees had of the sponsorships. Furthermore, the motivations of the volunteers and the refugees who had decided to become sponsors were analysed.

The study shows that the majority of volunteers are women. Civic engagement plays an important role in successful municipal refugee work in Bielefeld. Volunteers are not only indispensable for the smooth provision of humanitarian support and the fulfilment of refugees' basic needs (housing, clothing, health care, etc.), but are also a central component of longer-term integration work for social participation. At the same time, it is becoming apparent that non-governmental and church organisations are increasingly trying to move away from short-term humanitarian aid towards longer-term sponsorships with refugees and are also influencing local migration policy with their activities. Motivating volunteers for longer-term tasks and, for example, recruiting them for sponsorships is proving to be a challenge. Furthermore, it turns out that sponsorships have the potential to sensitise both volunteers and refugees to the effects of refugee policy with regard to the rights of asylum seekers and to create alternative practices. At the same time, however, they can also reinforce asymmetrical power relations between volunteers and refugees.

The results of the project were presented at the annual conference of the European Sociological Association (ESA) in Athens in 2017, as well as during the World Congress of Sociology (ISA) in Toronto in July 2018 at an information event on perspectives on German migration and refugee research organised by the German Research Foundation.

Project duration: February 2016 - February 2018

Coordination: Dr Inka Stock

Team: Anna-Lena Friebe, Beatrix Kroschewski

Publications:

• Stock, Inka, 2019: Buddy Schemes between Refugees and Volunteers in Germany: Transformative Potential in an Unequal Relationship? In: Social Inclusion, 7(2).
• Stock, Inka: Daring to care? How volunteers and civil society organisations are shaping asylum seekers' access to citizenship through social support in one German city. Bielefeld: Working Paper 156/2017, COMCAD ? Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. download

EURA-NET - Transnational Migration in Transition: Transformative Characteristics of Temporary Mobility of People (2014-2017)

The project is funded by the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union and will run from February 2014 to January 2017.

EURA-NET conducts theoretical analyses and empirical studies in the Euro-Asian transnational space in order to better understand the specific characteristics of temporary migration and related policy implications. Three fundamental research questions will be answered:

• What are transformative characteristics of temporary transnational migration and what are the effects of temporary transnational migration on development processes?
• What are the policy implications of temporary transnational migration at national, regional (Europe and Asia) and international levels?
• What conclusions can be drawn from the results of temporary transnational migration in the Euro-Asian region for other regions of the world?

The EURA-NET project has the following objectives in particular:

• An inventory of the characteristics and extent of temporary migration and mobility, including relevant policies in the European-Asian context;
• An empirical analysis of the changing nature of temporary migration and mobility at local, national and international levels;
• Analysing the policy implications of temporary transnational migration at the international, European and national policy levels;
• The processing and publication of research results for relevant target groups from science, politics and civil society;
• The formulation of policy recommendations.

In the EURA-NET research project, comparative empirical and theoretical-analytical results on transformation processes and their effects on the development of temporary transnational migration in industrialised, emerging and developing countries are elaborated and made available to the public. The countries analysed represent regions of origin and destination as well as transit countries.

The consortium consists of project partners in 12 countries:

• University of Tampere (UTA), Finland (project coordinator)
• Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Belgium
• Beijing Normal University (BNU), China
• Bielefeld University (UNIBI), Germany
• University of Macedonia (UoM), Greece
• KOPINT-TARKI Economic Research Institute (KOPINT-TARKI), Hungary
• Centre for Development Studies (CDS), India
• Maastricht University (UM), Netherlands
• Scalabrini Migration Centre (SMC), Philippines
• Mahidol University (MU), Thailand
• Koç University (KU), Turkey
• Ethnology Institute of National Academy of Sciences (NASU), Ukraine

At Bielefeld University, the project is headed by Prof Thomas Faist, PhD. Project staff are Dr Mustafa Aksakal and Dr Kerstin Schmidt.

The members of the Scientific Advisory Board for Germany are

Dr Stefan Rother, University of Freiburg
Ms Marianne Haase, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
Ms Eleanor Koch (Ecumenical Philippine Conference)

Publications

• Aksakal, M., Schmidt, K. (2015): Temporary migration in Asian-German transnational spaces: A conceptual reflection. Working Paper 135/2015, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld.(Download)
• Aksakal, M., Schmidt, K. (2015): Mobilities in Asian-German transnational spaces: Temporary migrants' experiences, perceptions and motivations, Working Paper 133/2015, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development, Bielefeld University.(Download)
• Aksakal, M., Schmidt, K. (2015): German country report on semi-structured interviews with temporary migrants: Asian-German transnational spaces, report for the EURA-NET project.
• Aksakal, M., Schmidt-Verkerk, K. (2015): Conceptual Framework on Temporary Migration, Report on Conceptual Clarifications for the EURA-NET Project.
• Aksakal, M., Schmidt-Verkerk, K. (2014): Characteristics of Temporary Transnational Migration: The German Case, in Pirkko Pitkänen/Mari Korpela (eds.), Characteristics of Temporary Transnational Migration, Collected Working Papers from the EURA-NET project, 2014: 98-136. (Download)
• Aksakal, M., Schmidt-Verkerk, K. (2014): Temporary Migration in Germany, in Pirkko Pitkänen/Sergio Carrera (eds.), Transnational Migration in Transition: State of the Art Report on Temporary Migration, Collected Working Papers from the EURA-NET project, 2014: 115-144. (Download)
• Aksakal, M., Schmidt-Verkerk, K. (2014): New Migration Trends in Germany - Characteristics, Actors and Policies Working Paper 128/2014, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. (Download)

Indian high-skilled Migrants and International Students in Germany: Migration Behaviours, Intentions and Development Potential (2016)

The study "Indian high-skilled Migrants and International Students in Germany - Migration Behaviours, Intentions and Development Potential" was conducted from March to August 2016 on behalf of the Bertelsmann Foundation. The aim of the study was to take a closer look at the situation of highly skilled workers and students from India in Germany. This topic appears to be of particular importance in view of two developments. Firstly, the number of international students, especially from India, has increased steadily in recent years. However, the transition between studying and the labour market is often a major hurdle for international students. On the other hand, German legislation is based on an increasingly open but also more selective migration policy. One example is the implementation of the EU Blue Card, which offers simplified conditions for the immigration of highly qualified workers from third countries. However, little is known about their satisfaction on a professional and personal level and the resulting motivation for a longer or shorter stay in Germany.

Against this background, the study focussed in particular on answering the following research questions:

- What are the decisive criteria for choosing Germany to work or study for highly qualified employees or international students from India?

- What factors influence the decision to stay in Germany long-term, to return to India or to move to another country?

- What potential does a stay in Germany offer for personal development?

- To what extent is the stay of Indian students and highly qualified people related to positive or negative development in Germany and India?

The study is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the statistical, migration policy and theoretical background. In particular, it provides an overview of the development of German migration policy in recent years and the associated developments in Indian migration to Germany, which also includes an analysis of the current situation. In addition, a comparative look is taken at current migration policy and empirical developments regarding the immigration of highly qualified people and international students in two other important destination countries, the UK and the USA. Against this background, the current state of research in Germany on highly qualified people and students from India is presented and existing gaps are identified.

The second part of the study consists of an empirical study that includes qualitative interviews with highly qualified employees and students from India, employers, as well as experts from politics, academia and civil society. Indian professionals and students were asked about their personal motivations for coming to Germany, their experiences in the country and their future aspirations. Through interviews with German employers, insights were gained into the advantages and disadvantages of the current legal management of skilled labour migration, institutional practices and the adaptation of Indian skilled workers to German corporate cultures. Based on interviews with experts, different assessments of the current recruitment of skilled labour, also in comparison with other countries, were taken into account.

The empirical results were analysed both within and between the individual stakeholder categories. In this way, converging and diverging aspects were identified in order to adequately capture complex and contradictory perspectives. The resulting opportunities and challenges with regard to sustainable integration into the labour market and other areas of society were formulated in the form of recommendations for action for politicians, employers and universities.

The report based on the study will be published shortly.

Project duration: March - August 2016

Coordination: Prof Thomas Faist, PhD

Team: Dr Mustafa Aksakal, Dr Kerstin Schmidt

MECLEP - Migration, Environment and Climate change: Evidence for Policy (2014-2016)

Duration: January 2014 - December 2016
Budget: approx. 2.4 million euros
Project management UniBi: Jeanette Schade and Kerstin Schmidt
Principal Investigator: Prof Thomas Faist
Project flyer: EN, ES, FR

The aim of the project ending date is to expand the global knowledge on the relationship between migration and environmental change, including climate change. In addition, the project intends to formulate research-based policy recommendations on how migration can contribute to adaptation to environmental change and climate change. It is based on field research in six countries: Dominican Republic, Haiti, Kenya, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam. Bielefeld University is supervising the study on Kenya.

Project activities and outputs

Research

• Strengthening knowledge and information exchange through field research
• Analysing how migration can contribute to adaptation in different situations
  • Conceptual analysis of terms
  • Six country studies including quantitative household surveys
  • Comparative final report with a scenario development of environmentally induced migration
  • Training workshops for local researchers
  • Global online information platform

Capacity building

Improving the capacity of governments to act and make decisions on environmentally induced migration

• Training manual on migration, environmental change and climate change
• Training workshops in the six pilot countries

Dialogue

Consultancy for improved policy coherence and national and regional cooperation

• Technical working groups at national level
• National consultations on the development of suitable policies

Sponsored by:

European Union, Thematic Programme on Migration and Asylum (TPMA), with EUR 1.9 million

Outputs:

• Nyaoro, D., J. Schade, K. Schmidt (2016) Assessing the Evidence. Migration, Environment and Climate Change in Kenya; Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Evidence for Policy (MECLEP) Project, International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Geneva. (Link) (Download)
• Schade, J., Ch. McDowell, E. Ferris, K. Schmidt, G. Bettini, C. Felgentreff, F. Gemenne, A. Patel, J. Rovins, R. Stojanov, Z. Sultana and A. Wright (2015) Climate change and climate policy induced relocation: A challenge for social justice. Recommendations of the Bielefeld Consultation 2014; Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Policy Brief Series, Issue 10. Vol. 1, December 2015 Download
• Schade, J. (2016) Land matters: The role of land policies and laws for environmental migration in Kenya; Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Policy Brief Series, Issue 1, Vol. 2, January 2016 Download

ClimAccount - Human Rights Accountability of the EU and Austria for Climate Policies in Third Countries (2014-2016)

Project no.: 250064
Duration: 04/2014 - 03/2016
Project management UniBi: Jeanette Schade

Not only climate change, but also climate policy measures, i.e. emission reduction and adaptation measures, can have negative impacts on human rights such as the right to food, water or housing, as well as on political participation and non-discrimination. They can even lead to migration and displacement, for example if people are relocated as a preventive measure to adapt to climate change, or if they are displaced or forcibly relocated from their land due to major adaptation and emission reduction projects. The environmental damage caused by climate policy measures can also lead to migration, impoverishment and marginalisation in the wider project environment.

Nevertheless, human rights considerations are often not systematically taken into account when developing climate policies. In addition, climate policies in developing countries often have an international dimension, as they are often supported by industrialised countries. Domestic policies of industrialised countries, such as the promotion of agrofuels, can also have negative impacts in other countries through effects in the supply chains. The aim of ClimAccount is to explore the complex relationship between climate policy measures, human rights and migration and to analyse the human rights responsibilities (extraterritorial human rights obligations - ETOs) of negative consequences of EU and Austrian climate policy measures.

The central element of the study is three case studies in countries where the EU and Austria implement climate policy measures. Field research will be used to analyse the human rights impacts of EU and Austrian climate policies. The focus is on the resulting displacement and other migration movements. On this basis, the ETOs of Austria and the EU in these cases will be analysed and policy recommendations for political actors will be developed on how human rights considerations can be adequately integrated into climate policies in order to avoid negative impacts on human rights.

The project consists of the following work packages (WP):

• WP 1: Explorative phase, literature and document research
• WP 2: Implementation of the case studies
• WP 3: Comparative analysis of the results of the case studies, drafting of recommendations
• WP4: Publications, dissemination
• WP5: Project management

Sponsored by:

• Climate and Energy Fund(Info)

Project partner:

• Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights(Info)
• Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy(Info)

Publications

• Schade, Jeanette (2017): Kenya 'Olkaria IV' Case Study Report: Human Rights Analysis of the Resettlement Process, Bielefeld: Working Paper 151/2017, COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Hofbauer, Jane A. and Monika Mayrhofer: Panama 'Barro Blancho' Case report, Bielefeld: Working Paper 144/2016, COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Hofbauer, J., M. Mayrhofer, F. Mersmann and J. Schade (2016) Improving Human Rights Performance in EU Climate Policy. The Role of European States in Climate Measures, and Access to Justice for Affected Populations; Policy Brief of the ClimAccount Project. Download
• Ammer, M., J. Hofbauer, M. Mayrhofer, F. Mersmann, W. Obergassel, J. Schade (2016) Human Rights Performance in EU Climate Policy. The Role of European States in Climate Measures, and Access to Justice for Affected Populations; Synthesis Report of the ClimAccount Project. Download

Subproject C1 Transnationality and Inequality: Pilot Project Panel Study, SFB882 - From Heterogeneities to Inequalities

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Subproject C3 Transnationality and the Unequal Distribution of Informal Social Security, SFB882 - From Heterogeneities to Inequalities

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COST Action on Climate Change and Migration: Knowledge, Law and Policy, and Theory (2011-2015)

Duration: 2011-2015

COST Action IS1101 on Climate Change and Migration: Knowledge, Law, Policy and Theory aims to build a research network and broad-based knowledge on climate change and migration. The Action involves researchers from a wide range of disciplines such as geography, political science, migration studies, environmental history and Law. Currently, 20 European countries are represented on the Action's Board of Directors. It provides funding for workshops, short-term scientific missions for knowledge exchange and training schools. COST Action IS1101 is funded under the Individuals, Societies, Cultures and Health (ISCH) framework of the European Union's Programme for the Support of European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST).

Jeanette Schade of Bielefeld University is the acting vice-chair of the Action.

For further information on the activities of the Action, including membership lists and workshop reports, please visit the website of Durham University, which chairs and manages the Action: Website

workshop

COST Action IS1101 Climate Change and Migration - Bielefeld Workshop
Social inequality and social justice in environmentally-induced relocation
Place and date: 20-21 November, 2014 - University of Bielefeld, Germany
Organisation: Jeanette Schade / Kerstin Schmidt-Verkerk / Thomas Faist
DEADLINE: 20 September 2014
Call for papers:

Download
Programme
Poster

 

Workshop outputs:

Schade, J., Ch. McDowell, E. Ferris, K. Schmidt, G. Bettini, C. Felgentreff, F. Gemenne, A. Patel, J. Rovins, R. Stojanov, Z. Sultana and A. Wright (2015) Climate change and climate policy induced relocation: A challenge for social justice. Recommendations of the Bielefeld Consultation 2014; Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Policy Brief Series, Issue 10. Vol. 1, December 2015 Download

Schade, J. (2016) Land matters: The role of land policies and laws for environmental migration in Kenya; Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Policy Brief Series, Issue 1, Vol. 2, January 2016 Download

Environmental Degradation, Conflict and Forced Migration Conference series organised by ESF and Bielefeld University (2010-2014)

Duration: 2010-2014
In 2009, the European Science Foundation (ESF), Bielefeld University and its Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) signed a partnership agreement for a series of research conferences as part of the ESF Research Conferences Scheme. The conference series under the name 'ESF-ZiF-Bielefeld Conferences' takes place at the highest scientific level and brings together social scientists and young researchers from Europe and around the world. The thematic focus is on the nexus between environmental change, climate change and migration. Regrettably, the ESF discontinued its entire conference programme in 2013 before the last event in the conference series could be held.

Conference 2010: Environmental Change and Migration: From Vulnerabilities to Capabilities, 5-9 December 2010
Co-sponsors: Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and German Academic Exchange Service

Publications

Thomas Faist/Jeanette Schade (eds.): Disentangling Migration and Climate Change: Toward an Analysis of Methodologies, Political Discourses and Human Rights. Dordrecht: Springer (2013)

Conference 2012: Tracing Social Inequalities in Environmentally-Induced Migration, 9-12 December 2012
Co-sponsors: Gérer les déplacements des populations dues aux phénomènes climatiques extrêmes(GICC-EXCLIM), COST Action IS1101 and Collaborative Research Centres 882

Publications

Robert McLeman/Jeanette Schade/Thomas Faist (eds.): Environmental Migration and Social Inequality. New York: Springer (2016)

Other completed projects

• ZiF Cooperation Group "Transnationalisation and Development(s): New Research Concepts" (2008-2009)
• Migration Dynamics and Development Co-operation in Sub-Saharan Africa/Europe (MISA) (2007-2008)
• Environmental Change and Forced Migration Scenarios (EACH-FOR) (2007-2008)
• Information Network for Integration (INTEGRA.net) (2007)
• African Diaspora and Development - Gender (2007)
• African Diaspora and Development (2006-2007)
• Transnational political practices of migrants of Turkish origin in Germany (2005-2007)
• Democratic legitimisation of migration control policies (2005-2006)
• Dual Citizenship in a Globalising World (2002-2005)

Does the Future Have a Lobby?-New Study by Isabell Diekmann and Thomas Faist

To what extent do people currently living in Germany feel an ecological responsibility for future generations? A new study by Dr Isabell Diekmann (TU Dortmund University) and Prof Dr Thomas Faist (Bielefeld University) based on data from the Bertelsmann Stiftung's Religion Monitor shows that a majority of 77 per cent of respondents believe that we should all be prepared to reduce our current standard of living in order to protect the environment for future generations. Religion has a positive influence on the willingness to take responsibility. First of all, this is good news in terms of the willingness for intergenerational justice.

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The transnationalized social question - Interview with Thomas Faist

5 May 2021

Vidigal, Inês (2021) The transnationalized social question: interview with Thomas Faist, Observatório da Emigração, January 14th 2021. http://observatorioemigracao.pt/np4EN/7910.html

22. April 2020

Cleovi Mosuela (Uni Bielefeld)

On 20^th March theHessische Krankenhausgesellschaft (Hesse Hospital Association, Germany), announced aRekrutierungsflugor a“recruitment flight” for intensive care personnel will take place[1].It translates to a “special permit”that can fly in 75Philippine-trained nurses to care for COVID-19 patients in Hesse. Despite the Luzon[2]-wide enhanced community quarantine in the Philippines and German border closure, in fact, a European-wide restriction to travel to its territory, a fast-paced migration was authorized by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

The recruitment should not come as a surprisesince Germany has turned to the Philippines to meet its nursing shortage mainly through a bilateral agreement called ‘triple win,’ which was enacted in 2013. From the perspective of the Philippine state, signing an agreement with Germany signals a penetration of a new market for the nursing skills whose emigration the state has been facilitating. Through bilateral agreements or authorizing private recruitment agencies, the Philippines has been exporting care work for half a century now to different parts of the developed world.

The opening up of the German nursing labor market is drawn up in accordance with the World Health Organization Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. The Code was set upon 21 May 2010as a response to current practices of middle- and high-income countries of poaching health care professionals from lower-income countries with already weak health systems. The aim is to manage migration through ethical recruitment. Recruitment from a country with a critical shortage of health personnel should be avoided to protect the health systems in the poorest parts of the world. And to make sure that nurses will have decent work in the host country.

The WHO Code is supposed to guide developed countries to consider the health-related needs of developing countries. Not that the recruitment would cause detrimental effects on the health systems where nurses come from. The Code makes claims on resource-rich countriesnot to look upon the developing world as an infinite source of disposed labor to fill their shortage.

The importance of this global instrument is particularly irrefutable. Especially now. But it seems to have been disregarded in the Rekrutierungsflug.

It has provoked a fierce reaction among Filipino government officials. One current Member of the House of Representatives (18^th Congress; Hon. Rufus B. Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City) urged the Philippine Department of Labor to stop the deployment of Filipino nurses abroad during the current public health emergency[3]. “We need those nurses bound for Germany and other jobs overseas to augment our dwindling public health workforce… Hundreds of doctors, nurses and other hospital staff have already been sidelined by Covid-19 as they are on quarantine due to exposure to the virus,” Rep. Rodriguez said.

At the time the planned recruitment flight was announced, coronavirus cases in the Philippines rose to 230, with 18 deaths[4].

The recruitment of nurses from a developing country, from a country also battling the crisis, seems to be depriving already under-resourced hospitals of front-line responders. In fact, the Philippine Department of Health has been scrambling forvolunteer doctors and nurses to fill its own shortage and support the country’s healthcare system.

Despite the current global political rhetoric of solidarity to combat coronavirus, the planned recruitment flight appears hence all but inspired by a rather national-centric view. Will the German public really applaud this sense of security or protection of imported care at the expense of others in a far-away, relatively grievable place? The ethics inspired by taking into consideration how health systems in poorer parts of the world would fare due to the emigration of personnel seems to have been suspended in the pandemic response. 

