Migration, Integration, Transnationalization

The research unit examines the topic of immigration and integration from different perspectives. On the cultural dimension, migration raises questions of national identity, and – particularly under the influence of Muslim immigration – of state-church relationships. The social dimension deals with the importance of social capital and civil society structures for the integration of immigrants. Politically, the issue of migration has given new topicality to the question of "citizenship", i.e. a person's belonging to a particular political and social community. Economically, migration is a challenge for the European welfare states.

Although European countries have been confronted with comparable immigration flows and integration problems, they have often dealt with them in widely divergent ways. Immigration and integration policies are strongly influenced by national political-cultural traditions and political institutions. The department's research is therefore consistently internationally comparative, focusing on the connections between institutional structures, integration policy and their effects in the above-mentioned areas.

9th Annual Conference on Migration and Diversity

The Migration Challenge: Innovations in Theory and Method

October 11 - 13, 2023

The conference seeks to bring together scholars from economics, political science, sociology, and anthropology who look at migration and migration policies from a new angle, both from a theoretical and/or methodological point of view. We invite work that deals with all of the core issues surrounding contemporary migration.

Keynote speaker: Nina Glick Schiller (University of Manchester, UK | Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany).