Research
CeMig’s distinguishing approach is that it analyses migration and flight on a global scale. Its transregional perspective as well as the breadth of participating fields offers the opportunity to develop interdisciplinary projects on specific topics.
Research Projects
CeMig organises its research along several thematic areas:
Legal and Policy Regimes as well as Migration Governance...
... are systematically explored and explained on a state, regional and international level. It is examined how different governments deal with migration and refugee flows.
Ongoing Projects- "MORE: Returns and Readmissions Policy" 2023 - 2026 (Sabine Hess)
- "ZiF: Internalizing Borders" 2023- 2024 (Sabine Hess)
- "Boundary Formations in Migration Societies" 2016 - 2020 (Ravi Ahuja, Sabine Hess)
- "RESPOND: Multilevel Governance of Mass Migration in Europe and Beyond" 2017 - 2020 (Sabine Hess, Alexander-Kenneth Nagel)
- “Gender, Flucht, Aufnahmepolitiken: Prozesse vergeschlechtlichter In- und Exklusionen in Niedersachsen“ 2017 – 2020 (Sabine Hess)
- "The Social Construction of Border Zones: A Comparison of Two Geopolitical Cases" 2014 - 2017 (Gabriele Rosenthal)
The Political Economy of Migration...
... deals with the economic contexts. Researchers are interested in the determinants and effects of migration and refuge on the one hand, and study the relationship between labour and migration more generally on the other.
Environmental Issues and Migration...
... addresses the question of how environmental contexts and factors interrelate with migration decisions and patterns, and how communities deal with these circumstances.
Ongoing Projects:
Economic, Political and Social Integration...
... addresses the necessary conditions for successful integration. Here, not only legal statuses but also rather classical sociological categories of ethnicity, gender, religious affiliation, cultural background and level of education explain the integration pathways and trajectories of migrants and refugees.
Ongoing Projects:- Evaluating and improving support for female refugee integration into the German labor market” (Sarah Langlotz, Adriana Cardozo Silva)
- “Zugewandert mit beruflichem Abschluss: Wie Ausbildungssysteme der Herkunftsländer und Berufe die Erwerbschancen in Deutschland beeinflussen” 2023 - 2026 (Janina Söhn)
- “ Transnationale Lokalgesellschaften: Eine interdisziplinäre Studie zur Transformation von Arbeit und Produktion in der Fleischindustrie nach der Pandemie (TransLok)” 2022 - 2025 (Peter Birke)
- “Coming to America: Refugee Inflows and Political Impacts” 2021 - 2023 (Sarah Langlotz)
- "Religiöse Vergemeinschaftung von Migrant*innen auf dem Land" 2021 - 2024 (Alexander-Kenneth Nagel)
- “What are the reasons for the below-average statutory retirement pensions of immigrants in Germany? Longitudinal analysis with the pension data of the ‘completed insured life’ (2017)” 2019 (Janina Söhn)
- "Labor, Livelihood, and Immigration in a Brazilian Plantation: the Archives of Ibicaba Farm (1890-1970)" 2019 - 2022 (Bruno Witzel de Souza)
- “Stadtlabor: Migration bewegt Göttingen“ 2019 – 2020 (Sabine Hess, Lars Klein, Alexander-Kenneth Nagel, Peter Birke)
- "Biographische Verläufe von Migrierenden aus Syrien und Westafrika in Brasilien und in Deutschland – Prozesse der Inklusion und Partizipation im Kontext sogenannter irregulärer Migration" 2019 – 2022 (Eva Bahl, Gabriele Rosenthal, Arne Worm)
- “Religiöse Zeiten, Mediengenres, technischer Vollzug. Eine ethnographische Untersuchung audiovisueller Medienpraktiken unter Schiiten in Hyderabad“ 2017 – 2020 (Patrick Eisenlohr)
- “Refugees@work. Perspektiven der betrieblichen Integration von Flüchtlingen in Niedersachsen“ 2016 - 2021 (Peter Birke, Nicole Mayer-Ahuja)
- POWERS: Peace, War and the World in European Security Challenges 2018 - 2021 (Lars Klein, Martin Tamcke)
- “Migrantengemeinschaften, religiöse Identitäten und zivilgesellschaftliche Einbindung” 2018 – 2021 (Alexander-Kenneth Nagel)
- Dynamische Figurationen von Flüchtlingen, Migranten und Altansässigen in Jordanien seit 1946: Zwischen erfolgreichem und konfliktreichem Zusammenleben? 2017 - 2021 (Gabriele Rosenthal)
Migrants' Perspectives and Voices...
