International Migration

This course offers an introduction to the study of international migration. We will explore how migration, asylum and freedom of movement are governed. We will critically examine how the contemporary governance of mobility includes a diverse range of actors away from the exclusive domain of the state. Increasingly, International Organisations, EU agencies, Non-Governmental Organisations, security professionals and even computer analysts have become key players in governing mobilities. We will reflect upon the multiple discourses underpinning this governance, which position the migrant as both risky and at risk, and the border as a line to be defended, a problem of management, humanitarianism or a digitalized space amenable to ‘smart’ technological interventions. Emerging practices for migration control often defy a territorial logic to borders, instead taking place in so-called transit and sending countries in the Global South or in virtual spaces through surveillance mechanisms. The course will then provide students with the knowledge and concepts to think critically about international migration, and the actors, discourses and practices associated with its governance.