 

[1] “Philippinische Pflegekräfte sollen nach Deutschland kommen", Süddeutsche Zeitung, 20 March 2020, 15:46, https://www.sueddeutsche.de/gesundheit/gesundheit-eschborn-philippinische-pflegekraefte-sollen-nach-deutschland-kommen-dpa.urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-200320-99-411409

[2] The largest island in the Philippines and where Metro Manila is located.

[3] Rufus B. Rodriguez, “Press Statement: Stop Sending Nurses Abroad at this Time, Bello Urged,” Facebook, 30 March 2020, https://www.facebook.com/RufusBRodriguez/posts/1579613962201198?__tn__=K-R The press statement was released on the representative’s Facebook page (and not on the official website of his office).

[4] Mara Cepeda, “PH coronavirus cases rise to 230; fatalities now at 18,”Rappler, 20 March 2020, 16:53, https://www.rappler.com/nation/255275-coronavirus-philippines-cases-march-20-2020

Migrant Care Work in the Time of Pandemic

20 April 2020

Cleovi Mosuela on "Migrant Care Work in the Time of Pandemic." Read on Filipino nurses and their role in Germany's health care system. Is the response to Covid-19 the end to "fair migration"?

Read more

The Transnationalized Social Question: Migration and Social Inequalities

26. August 2019

Thomas Faist (Bielefeld)

On a global scale, distress and social instability today are reminiscent of the living conditions that prevailed through a large part of the nineteenth century in Europe. At that time the social question was the central subject of volatile political conflicts between the ruling classes and working-class movements. From the late nineteenth century onward, the social question was nationalized in the welfare states of the global North which sought a class compromise via redistribution of goods, whereas social protection beyond the national welfare state is found mostly in soft law in the form of social standards. We now may be on the verge of a new social conflict, again on a transnational scale, but characterized more than ever by manifold boundaries?such as those between capital and labour, North and South, developed and underdeveloped or developing countries, or those in favour of increased globalization against those advocating national solutions.

The contemporary social question is located at the interstices between the global South and the global North and also revolves around cultural heterogeneities. A proliferation of political groupings and NGOs rally across national borders in support of various campaigns such as environmental concerns, human rights, and women?s issues, Christian, Hindu, or Islamic fundamentalism, migration, and food sovereignty, but also resistance to growing cultural diversity and increasing mobility of goods, services, and persons across the borders of national states. The nexus of South?North migration and cultural conflicts is no coincidence, as cross-border migration from South to North not only raises economic issues such as productivity and labour market segmentation but also has been part of the constitution of cultural conflicts around ?us? vs. ?them?. Migration thus has been one of the central fields in which the solution of the old social question in the frame of the national welfare state has been called into question, hence the term ?transnationalized social question?. One of the core questions for the social sciences therefore is: how is cross-border migration constituted as the social question of our times? One of the sub-questions reads: how are class and cultural conflicts constituted in the processes of post-migration in immigration and emigration states?

The politics of social inequalities in immigration states: politics around migration and inequalities runs along two major lines, economic divisions and cultural ones (Figure 1). With respect to economic divisions, they lie between market liberalization in the competition state and the de-commodification of labour as part of the welfare paradox: economic openness toward capital transfer is in tension with political closure toward migrants. It is the dichotomy of the competition state vs. the welfare state. In the cultural realm, the contention occurs over the rights revolution vs. the myth of national-cultural homogeneity. It finds expression in the liberal paradox, the extension of human rights to migrants who reside in welfare states against the efforts to control borders and cultural boundaries. It is the juxtaposition of the rule of law vs. culturalization and securitization. Above all threat perceptions often lead to a culturalization of migrants (e.g. viewing lower-class labour migrants as unfit for liberal and democratic attitudes), and to an overall securitization of migration (e.g. seeing migrants as prone to commit violent crimes). It is a juxtaposition of the multicultural state and the rule of law on the one hand and the democratic-national state on the other hand. Economic divisions along class lines structure the politicization of cultural heterogeneities.

The welfare paradox (market liberalization and the welfare state) and the liberal paradox (securitization and the rights revolution) have formed patterns that constitute the main pillars of the dynamics of the politics of (in)equalities and integration. In sum, market liberalization serves as a basis for class distinctions among migrants, or at least reinforces them, while securitization culturalizes them. Over the past few decades, the grounds for the legitimization of inequalities have shifted. Ascriptive traits have been complemented by the alleged cultural dispositions of immigrants and the conviction that immigrants as individuals are responsible for their own fate. Such categorizations start by distinguishing legitimate refugees from non-legitimate forced migrants. Another important trope is the alleged illiberal predispositions of migrants and their inadaptability to modernity. Bringing together market liberalization and culturalized securitization, the current results could be read as Max Weber?s Protestant Ethic reloaded: politics and policies seem to reward specific types of migrants, exclude the low- and non-performers in the market and the traditionalists, and reward those who perform well and espouse liberal attitudes. In brief, it is a process of categorizing migrants into useful or dispensable.

These processes have not simply led to a displacement of class by status politics. After all, class politics is also built along cultural boundaries, such as working-class culture, or bourgeois culture. Nonetheless, the heterogeneities that are politicized in the contemporary period have somewhat shifted: cultural heterogeneities now stand at the forefront of debate and contention. What can be observed is a trend toward both a de-politicized and a politicized development of heterogeneities in European public spheres. As to trends toward de-politicization, multicultural group rights, in particular, have been contentious and criticized as divisive. Over time, multicultural language has been replaced by a semantic of diversity or even super-diversity in market-liberal thinking and a semantic of threat in nationalist-populist rhetoric. Given this background, it is possible that market liberalization has also contributed to the decline of a rights-based approach and the rise of a resource-based approach. With specific regard to culture, we have seen a shift in policies from group rights to individual resources which can be tapped by enterprises. Diversity, at least in the private sector, mobilizes the private resources of minority individuals and looks for their most efficient allocation for profit- and rent-seeking. It is somewhat different in the public sector, especially in the realm of policing but also in the education and health sectors, in which service-providers seek more efficient ways of serving the public. In general, what we find is a seminal shift from a rights-based to a resource-based approach in dealing with cultural difference. Incidentally, this can be observed in the transnational realm as well. For example, the World Bank has for years propagated a resource-based approach to link migration to development in casting migrants as development agents of their countries of origin through financial remittances.

While a partial de-politicization of cultural heterogeneities through diversity management may help to achieve partial equalities in organizations, multicultural policies are inextricably linked to national projects. After all, such policies are meant to foster national integration and the social integration of immigrants as minorities into national life. From all we know, migration, migrants, and these policies are therefore likely to remain the chief target of securitizing and xenophobic efforts. While the rhetorical criticism of multiculturalism is ever mounting, existing multicultural policies are not reversed to the same extent. Quite to the contrary: the political struggle is ongoing.

Prof Dr Thomas Faist on trends and challenges in the sociology of migration

15 October 2018

A filmed interview with Prof Thomas Faist on the soziologieblog on the occasion of the 39th Congress of the German Sociological Association on the topic of Complex Dynamics of Global and Local Developments can be found here: Link

Commemorating White Armband Day Transnationally and in Virtual Spaces

24. April 2018

Johanna Paul (Bielefeld)

You can read a recent post by PhD researcher Johanna Paul on the blog of the UK-based project "Remember Me. The Changing Face of Memorialisation" at: Link

Environmental migrants and climate refugees. Why ever new terms distract from the essentials

4 August 2017

Thomas Faist (Bielefeld)

Last year, the German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Gerd Müller, spoke of 200 million climate refugees; other estimates range from 25 million to one billion people who will migrate as a result of anthropogenic, i.e. human-induced, climate change by 2030. Where do such figures come from? As a rule, they are based on simple and problematic assumptions such as a direct impact of the increase in global warming on migration. The basic assumption is that people react directly to such changes by migrating. In this erroneous way of thinking, the melting of glaciers, the thawing of permafrost soils around the Arctic Circle, changing water temperatures with changing water and air currents, changing rainy and dry seasons not only lead to a rise in sea levels, an increase in extreme weather events and increasing rainfall variability, but also causally to climate migration or climate refugees.

It is worth taking a step back and looking at the terms we use for these migrations. The Old Testament already describes the story of Joseph and his brothers in the book of Genesis, describing migration or flight as a reaction to natural disasters, in this case a drought in Canaan that led to migration to Egypt. But it is only recently that we have started to use a technical term for this phenomenon. In a 1985 publication for the United Nations Environment Programme, El-Hinnawi first defined a category of migrants that he called "environmental refugees": "People who have had to leave their place of origin temporarily or permanently due to environmental degradation (natural and/or man-made) that has threatened their livelihood or quality of life." For some time now, there have also been attempts to categorise environmental refugees, who are now increasingly being referred to as climate refugees, as refugees who should be granted refugee status in accordance with the Geneva Refugee Convention (1951/1967).

Attempts of this kind are mainly coming from environmental research and climate activists. Understandably, the aim here is to raise public awareness of the threat posed by climate change. However, from the perspective of migration research, such attempts are somewhat premature - and not only because people have always migrated for environmental reasons. There are two specific reasons to be wary of term inflation. Firstly, with the exception of natural disasters or development projects (e.g. dam construction), environmental destruction or change is rarely the sole cause of migration and flight. They are often accompanied by economic hardship and military violence. Who would want to claim that the drought in Syria in 2008 or the even more recent water shortage in southern Sudan around Darfur are the main causes of the civil wars raging there today? At best, environmentally destructive factors have so far had a reinforcing effect. Secondly, the destruction of natural resources has so far been caused not so much by anthropogenic climate change as by economic and trade policies, including those of the European Union (EU). For example, industrial fishing off the Senegalese coast destroyed the livelihoods of local fishermen - and not the warming of the seawater temperature.

A migration research perspective also questions the current reinterpretation of migration as a reaction to climate change. Whereas a decade ago, international (and internal) migration was seen as a consequence of environmental destruction, including climate change, as a problem for the rich countries of the global North, the prevailing view in civil society and political circles today is that migration is a strategy of adaptation, i.e. a solution to climate change. This optimistic view has been fuelled by a broader paradigm shift, characterised by the keyword "migration and development" through migrant remittances - at least until the recent surge in refugee movements from Africa, Afghanistan and the Middle East to Europe. In this view, migrants are the better development workers. Since the early 2000s, the World Bank in particular has argued that the financial remittances sent by migrants from the countries of immigration to the countries of origin would themselves act as a development mechanism in the global South. Like a mantra, it is constantly pointed out that these remittances are now higher than official development assistance (ODA), and in some emigration countries in Africa even higher than foreign direct investment. And indeed, the sums involved are impressively high. In 2014, according to the best available estimates, remittances worldwide, and mostly to the global South, officially totalled around 500 billion. Such transfers, which reflect the reciprocity in families living transnationally, are certainly important for families, e.g. to cover the costs of medical treatment or to pay school fees. But crucially, they cannot serve as a driver for overall economic development. This is the responsibility of government economic policies.

The interpretation of migration as adaptation and thus as a solution to the problem of climate change is also fraught with danger because, once again, the naive assumption is that migrants produced by environmental degradation could literally keep those at home financially afloat. This way of thinking shifts the main burden of responsibility onto the migrants themselves and relieves the governments in the Global South and Global North. Families and civil society should once again act as cleaners or libero in the classic footballing sense. Instead, climate change and migration need to be placed in the wider context of relations between the global South and the global North. Ultimately, it is about solving a global collective good problem and not about cheaply shifting responsibility.

From a global perspective, vulnerability to environmental degradation, including climate change, is primarily a question of social inequality. The most important explanatory factor for the high level of climate vulnerability in the global South is the existence of extractive economies. It is those countries that primarily serve as suppliers of raw materials that are the most vulnerable. Other exacerbating factors include a weak civil society, high income inequality, low press freedom and weak property rights. The responsibility for dealing with these issues also lies with the global South, while the global North has to deal with the issue of the consequences of the causes of anthropogenic climate change.

Further reading

Gemenne, François; Brücker, Pauline; Ionescu, Dina, eds. 2014: The State of Environmental Migration. Geneva: International Organisation for Migration, IOM. Faist, Thomas and Schade, Jeanette, eds. 2013: Disentangling Migration and Climate Change: Toward an Analysis of Methodologies, Political Discourses and Human Rights. Dordrecht: Springer. McLeman, Robert; Schade, Jeanette; Faist, Thomas, eds. 2015: Environmental Migration and Social Inequality. Dordrecht: Springer.

Against the religionisation of integration: from excluding to including identities

13 May 2017

Thomas Faist, Bielefeld

In his highly controversial intervention in the debate on the integration of migrants, which goes by the keyword 'Leitkultur', Federal Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière (CDU) also mentioned the importance of religion: "In our country, religion is the cement and not the wedge of society." In view of the actual policy of the federal government and some state governments with regard to Islam in Germany, this sentence makes you wonder. Does the government's Islam policy really lead to religion contributing to civic unity? Prominent measures such as the Islam Conference point in a different direction. They tend to sponsor organisations that, like DITIB, are either directly linked to the Turkish state or represent very conservative theological positions.

The Islam Conference, which has been meeting since 2005, has now reached its third phase. There is also a National Integration Summit. But for more than a decade, the Islam Conference has been the highly visible place where not only issues relating to the religious integration of Muslim organisations are negotiated, but also all other areas of integration: School, language, culture and economy. And associations such as DITIB now receive millions in state funding for measures such as language courses.

In Germany, the important social role of Christian churches and the Jewish community also requires reliable contacts among Muslim religious groups and their integration into the institutional structure. In this respect, the aim of the Islam Conference initiated by Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) seems understandable. Why should Muslim associations, which certainly do not represent the majority of Muslims in Germany, act as privileged political contacts for integration in fields such as language and culture?

All areas of integration are now predominantly viewed from a religious perspective. For example, all migrants from Turkey and the Middle East are now regarded as Muslims. This is not only a gross oversimplification but also a false religiousisation of migrants and the discussion about integration. Consequently, it would be high time to transform the Islam Conference into a General Integration Conference.

This reveals a fundamental contradiction in current integration policy. On the one hand, it emphasises the importance of religion for social cohesion, as formulated by de Maizière. On the other hand, it does not recognise that religions - at least those that are organised as membership associations - tend to emphasise exclusive identities. Membership in religious communities or churches is polarised in the sense that one can be either Muslim or non-Muslim or Christian or non-Christian.

We need to go one step further. In order to promote the integration and recognition of migrants, it is important to supplement rather exclusive memberships in religious organisations with inclusive identity offerings. Let's take the example of language. In this case, mastering a new language is additive - each new language is added without necessarily conflicting with another. Learning a new language does not displace the previously learnt old languages.

There is another advantage to focussing more on language. Currently, religious differentiations between migrants and non-migrants often reinforce mutual resentment and perpetrator-victim roles. A clever language policy means that it is not so easy to fall into such traps. Of course, this requires courage. You can start by abolishing heritage language teaching with regard to long-established languages such as Russian, Turkish or Arabic. It makes little sense to cling to the fiction that the children of third or fourth generation migrants bring the necessary native language skills to the classroom. Instead, the status of these languages should be upgraded in general education schools; as normal foreign languages ? just like English, French or Spanish. This would also open up more appointments for some young people with a migrant background. After all, countries such as Russia, Turkey and the Arab world are among Germany's most important economic partners.

Integration policy should therefore not proceed simply by placing one-sided emphasis on religion as the cement of our society, neither by emphasising the 'Christian West' as the guiding culture nor by privileging Muslim migrant organisations and thus religion over sport, art, culture, business and politics. In the current national and global political climate, this leads above all to increased resentment between some migrant groups and locals. Instead, it is high time to utilise further potential for integration. Due to their additive nature, languages are a good place to start.

Upper limit or social justice?

2 May 2017

Thomas Faist, Bielefeld

After refugees, the discussion about the burden of migration has now also reached children and young people with a migrant background: according to a statement by Federal Education Minister Johanna Wanka, a proportion of pupils with a migrant background of over a third in a class is detrimental to academic achievements. According to the PISA evaluation study, the results are then below average. This inspiring statement was eagerly taken up by politicians and education experts. The Rhineland-Palatinate CDU politician Julia Klöckner, for example, introduced the term 'upper limit' in this context. The chairman of the German Philologists' Association, Heinz-Peter Meidinger, also emphasised that too high a proportion of children with a migration background hinders their integration.

It is now relatively easy to dismiss this proposal for an upper limit as untenable and nonsensical. In large German cities, the proportion of children with a migrant background is generally well over half. How could such quotas be met under these conditions? Subsequent ideas such as better mixing of classes by busing migrant children to other schools have not yet worked in any other country in the world. Among other things, 'bussing' children from migrant backgrounds to distant schools would lead to middle-class parents transferring their children from these schools to other schools.

What is illuminating, however, is what has not yet been addressed in the discussion. The PISA study does state that a proportion of pupils with a migration background of over a third in a class reduces academic achievements. However, the key point here is the significance of social background or social class: if the data is controlled according to the pupils' class background, the migration background characteristic does not disappear completely, but is greatly minimised. In other words, the negative influence on measured academic achievements is primarily an effect of social class and not of migration background. This is an old realisation that is also known with regard to pupils' language skills. As early as the language proficiency tests in nurseries and primary schools in the early 2000s, it became apparent that not only pupils with a migrant background, but also pupils without a migrant background sometimes had considerable deficits in their German language skills. However, this does not mean that all pupils with a migrant background belong to the underclass. After all, there are also successful immigrant children from well-educated families.

It follows that the discussion about the proportion of children with a migrant background in German classrooms is a sham debate. It distracts from social injustices in the education system, which also exist independently of migration, but which nevertheless become more apparent as a result of migration. This is a recurring insight from the sociology of migration that applies to almost all such political initiatives in recent years. Just think of the recent discussion about refugees in 2015 and 2016, where it was claimed that refugees were causing a housing shortage. However, it quickly became clear that the rapid decline in the construction of social housing was responsible for this.

The push by politicians such as Julia Klöckner is subliminally aimed at the perception of migrant children as a threat from middle and upper class parents. As a rule, these parents try to protect their children's later opportunities in appointments through the education system. The focus on the votes of this clientele is also a reason why politicians do not adequately address and implement complex questions about which measures can address deep-seated injustices in the education system.

In contrast to the current debate, a constructive approach is the social index, which is also used in North Rhine-Westphalia - albeit not in a very fine-grained way. This is intended to ensure that teachers, school social workers and additional resources are allocated according to need. In order to successfully promote the inclusion of all pupils, further measures are certainly required. For example, it must be ensured that artistic and sporting activities are also offered at school throughout the day. This will enable many children to acquire additional skills beyond the narrow curricular knowledge, which are important both for their professional life and for their full participation in our society. This also applies to pupils without a migration background. Here, too, the programmes offered in schools must be strengthened and measures such as publicly funded education and leisure packages must be de-bureaucratised and integrated into school-based measures.

In short, the key points for a fairer education policy are well known. The task now is to fend off the destructive political initiatives that have just been introduced into the discussion. This is because they basically use the term upper limit to culturally charge a problem of social justice. In contrast, constructive means must be used to deal with diversity in schools in terms of social stratification and cultural difference. The fundamental question is not how many children with a migration background a class can tolerate, but how cultural diversity can be combined with social justice.

Doppelte Staatsbürgerschaft fördert Integration - Interview mit Thomas Faist

Mediendienst Integration

"Doppelte Staatsbürgerschaft fördert Integration" Interview by Jennifer Pross with Prof. Thomas Faist, January 2, 2017
Article

Immer unterwegs

"Immer unterwegs" by Hubert Filser(German only), July 8, 2016, Süddeutsche.de

Read

Answers to refugee questions

Prof. Thomas Faist gives answers to questions relating to migration and refugee policies (German only), June 2016

Largest Meeting of Russians of German origin in Bad-Salzuflen, May 14/15, 2016 - Interview

An interview with Joanna Jadwiga Sienkiewicz, WDR5 Westblick, May 17, 2016.

Listen to the podcast here (21'30min)

"Migranten sind eine Zukunftsinvestition" - Interview mit Thomas Faist

Interview "Bielefelder Soziologe: "Migranten sind eine Zukunftsinvestition", January 2016, Neue Westfälische
Read

Podiumsdiskussion

Podiumsdiskussion, SPD Sennestadt, 19 November 2015, Senne Rundschau
 

Discussion panel

Discussion panel, SPD Sennestadt, 17 November 2015, Neue Westfälische
Read

Die Grenzen des Machbaren - Discussion panel

Discussion panel, series "Wortwechsel", 18 September 2015, Deutschlandfunk
Die Grenzen des Machbaren

Willkommens-Hype - Wo ist eure Gastfreundschaft jetzt? - Interview mit Thomas Faist

October 8, 2015
Willkommens-Hype - Wo ist eure Gastfreundschaft jetzt?,  br.de, Flüchtlinge

Wir müssen lernen, mit Konflikten umzugehen - Interview mit Thomas Faist

October 2, 2015, Neue Westfälische, Refugees
Interview

Was hinter der Hilfsbereitschaft der Deutschen steckt - Interview mit Thomas Faist

September 11, 2015, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Refugees
Interview

Herausforderungen für Ehrenamtliche: Wer hilft den Helfern?