... brings migrants’ and refugees’ practices, as well as their own subjective understandings and conceptualisations, to the fore. This research focus is interested in practices of mobility and translocal life projects, alongside migrants’ and refugees’ experiences with belonging, home-making and participation in nationally organised societies.
Ongoing Projects:- "Ver/sammeln antirassistischer Kämpfe" 2021 - 2023 (Sabine Hess)
- "Sklaverei und Sklavenhandel im individuellen und kollektiven Gedächtnis: Ein kontrastiver Vergleich verschiedener lokaler Gemeinden, Generationen und Gruppierungen in Ghana und Brasilien" 2022–2025 (Eva Bahl, Gabriele Rosenthal)
- "Expertise zum Aufbau eines Dokumentationszentrums für die Opfer des NSU" 2023 – 2024 (Sabine Hess)
Migration and Public Health...
... examines how the "protection of life" and the "right to health" are defined and implemented for migrants and postcolonial minorities and what ethical, social and political questions arise from this practice, based on the unequal distribution of health care worldwide.
Laufende Projekte:
Further Projects...
consider migration as a factor in the context of current research topics and issues.
Ongoing Projects:- "ENKOR - Engagementkonstellationen in ländlichen Räumen – Ein Ost-West-Vergleich" 2021 - 2024 (Claudia Neu)
- "Gestern wie heute – Haltung zeigen" 2021 – 2023 (Claudia Neu)
- "Altersarmut in ländlichen Räumen Niedersachsens" 2020 – 2023 (Claudia Neu)
- "Die Lebenssituation von Frauen auf landwirtschaftlichen Betrieben in ländlichen Regionen Deutschlands – eine sozio-ökonomische Analyse" 2019 - 2023 (Claudia Neu)
- "Research College ‘Knowledge / Exhibiting. A Knowledge History of Exhibitions in the Second Half of the 20th Century’" 2018 – 2023 (Sabine Hess)
- "Soziale Transformationsprozesse und nachhaltige Ressourcennutzung im ländlichen Jambi" 2016 - 2023 (Heiko Faust)
- "Our Common Future – Können wir Klimaschutz erstreiten?" 2020 – 2022 (Angela Schwerdtfeger)
- "Gesellschaftliche und regionale Bedeutung von Daseinsvorsorge sowie der Versorgung mit Dienstleistungen und Infrastruktur, Teilbereich Armuts- und Reichtumsbericht, BMAS." 2019 – 2020 (Claudia Neu)
- "Das Soziale-Orte-Konzept SOK – Neue Infrastrukturen für gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt" 2017 – 2020 (Claudia Neu)
A detailed description of ongoing research at CeMig can be found in our Annual Reports. See right column.
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Regional Foci
CeMig researchers focus on countries of origin, transit and destination across the globe, each with a different history of emigration, immigration and transnational entanglements. From a comparative perspective it becomes clear that societies deal quite differently with (forced) migration and associated challenges. Also, these studies from around the globe point to the various migration decisions to leave, move on, settle in or return, thereby covering the entire migration process. These varied insights into national, regional and local contexts of migration, into situated practices, allow for a global and decentralised perspective – as well as for greater understanding of transnational entanglements.
CeMig combines research results from:
- Prof. Dr. Claudia Neu
- Prof. Dr. Sabine Hess
- Christian Hinrichs M.A.
- Prof. Dr. Heiko Faust
- Prof. Timo Weishaupt, Ph.D.
- Prof. Dr. Nicole Mayer-Ahuja
- Prof. Dr. Alexander-Kenneth Nagel
- Friedemann Yi-Neumann M.A.
- Dr. phil. Zümrüt Alpınar Şencan
- Dr. Peter Birke
- Eva Bahl M.A.
- Dr. Lars Klein
- Antonie Fuhse M.A.
- Dr. Annegret Middeke
You can find a complete overview of our members listed according to faculties here.