Migration and global order

Migration has become a central theme in the international debate: from global refugee movements, human smuggling and trafficking to border control and agreements between states on regular migration and distribution of refugees.

The unit examines how internally displaced persons, refugees, migrants and diaspora groups understand and practice migration, the industries and infrastructures that make migration possible, and the ramifications of migration on the global South - Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Researchers are concerned with how migration control and humanitarian efforts affect migrants’ security, insecurity and development in different parts of the world. The importance of gender and migrant women working in the sex industry are also considered, as are the conceptions about their lives and work in policy circles and the general public.

We also examine what climate change means to migration and efforts to regulate climate-related mobility. The research also focuses on how the balance between different worldviews changes, and what effect China’s growing power has in, for example, the Middle East and Asia.

The research contributes to the theoretical development of a number of social science disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, development studies, philosophy and political science. For example, the unit develops theoretical frameworks for understanding the “underworlds” where migrants live shadow lives without rights; how local development situations affect international migration; what it means to analyse migration and global order from a security angle; or how our development theoretical notions are challenged when diaspora groups engage themselves in humanitarian work, development or entrepreneurship across borders and continents.

Based on empirical and theoretical research, the unit performs policy analysis on issues relevant to Danish and international policies on foreign affairs, migration, security and development.

Geographically, the unit focuses on East, North and West Africa, the Middle East, China and Southeast Asia, Latin America and Europe.

Central themes

• International mobility, migration, labour markets and human exploitation
• Diaspora, development and humanitarian engagement
• Conflict, terrorism and border control
• Displacement, structural violence and protection
• Human trafficking and other forms of high-risk migration
• Gender, transnational family relationships, care and affect across countries
• The Middle East and rearrangements in the international political order
• China’s reforms and international development cooperation