September 10, 2015, n-tv.de, Refugees
Article

Pour les Allemands, l’accueil des migrants permet de montrer une “autre Allemagne”

September 8, 2015, www.france24.com, France 24
Article

Interview mit Thomas Faist

Bielefeld Sozial - Monatliches Magazin von Kanal 21 in Bielefeld

Borders and Peripheries: from Offa’s Dyke to Fortress Europe

Borders and Peripheries: from Offa’s Dyke to Fortress Europe, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
Interview

Talk with Thomas Faist

Talk with Prof. Thomas Faist, 11 April 2016, Research TV, Bielefeld University

Tagung des Deutsch Türkischen Wissenschaftsjahres

May 5-6, 2015, Bonn

Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences: Big Thinking - Thomas Faist and Irene Bloemraad - Integration and citizenship in N America & Europe

30 May-5 June 2015, University of Ottatwa, Canada
Video

Verstehen Sie Spaß?

from Tobias Haberl, Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin
Article (german)

Interview about the relationship between migration and change in values of societies

by Elena Gunkel, Neue Westfälische
 

Studiogespräch about 'Ungleichheiten'

Uni Bielefeld

Interview about 'BGHS Annual Seminar „A New Social Question or Crisis as Usual?“'

by Neue Westfälische

Interview about 'BGHS Annual Seminar „A New Social Question or Crisis as Usual?“'

by Christian Ulbricht
Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology

Lecture: Migration Systems and Social Inequalities

THEMIS international migration conference
Examining Migration Dynamics: Networks and Beyond
University of Oxford, 24-26 September 2013 (30 min)
Video

All publications

Working papers

2024

• Thomas Faist: Migration Control Unhinged: The Direction of Externalisation. 183/2024 COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Isabell Diekmann, Başak Bilecen and Thomas Faist: Loneliness among International Chinese Students in Germany: Exploring the Role of Personal Networks and Experienced Discrimination. 182/2024 COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Gehring, Tobias: Die diskursive Konstruktion des Flüchtlings. Working Paper 181/2024 COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2023

• Büssing, Franka: Flucht aus der Ukraine nach Deutschland Soziale Inklusion und Exklusion Geflüchteter aus der Ukraine mit ukrainischer Staatsangehörigkeit und Drittstaatsangehörigkeit. Working Paper 180/2023 COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Serra Mingot, Ester: Out of the Frying Pan... From Messy Migration Governance to the Production of Statelessness in Mexico. Bielefeld. Working Paper 179/2023 COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Bilecen Başak, Diekmann, Isabell, Faist, Thomas: The Dark Side of International Student Mobility: Which Students Suffer from Loneliness? Bielefeld. Working Paper 178/2023 COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2022

• Faist, Thomas: Gesellschaft mit Migrationshintergrund. Bielefeld: Working Paper 177/2022 COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2021

• Bonfert, Lisa: International Migration Management for Poverty Reduction. How can International collaboration turn cross-border migration in a poverty reduction tool? Bielefeld. Working Paper 176/2021 COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas: The Transnational Social Question: An Update (2021). Bielefeld. Working Paper 175/2021 COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2020

• Faist, Thomas: Getting out of the Climate Migration Ghetto: Understanding Climate Degradation and Migration Processes of Social Inequalities. Bielefeld. Working Paper 174/2020 COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas: Citizenship: A short Overwiev. Bielefeld. Working Paper 173/2020 COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas: Dimensionen der Integration von Flüchtlingsfamilien. Bielefeld: Working Paper 172/2020 COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas, Diekmann, Isabell, Fröhlich, Joanna: Culturalized Heterogeneities: Comparing Race and Religion in Germany and the U.S. Bielefeld: Working Paper 171/2020, COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Cohen, Nir, Faist, Thomas: Book Launch: Z''L Gali Schir. "We bring them Israel there." Cross border engagement as a case of nationbuilding (Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich, 2018). Bielefeld: Working Paper 170/2020, COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2019

• Trompetero Vicent, Maria Gabriela: Tensions, Challenges and (Trans)-Formations of a Migrant Regime: An Analysis of the New Venezuelan Migration Phenomenon in Colombia: Working Paper 169/2019, COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas: Internationalisierung: Avant la lettre und als Programm. Bielefeld: Working Paper 168/2019, COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas: Die entscheidende Mesoebene. Bielefeld: Working Paper 167/2019, COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Aksakal, Mustafa, Reslow, Nastasja: (Un)intended Consequences in High-Skilled Migrants' Integration and Inequalities: A comparison of Policy in Germany and the Netherlands. Bielefeld: Working Paper 166/2019, COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas, Gehring, Tobias, Schultz, Susanne U.: Mobilität statt Exodus: Migration und Flucht in und aus Afrika. Bielefeld: Working Paper 165/2019, COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Aksakal, Mustafa, Schmidt, Kerstin: Migrant support initiatives and young mobile people's needs: Outcomes of the YMOBILITY project. Bielefeld: Working Paper 164/2019, COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2018

• Faist, Thomas: Forced Migration in a Moral Polity and the Public Role of Migration Research. Bielefeld: Working Paper 163/2018, COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Bistagnino, Giulia: Welfare States and the "Liberal Paradox" ? An Interview with Thomas Faist. Bielefeld: Working Paper 162/2018, COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas: A Primer on Social Integration: Participation and Social Cohesion in the Global Compacts. Bielefeld: Working Paper 161/2018, COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Li, Hanwei: Aspiration and Integration infrastructure: A study on Chinese students? integration in Finland and Germany. Bielefeld: Working Paper 160/2018, COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Mosuela, Cleovi: Governing through Filipino migrant communities:Citizenship, self-governance and social entrepreneurship. Bielefeld: Working Paper 159/2018, COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2017

• Faist, Thomas, Bilecen, Başak: Transnationalism - Updated. Bielefeld: Working Paper 158/2017, COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Schultz, Susanne U.: Unfulfilled expectations for making a better life: Young Malian men coping with their adventures post deportation. Bielefeld: Working Paper 157/2017, COMCAD - Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Stock, Inka: Daring to care? How volunteers and civil society organisations are shaping asylum seekers' access to citizenship through social support in one German city. Bielefeld: Working Paper 156/2017, COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Müller, Julius: Vergleich der Einflussfaktoren auf fremdenfeindliche und kosmopolitische Einstellungen in Deutschland. Bielefeld: Working Paper 155/2017, COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas, Mustafa Aksakal und Kerstin Schmidt: Indian high-skilled migrants and international students in Germany. Migration behaviors, intentions and development effects, Gütersloh: Bertelsmann Stiftung und Bielefeld: Working Paper 154/2017, COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Link
• Sienkiewicz , Joanna J.: Do you always get what you give? A mixed-methods approach to reciprocity within the informal (trans)national social protection networks of migrants, Bielefeld: Working Paper 153/2017, COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Sienkiewicz , Joanna J., Ingrid Tucci, Karolina Barglowski und Thomas Faist: Contrast Groups Based on Spatial Mobility and Social Position for Use in the Qualitative Sample. Technical Report of the 'Transnational Mobility and Social Positions in the European Union' (TransMob) Project, Bielefeld: Working Paper 152/2017, COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Schade, Jeanette: Kenya ‘Olkaria IV’ Case Study Report: Human Rights Analysis of the Resettlement Process, Bielefeld: Working Paper 151/2017, COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Paul, Johanna: Bosnian Organizations in Germany: The Limits of Contributions to Post-War Recovery, Bielefeld: Working Paper 150/2017, COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2016

• Paul, Johanna: Bosnian Organizations in Germany: Orientations and Activities in Transnational Social Spaces, Bielefeld: Working Paper 149/2016, COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Stock, Inka, Meryem Aslan, Johanna Paul, Victoria Volmer und Thomas Faist: Beyond humanitarianism – Addressing the urban, self-settled refugees in Turkey, Bielefeld: Working Paper 148/2016, COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Aksakal, Mustafa; Kerstin Schmidt and Thomas Faist: Social Transformation and Migration Unveiling the Nexus, Bielefeld: Working Paper 147/2016, COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Wilken, Lisanne and Mette Ginnerskov Dahlberg: Navigating global space of tertiary education and ending up in Denmark, Bielefeld: Working Paper 146/2016, COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas: Doing Both Class and Culture? Multiculturalism in Light of the Transnational Social Question, Bielefeld: Working Paper 145/2016, COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Hofbauer, Jane A.and Monika Mayrhofer: Panama ‘Barro Blancho’ Case report, Bielefeld: Working Paper 144/2016, COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas: „in the same city, under the same sky …“, Bemerkungen zur Ausstellung von Anna Konik bei der Finissage am 31. August 2016, Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung (ZiF) der Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld: Working Paper 143/2016, COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Lulle, Aija and Laura Buzinska: Latvian students abroad, evolving cultural capital and return intentions, Bielefeld: Working Paper 142/2016, COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Matias, Denise Margaret and Cleovi Mosuela: International migration opportunities as post-disaster humanitarian intervention, Bielefeld: Working Paper 141/2016, COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas; Kerstin Schmidt and Christian Ulbricht: Inclusion, Exclusion, and Citizenship: An Overview of European Practice, Bielefeld: Working Paper 140/2016, COMCAD – Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Sienkiewicz, Joanna J.; Peter Hapke and Thomas Faist: Social Comparisons in Migration and Inequality Studies: A Literature Review and Evidence from a Pilot Study. Working Paper 139/2016, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Gehring, Tobias: Acculturation in a Transcultural World. Working Paper 138/2016, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas and Christian Ulbricht: Moving from Integration to Participation? Notes on the Interrelationship between Communal and Associative Relationships. Working Paper 137/2016, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2015

• Schade, J., Ch. McDowell, E. Ferris, K. Schmidt, G. Bettini, C. Felgentreff, F. Gemenne, A. Patel, J. Rovins, R. Stojanov, Z. Sultana and A. Wright (2015) Climate change and climate policy induced relocation: A challenge for social justice. Recommendations of the Bielefeld Consultation 2014; Working Paper December 2015, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Link
• Faist, Thomas: The Three Faces of Social Inequality: State Domination, Economic Exploitation, Cultural Binaries - A Short Essay in Honour of Russell King. Working Paper 136/2015, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Aksakal, Mustafa and Kerstin Schmidt: Temporary migration in Asian-German transnational spaces: A conceptual reflection Working Paper 135/2015, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas: Umweltmigranten und Klimaflüchtlinge: Warum immer neue Begriffe nur vom Wesentlichen ablenken Working Paper 134/2015, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Aksakal, Mustafa und Kerstin Schmidt: Mobilities in Asian-German transnational spaces: Temporary migrants' experiences, perceptions and motivations Working Paper 133/2015, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist; Thomas: Making and Remaking the Transnational: Of Boundaries, Social Spaces and Social Mechanisms Working Paper 132/2015, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Barglowski, Karolina: Polish migrants in Germany: Challenges and inequalities in raising children in transnational social spaces Working Paper 131/2015, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2014

• Faist, Thomas and Christian Ulbricht: Von Integration zu Teilhabe? Anmerkungen zum Verhältnis von Vergemeinschaftung und Vergesellschaftung Working Paper 130/2014, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Rohde, Caterina: The Male Au Pair: "Doing Masculinity" by Performing Housework and Providing Childcare
• Working Paper 129/2014, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Aksakal, Mustafa and Schmidt-Verkerk, Kerstin: New Migration Trends in Germany - Characteristics, Actors and Policies Working Paper 128/2014, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Bilecen, Başak and Tezcan-Güntekin, Hürrem: Transnational Healthcare Practices of Retired Circular Migrants
• Working Paper 127/2014, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Mosuela, Cleovi and Matias, Denise Margaret: The role of a priori cross-border migration after extreme climate events: The case of the Philippines after typhoon Haiyan Working Paper 126/2014, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Ulbricht, Christian: „Wer von Ungleichheit redet, kann von Gleichheit nicht schweigen“ - Interview mit Thomas Faist zu der Sozialen Frage im 21. Jahrhundert Working Paper 125/2014, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Ulbricht, Christian: Welcome (back) to Germany! The return of the guest-worker and its implications Working Paper 124/2014, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Krannich, Sascha: Transnational Organization, Belonging, and Citizenship of Indigenous Mexican Migrants in the United States: The Case of Oaxaqueños in Los Angeles Working Paper 123/2014, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas: “We are all Transnationals now”: The Relevance of Transnationality for Understanding Social Inequalities
• Working Paper 122/2014, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas: Brokerage in Cross-Border Migration: From Networks to Social Mechanisms Working Paper 121/2014, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2013

• Faist, Thomas and Christian Ulbricht: Doing National Identity through Transnationality: Categorizations of Inequality in German Integration Debates Working Paper 120/2013, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Okwechime, Iwebunor: Environmental Conflict and Internal Migration in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria Working Paper 119/2013, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Bux Mallah, Hussain: Social Inequality and Environmental Threats in Indus Delta Villages: Pakistan Working Paper 118/2013, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Vikhrov, Dmytro, Robert Stojanov, Barbora Duží, Jiří Jakubínský: Commuting patterns of Czech households exposed to flood risk Working Paper 117/2013, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas: Big Questions, Real World Puzzles, and Enduring Challenges: A Tribute to Aristide R. Zolberg
• Working Paper 116/2013, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas: Shapeshifting Citizenship in Germany: Expansion, Erosion and Extension Working Paper 115/2013, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Barglowski, Karolina, Anna Amelina and Başak Bilecen: Coming-out multi-lokal: Intersektionelle Rekonstruktion von Sexualität und Transnationalität Working Paper 114/2013, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas: Transnational Social Protection: An Emerging Field of Study Working Paper 113/2013, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2012

• Nowicka, Magdalena: Deskilling in migration in transnational perspective. The case of recent Polish migration to the UK.
• Working Paper 112/2012, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Amelina, Anna: Hierarchies and Categorical Power in Cross-Border Science:Analyzing Scientists’ Transnational Mobility between Ukraine and Germany. Working Paper 111/2012, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Wolanik, BoströmKatarzyna & Magnus Öhlander: A troubled elite? Stories about migration and establishing professionalism as a Polish doctor in Sweden. Working Paper 110/2012, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Palenga-Möllenbeck,Ewa: Polish "handymen" in Germany: An example for the neglected "male" side of commodified reproductive work? Working Paper 109/2012, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld.
• Download
• Faist, Thomas: The Blind Spot of Multiculturalism: From Heterogeneities to Social (In)Equalities.Working Paper 108/2012, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld.Download
• Abadan-Unat, Nermin : Modernity and Transnationalism: The Turkish Optic. Working Paper 107/2012, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2011

• Zapata, Gisela P.: The migration-remittances-development-nexus: ‘Mi casa con Remesas’ and transnational flows between Colombia and London. Working Paper 106/2011, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Castillo, Rosa Cordillera: When Fishing is No Longer Viable: Environmental Change, Unfair Market Relations, and Livelihood in a Small Fishing Community in the Philippines. Working Paper 105/2011, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Nicholson, Calum T.M.: Is the ‘Environmental Migration’ Nexus an Analytically Meaningful Subject for Research? Working Paper 104/2011, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Singh Negi, Nalin and Ganguly, Sujata: Development Projects vs. Internally Displaced Populations in India: a Literature Based Appraisal. Working Paper 103/2011, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Boege, Volker: Challenges and Pitfalls of Resettlement Measures: Experiences in the Pacific Region. Working Papaer 102/2011, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• de Moor, Nicole: Labour Migration for Vulnerable Communities: A Strategy to Adapt to a Changing Environment. Working Paper 101/2011, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Bobylev, Nikolai: Environmental Change and Migration: Governmental Compensation Policies to Natural Disasters Victims and Urbanization Process: A Case Study of Wildfires in Russian Federation in 2010. Working Paper 100/2011, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Akegbejo-Samsons, Yemi: People and Culture: Evolving a Model for Water Resources Management and Sustainable Livelihood in Africa. Working Paper 99/2011, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Dutta, Priyanka: Migration as Source of Risk-aversion Among the Environmental Refugees: the Case of Women Displaced by Erosion of the River Ganga in the Malda District of West Bengal, India. Working Paper 98/2011, COMCAD - Center on Mogration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Arthur, Jones Lewis and Irene Akyaa Yeboah: Movement Under Environmental Disasters: The Case of Flooding and Bushfires for Selected Periods in Ghana. Working Paper 97/2011, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Mallick, Bishawjit: Migration as an Adaptation Strategy and Its Consequences on Coastal Society: Experience from Bangladesh. Working Paper 96/2011, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Muradyan, Vahagn: Application of Novel Technologies When Assessing and Modeling Ecological Situation for In-region Migration of Local People. Working Paper 95/2011, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Butardo-Toribio, Maria Zita and Tenefrancia, Erjien R.: Land, Livelihood, Poverty: Assessment of Selected Socioeconomic Factors Influencing Community Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change. Working Paper 94/2011, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Al-Mansur, Raiyan: Assessment of Social Protection as a Form of Capabilities to Reduce Climate Change Vulnerabilities: Public Sectors Initiatives of Bangladesh. Working Paper 93/2011, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Coniglio, Nicola D. and Giovanni Pesce: Climate Variability, Extreme Weather Events and International Migration. Working Paper 92/2011, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2010

• Anna, Amelina: Scaling Inequalities? Some Steps towards the Social Inequality Analysis in Migration Research beyond the Framework of the Nation State. Working Paper 91/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld Download
• Jürgen, Gerdes: Migrants’ Rights and Immigrant Integration in German Political Party Discourse. Working Paper 90/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Georgia, Mavrodi: The other side of "Fortress Europe": Policy transfers in the EU and the liberalising effects of EU membership on Greek immigrant policy. Working Paper 89/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Amelina, Anna (Hg.) mit Beiträgen von Urbansky, Daniela; Knopp, Vincent; Jocham, Anna Lucia; Lemme, Sebastian; Wieck, Sascha; Altmeyer, Katharina; Schneider, Julien; Kocik, Caroline; Nehls, Roland; Roth, Viktoria; Petschel, Anja: Soziale Ungleichheit jenseits des Nationalstaats. Forschungsessays der Studierenden. Working Paper 88/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas; Pitkänen, Pirkko; Gerdes, Jürgen and Reisenauer, Eveline (Eds): Transnationalisation and Institutional Transformations. Collected Working Papers from the TRANS-NET Project. Working Paper 87/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Rescher, Gilberto: Following the interactions:Taking into account translocal dimensions and cross-level/multi-dimensional links in ethnographic fieldwork Working Paper 86/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Meeus, Bruno: How to ‘catch’ floating populations? Fixing space and time while researching migration. Working Paper 85/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Shinozaki, Kyoko: Transnational dynamics in a migrant researching migrants: self-reflexivity and boundary-drawing in fieldwork. Working Paper 84/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Castles, Stephen: Studying social transformation and international migration. Working Paper 83/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Knöbl, Wolfgang: Civilizational analysis and the problem of contingency. Working Paper 82/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Grosse Kettler, Sabrina: Researching borders - capturing social imaginary through ‘maps and map-making’. Working Paper 81/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Schrooten, Mieke: Virtual migrant communities: ‘Orkut’ and the Brazilian case. Working Paper 80/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Dupeyron, Bruno: Transnational migrants in Europe: Stigmatization, juridicization and trade union activism. Working Paper 79/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Greschke, Mónika: Mediated cultures of mobility: The art of positioning ethnography in global landscapes. Working Paper 78/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Scheibelhofer, Elisabeth : Space-sensible sociology of migration: How migration research can profit of socio-spatial theories. Working Paper 77/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Das, Chaitali: Considering ethics and power relations in a qualitative study exploring experiences of divorce among British-Indian adult children. Working Paper 76/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Brunner, Bernadette & Kathrin Oester (2010): Doing identity in transnationalised space – adolescents` self-representation in urban Switzerland. Working Paper 75/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Geharz, Eva (2010): Approaching indigenous activism from the ground: Experiences from Bangladesh. Working Paper 74/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Fitzgerald, David Scott (2010): Mixing methods and crossing boundaries in the Study of international migration. Working Paper 73/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Boccagni, Paolo (2010): Exploring migrants’ affective ties at a distance:Is “multi-sited” ethnography enough. Working Paper 72/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas (2010): Academic knowledge, policy and the public role of social scientists – The case of migration and development. Working Paper 71/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2009

• Ziane, Olga (2009): Transnationale geschlechtsspezifische Migration: Der Fall Ukraine seit dem Zerfall der Sowjetunion (1991). Working Paper 70/2009, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Dannecker, Petra & Nadine Sieveking (2009): Gender, Migration and Development: An Analysis of the Current Discussion on Female Migrants as Development Agents. Working Paper 69/2009, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Sieveking, Nadine & Margit Fauser  (2009): Migrationsdynamiken und Entwicklung in Westafrika: Untersuchungen zur entwicklungspolitischen Bedeutung von Migration in und aus Ghana und Mali. Working Paper 68/2009, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Amelina, Anna (2009): Gendered Strategies of Social Support and their Inequality Effects in the Context of German-Ukrainian Transnational Space. Working Paper 67/2009, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Sieveking, Nadine (2009): Dynamiques migratoires, mobilité et développement au Mali. Working Paper 66/2009, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Sieveking, Nadine (2009): Das entwicklungspolitische Engagement von Migrantinnen afrikanischer Herkunft in NRW mit Fokus auf Ghana. Working Paper 65/2009, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Bilecen, Basak (2009): From Being Departure to Destination Point: International Student Mobility in Turkey. Working Paper 64/2009, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Bilecen, Basak (2009): Lost in Status? Temporary, Permanent, Potential, Highly Skilled: The International Student Mobility. Working Paper 63/2009, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Bilecen, Basak (2009): Human Smuggling Networks Operating Between Middle East and the European Union: Evidence from Iranian, Iraqi and Afghani Migrants in the Netherlands. Working Paper 62/2009, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2008

• Kuboyama, Ryo (2008): The Transformation from Restrictive to Selective Immigration Policy in Emerging National Competition State: Case of Japan in Asia-Pacific Region. Working Paper 61/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Tsiulina, Anna (2008): Public Discourse on Labour Migration to Russia: A Potential Threat to Russia’s Soft Security? Working Paper 60/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Tomei, Gabriele (2008): Diasporic identity and orientation to co-development: a survey on foreign students attending the University of Pisa. Working Paper 59/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Shinozaki, Kyoko (2008): “National heroes” or ‘transnational shames’? Exploring the development-migration nexus in migrant domestic workers and ICT workers. Working Paper 58/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Schultz, Ulrike (2008): „Bari“ sein in Khartum: Ethnische und andere Zugehörigkeiten nach dem Friedensabkommen im Sudan. Working Paper 57/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Schulte, Bettina (2008): Second Generation Entrepreneurs of Turkish Origin in Germany: Diasporic Identity and Business Engagement. Working Paper 56/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Schönhuth, Michael (2008): Rückkehrstrategien von Spätaussiedlern im Kontext sich wandelnder Migrationsregime – Ein Beitrag zur Modelltheorie. Working Paper 55/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Schaland, Ann-Julia (2008): Die Bedeutung von Remigranten für die wissensbasierte Regionalentwicklung in Vietnam. Working Paper 54/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Saraswati, Jary (2008): “Where we can go?” Indonesia’s struggle against unemployment and man-power export phenomenon. Working Paper 53/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Porsché, Yannik (2008): Kulturelle Identitäten in Zwischenräumen: Migration als Chance für Fremdverstehen und kritische Identitätsaushandlung? Working Paper 52/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Pichler, Edith (2008): Geisteswissenschaftlerinnen mit Migrationshintergrund im Beruf am Beispiel des wissenschaftlichen Standorts Berlin: Einige Fakten und „Diskurse“. Working Paper 51/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Musekamp, Simon (2008): Migranten, Migrations- und Entwicklungspolitik – Die französische Politik des Codéveloppement. Working Paper 50/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Kleiner-Liebau, Désirée (2008): „Der politische Diskurs zu Entwicklung und Migration in Spanien und Deutschland im Vergleich“. Working Paper 49/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Jungwirth, Ingrid (2008): The change of normative gender orders in the process of migration: a transnational perspective. Working Paper 48/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Hoffmann, Bert (2008): Transnational Migration and Political Articulation: Making New Sense of ’Exit and Voice’. Working Paper 47/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Hilber, Doris Anna (2008): Diasporic Philanthropy in the Migration-Development Nexus: Exploring the Case of a Ghanaian Community. Working Paper 46/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Heck, Gerda (2008): “Managing Migration” vor den Grenzen Europas: Das Beispiel Marokko. Working Paper 45/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Günther, Marga (2008): Geschlechtsspezifische Krisenbearbeitung im Kontext adoleszenter Migration. Working Paper 44/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Aikins, Joshua Kwesi (2008): Conference report: „Migration(s) and Development(s) – Transformation of Paradigms, Organisations, and Gendered Orders“. Working Paper 43/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Lachenmann, Gudrun (2008): Protokoll: Tagung zu „Migration(en) und Entwick-lung(en). Transformation von Paradigmen, Organisationen und Geschlechterordnungen. Working Paper 42/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Amelina, Anna (2008): Transnationalisierung zwischen Akkulturation und Assimilation: Ein Modell multipler Inklusion. Working Paper 41/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Moravek, Claudia (2006): „The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side of the Hill“ Motive und Hoffnungen von auswanderungswilligen Deutschen. Working Paper 40/2008 COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Amelina, Anna (2008): Searching for an appropriate research strategy on transnational migration: The logic of multi-sited research and the capacity of the cultural interferences approach. Bielefeld. Download
• Sieveking, Nadine, Margit Fauser & Thomas Faist (2008): Gutachten zum entwicklungspolitischen Engagement der in NRW lebenden MigrantInnen afrikanischer Herkunft. Working Paper 38/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Sieveking, Nadine & Thomas Faist (2008): Das entwicklungspolitische Potenzial afrikanischer MigrantInnen in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Working Paper 37/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Laaser, Mirjam (2008): Rückkehr und Entwicklung – Folgen von Rückkehr im Herkunftsland. Working Paper 36/2008, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2007

• Meyer, Jean-Baptiste (2007): Building Sustainability: The New Frontier of Diaspora Knowledge Networks. Working Paper 35/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Pries, Ludger (2007): Transnationalism: Trendy Catch-all or Specific Research Programme? A Proposal for Transnational Organisation Studies as a Micro-macro-link. Working Paper 34/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Glick Schiller, Nina (2007): Beyond the Nation-State and Its Units of Analysis: Towards a New Research Agenda for Migration Studies. Essentials of Migration Theory. Working Paper 33/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Zoomers, Annelies & Ton van Naerssen (2007): International Migration And National Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Viewpoints and Policy Initiatives in the Countries of Origin. Working Paper 32/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Winter, Elke (2007): The Migration-Development Nexus: Observations from the Second Day of the Conference. Working Paper 31/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Mundt, Hans-Werner (2007): Development-oriented Activities of Immigrant Communities in Germany: What do We Know? What Are the Policy Options? Working Paper 30/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• de Haas, Hein (2007): Migration and Development: A Theoretical Perspective. Working Paper 29/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Raghuram, Parvati (2007): Which Migration, What Development: Unsettling the Edifice of Nigration and Development. Working Paper 28/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Dannecker, Petra (2007): The Re-Ordering of Political, Cultural and Social Spaces Through Transnational Labour Migration. Working Paper 27/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Ballard, Roger (2007): Containing the Challenge of Transnational Networking from Below: Post-9/11 Initiatives. Working Paper 26/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Tonah, Steve (2007): Ghanaians Abroad and Their Ties Home: Cultural and Religious Dimensions of Transnational Migration. Working Paper 25/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Fauser, Margit (2007): The Local Politics of Transnational Cooperation on Development(s) and Migration in Spanish Cities. Working Paper 24/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Parra Barbosa, José Francisco (2007): Beliefs, Values and Political Attitudes of Foreign Immigration: Towards a Conceptual and Methodological Framework to Study Transnational Immigration in Spain. Working Paper 23/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Piper, Nicola (2007): Governance of Migration and Transnationalisation of Migrants’ Rights – An Organisational Perspective. Working Paper 22/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Khadria, Binod (2007): Adversary Analysis and Optimizing the Macro-economic Stakes of Transnational Divide in Migration for Development. Working Paper 21/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Delgado Wise, Raúl & Humberto Márquez Covarrubias (2007): The Migration and Development Mantra in Mexico: Toward a New Analytical Approach. Working Paper 20/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Lachenmann, Gudrun (2007): Transnationalisation and Development – Methodological Issues. Working Paper 19/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. (This paper has been revised by the author in November 2009.) Download
• Amelina, Anna (2007): A Civilizational Perspective on the Research of Transnational Formations: A Methodological Proposal. Working Paper 18/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Salzbrunn, Monika (2007): Localising Transnationalism: Researching Political and Cultural Events in a Context of Migration. Working Paper 17/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas (2007): Transnationalisation and Development(s): Towards a North-South Perspective. Working Paper 16/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas (2007): Transstate Social Spaces and Accomodation: A Case of Changing Boundaries of the Political. Working Paper (as audio file!) 15/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas (2007): The Transnational Social Question: Social Rights and Citizenship in a Global Context. Working Paper 14/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas (2007): Transstate Social Spaces and Development. Exploring the Changing Balance Between Communities, States and Markets. Working Paper 13/2007, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2006

• Faist, Thomas (2006): Die europäische Migrations- und Entwicklungspolitik – Eine Chance für den Süden? Working Paper 12/2006, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas (2006): Transnationale Migration als relative Immobilität in einer globalisierten Welt. Working Paper 11/2006, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Faist, Thomas (2006): The Transnational Social Spaces of Migration. Working Paper 10/2006, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2005

• Faist, Thomas (2005): The Migration-Security Nexus: International Migration and Security before and after 9/11. Working Paper 9/2005, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download
• Mavrodi, Georgia (2005): 'Europeanising' National Immigration Policy: The Case of Greece. Working Paper 8/2005, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld. Download

2004

• Faist, Thomas, Jürgen Gerdes & Beate Rieple (2004): Dual Citizenship as a Path-Dependent Process. Working Paper 7/2004, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bremen. Download
• Faist, Thomas, Jürgen Gerdes & Beate Rieple (2004): Doppelte Staatsbürgerschaft: Determinanten der deutschen Politik des Staatsangehörigkeitsrechts. Working Paper 6/2004, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bremen. Download
• Faist, Thomas, Andreas Ette; Margit Fauser & Kathrin Prümm (2004): The Democratic Legitimation of Immigration Control. Working Paper 5/2004, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bremen. Download
• Gerdes, Jürgen (2004): Toleranz, Neutralität und Anerkennung. Aspekte des normativen Inventars der politischen Philosophie. Working Paper 4/2004, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bremen. Download

2003

• Ette, Andreas (2003): Germany’s Immigration Policy, 2000-2002. Understanding Policy Change with a Political Process Approach. Working Paper 3/2003, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bremen. Download
• Prümm, Kathrin (2003): Die Rechte türkischer Migranten in Deutschland. Working Paper 2/2003, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bremen. Download
• Faist, Thomas (2003): Protecting Domestic vs. Foreign Workers: The German Experience during the 1990s. Working Paper 1/2003, COMCAD - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development. Bremen. Download

Books

• 

  Citizenship. Discourse, Theory and Transnational Prospects

  (in Persian/ in Persisch)

  Translated by Mohsen
  Edited by Peter Kivisto and Thomas Faist (2019)
  Teheran: Goli Azin Publications

• 

  The Transnationalized Social Question

  Migration and the Politics of Social Inequalities in the Twenty-First Century.

  Edited by Thomas Faist (2019)  Oxford University Press (ISBN 978-0-1992-4901-5)

• 

  Dual Citizenship in Global Perspective

  From Unitary to Multiple Citizenship
  Edited by Thomas Faist and Peter Kivisto (2016) Beijing: Law Press of China (ISBN 978-7-5118-8223-3)

• 

  Environmental Migration and Social Inequality

  Thomas Faist (2016) New York: Springer. Co-edited with Robert McLeman and Jeanette Schade (ISBN 978-3-319-25794-5)

   

   

• 

  Das Transnationale in der Migration

  Faist, Thomas, Margit Fauser und Eveline Reisenauer, 2014, Lund: Studentliteratur

• 

  Beyond Methodological Nationalism - Research Methodologies for Cross-Border Studies

  Anna Amelina, Devrimsel D. Nergiz, Thomas Faist, Nina Glick Schiller (Hrsg.), 2012, London: Routledge.

• Unravelling Migrants as Transnational Agents of Development

  Social Spaces in between Ghana and Germany
  Thomas Faist und Nadine Sieveking (Hrsg.), 2011, Münster: Lit Verlag.

• The Migration-Development Nexus: Transnational Perspectives

  Thomas Faist, Margit Fauser und Peter Kivisto (Hrsg.), 2011, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
   

Interviews

Interview with Thomas Faist in Franziskaner 04/2024 on the topic "Understanding migration as enrichment".

Interview with Thomas Faist in the Westfalen-Blatt of 25 November 2017 on the topic 'Search for a better (survival) life'

Interview on 'Germany as a country of immigration' with Thomas Faist on multicult.

Studio discussion on 'Inequalities' with Thomas Faist from Bielefeld University

Interview on the 'Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology Annual Seminar "A New Social Question or Crisis as Usual?"' with Thomas Faist from Christian Ulbricht Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology

Interview with Thomas Faist, Stockholm University

Interview on 'Diversity' with Thomas Faist by Madga Nowicka, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity

Interview VIDC with Thomas Faist "Coherent migration and development policy is not in sight." Vienna Institute for International Dialogue and Cooperation.

Audiovisual materials

• Thomas Faist, panel discussion, ZiF Conference 2019, 11 April 2019 "Europe and the world of borders" Video
• Thomas Faist, Auf ein Wort - "Flucht" Deutsche Welle, interview and discussion with Michel Friedman, 15 March 2019 Video DW Video
• Thomas Faist, Panel discussion "Knowledge in motion. Which knowledge for which society?" Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities Munich, 5 February 2019 Video
• Thomas Faist, Interview at the 39th Congress of the German Sociological Association: "Trends and Challenges in the Sociology of Migration" Video
• Thomas Faist on "Participatory Diversity" Interview by Dr Faraj Remmo, Bielefeld University, June 2018 Video
• Thomas Faist "The receiving countries are guaranteed to benefit" research TV, Bielefeld University, 11 April 2016 Video
• Thomas Faist and Irene Bloomrad. Discussion "Big Thinking. Integration and citizenship in North America and Europe: Different paths, similar outcomes?" Canadian Congress 2015 of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 30 May to 5 June 2015, University of Ottawa, Canada Video
• Thomas Faist, Interview at the BiBoG Conference of the German-Italian Studies Programme History 18-22 May 2015, history of Bielefeld University Video
• Thomas Faist, Discussion at the Academy of Urban Super-Diversity 8-10 April 2015, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences Photo
• Thomas Faist, Slideshow in the Memphis Library The Unfulfilled Dream: A History of Race Relations and Civil Rights in Memphis since the Civil War View

Book reviews

2022

Exit. Warum Menschen aufbrechen. Globale Migration im 21. Jahrhundert (2022)

• Review by Helmut A. Müller Download
• Review by Urs Meier Go to
• Review by Mathias Beer Download
• Review by Carmen Bayer Download
• Review by Philipp Schäfer Download
• Review by Ulla Fölsing Download
• Review by Prof. Antje Missbach Download
• Review by Nils Witte, PhD Download
• Review by Prof. Dr. Bettina Kohlrausch Download
• Review by Prof. i. R. Rainer Bauböck Download
• Review by Robert Jungk Download
• Short Review C-3 Bibliothek für Entwicklungspolitik – Koha Library Catalog Download

2019

The Transnationalized Social Question Oxford: Oxford University Press (2019)

• Review by Peter Kivisto Symposium: Thomas Faist's The Transnationalized Social Question Go to
• Review by Maurizio Ambrosini Symposium: Thomas Faist's The Transnationalized Social Question Go to
• Review by Catherine Wihtol de Wenden Symposium: Thomas Faist's The Transnationalized Social Question Go to
• Review by Sarah P. Curran Go to
• Review by Alexandra Kaasch Go to
• Review by Ludger Pries Go to
• Review by Luděk Jirka Go to

2018

Thomas Faist: The Transnationalized Social Question: Migration and the Politics of Social Inequalities in the Twenty-First Century.

• Review by Dr. Besim Can Zirh / Orta Dogu Teknik Üni versitesi, Sosyoloji Bölümü Go to pdf

2014

Das Transnationale in der Migration. Weinheim / Basel: Belz Juventa (2014)

• Review by Kyoko Shinozaki (Erziehungswissenschaftliche Revue 15(6) Duisburg-Essen): Go to
• Review by Mehringer, V.:Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 61(2): 298-301. Erziehungswissenschaftliche Revue 15 (6)
• Review by Hans Günther Homfeldt: Socialnet. Das Netz für Sozialwirtschaft. Go to

2013

Transnational Migration. Cambridge: Polity Press. (2013)

• Review of South Asian Diaspora (07.01.2015) Go to
• Review by Shauna Wilton: Canadian Journal of Sociology 40 (2)
• Review by Krzysztof Jaskułowski: Political Studies Review
• Review by Delphine Munos: South Asian Diaspora Go to
• Review by Michele Manocchi: Transnational Social Review - A Social Work Journal
• Review by Daniel Jendrissek: Journal of Contemporary European Studies Go to
• Review by Diana Wong: Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 2013, 22(4)

2012

Beyond Methodological Nationalism: Research Methodologies for Cross-Border Studies, New York: Routledge (2012)

• Review by Nestor Rodriguez: Contemporary Sociology 43,1 Go to

2011

Unravelling Migrants as Transnational Agents of Development. Social Spaces in between Ghana and Germany, Wien/Berlin (2011)

• Review by Marius Hildebrand: pw-portal, Portal für Politikwissenschaften Go to

 

The Migration-Development nexus: A Transnational Perspective, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (2011)

• Review by Outi Luova: Ethnic and Racial Studies 34(12): 2219-2221 Go to
• Review by Bernhard Gückel: Bevölkerungsforschung Aktuell 32: 35f.; November 2011 Go to

2010

Diaspora and Transnationalism: Concepts, Theories and Methods. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. (2010)

• Review by Gordon F. De Jong: pw-portal, Contemporary Sociology 40(5): 562-563; April 2011 Go to
• Review by Peter Kivisto: Ethnic and Racial Studies 34: 5; April 2011 Go to
• Review by Elena Fiddian-Quasmiyeh: International Affairs 87: political economy, economics and development. 2, 2011

Beyond a Border: The Causes and Consequences of Contemporary Immigration. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. (2010)

• Review by Derya Ozkul: Jouirnal of Sociology 47(2), 222-223

2007

Citizenship: Theory, Discourse and Transnational Prospects. Oxford: Blackwell. (2007)

• Review by Louis Edgar Esparza: Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews 38(1), January 2009: 60-61.
• Review by Carin Runciman: The Kelvingrove Review 2: Social Engagement. Go to

 

The Europeanization of National Policies and Politics of Immigration: Between Autonomy and the European Union. London: Palgrave Macmillan. (2007)

• Review by Christian Bala: Politische Vierteljahreszeitschrift 2009(2), June: 342-344.
• Review by Georg Menz: Journal of Common Market Studies Go to
• Review by Ibrahim Sirkeci: Migration Letters (Page 101-104)
• Review by Bernd Rechel: European Societies, 9(2), 671-678. Go to
• Review by Andrea Petres: CEU Political Science Journal

 

Dual Citizenship in Europe: From Nationhood to Societal Integration. Hampshire, UK: Ashgate. (2007)

• Review by David Landy: Translocations - The Irish Migration, Race and Social Transformation Review
• Review by Maarten P. Vink: Political Studies Review
• Review by Enikó Horváth  Go to

 

Transnationale Migration als relative Immobilität in einer globalisierten Welt, in: Berliner Journal für Soziologie, 17(3), 365-385. (2007)

• Review by Jürgen Kaube: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung Go to

2004

Transnational Social Spaces: Agents, Networks, and Institutions. Aldershot, Uk: Ashgate. (2004)

• Review by Giulia Sinatti: Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews Go to
• Review by Stefan Alscher: Internationale Politik
• Review by Paul Scheibelhofer: European Societies Go to
• Review by Karie Pieczynski-Tayfun: Gender, Place and Culture

2003

Identity and Integration: Migrants in Western Europe. Aldershot, Uk: Ashgate. (2003)

• Review by Sheila Croucher: Journal of International Migration and Integration, 5(3), 2004: 376-37.
• Review by Russel King: Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

2000

The Volume and Dynamics of International Migration and Transnational Social Spaces. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (2000)

• Review by Jeff Handmaker: The Ethnic Conflict Research Digest , 3(2), 2000: 30. Go to
• Review by Nicholas Van Hear: Journal of Refugee Studies 14(2), 2001: 205-207.

 

Transstaatliche Räume, Bielefeld: transscript-Verlag. (2000)

• Review by Mark Terkessidis: TAZ - Die Tageszeitung

1997

Migration, Immobility and Development: A Multidisciplinary Perspective. Oxford: Berg. (1997)

• Review by Rainer Bauböck: International Migration Review, 33(1),1999: 1
• Review by Raymond E. Wiest: Anthropologica, 42(1), 2000: 107-107.99-200. Go to

1995

Social Citizenship for Whom? Young Turks in Germany and Mexican Americans in the United States. Aldershot: Avebury. (1995)

• Review by Umut Erel: Political Geography, no. 18 (1999): 754-756.