IMIS

Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies


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The Inventory of Migration Terms

The Inventory of Migration Terms ("Inventar der Migrationsbegriffe") discusses key concepts and terms of current debates on migration, integration and diversity. The various authors of the Inventory analyze how migration-related terms have been produced and came into being and how they are used in different social fields. The Inventory of Migration Terms is a reference work and tool for readers to engage in current discussions on migration in an informed and reflexive way.

Check out: www.migrationsbegriffe.de

News

Come and join us for Prof. Dr. Amade M'charek's lecture on "Trailing Vital Elements: Attending to migrant death and the possibilities for life"! 14 November, 18-20h, University of Osnabrück, Seminarstr. 20 / EW, room 15/E16. We also organise a Brown Bag Session on "An art of paying attention – Reflections on forensic approaches in Border and Migration Studies. A conversation with Amade M'charek", 15 November, 12-13h, IMIS meeting room.

Our book is out! Online (open access) and paperback:
Bartels, Inken/Löhr, Isabella/Reinecke, Christiane/Schäfer, Philipp/Stielike, Laura (Hrsg.) (2023): Umkämpfte Begriffe der Migration. Ein Inventar. Bielefeld: Transcript.

We are very much looking forward to welcoming Dr. Gunjan Sondhi (Open University) at IMIS. Please join us for Gunjan Sondhi's lecture on "Decolonising Migration Studies: Narratives vs Practices". When? 6 June 2023, 16:00-18:00 at University of Osnabrück, Seminarstr. 20 / EW, room 15/E16.

We will organize a panel on "Care and harm in the production of knowledge on migration" at the Annual IMISCOE conference “Migration and inequalities. In search of answers and solutions” in Warsaw (3-6 July 2023).

We presented a paper on "postcolonial challenges for migration research" at the conference "Postkoloniale Perspektivierungen der Kultursoziologie" at the University of Osnabrück (23/24 March 2023).

The Inventory of Migration Terms won the Osnabrück University's Open Access Award!

Inken Bartels, Philipp Schäfer and Laura Stielike organized the workshop „Between care and harm. How can we (self)reflexively study the production of knowledge on migration?“ at the junior researchers's meeting at DeZIM-Tagung 2022 in Berlin (5 October 2022).

On 20 January 2022, the Inventory of Migration Terms went online. Thank you to Kijan Espahangizi, Kübra Gümüsay, Christian Jakob, and Onur Erdur for a great online discussion on this occasion.

Members of the Research Group, Photo: Helen Schwenken

Research Group
›The Production of Knowledge on Migration‹

Sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation and its funding initiative "Niedersächsisches Vorab"
Duration of the project: 1/2019 6/2025
Research group leader: Dr Maurice Stierl
Researchers: Dr. Inken Bartels, Dr. Philipp Schäfer, and Dr. Laura Stielike
Student Assistant: Kristina Veers

German Version

The interdisciplinary research group 'The Production of Knowledge on Migration' investigates the production of knowledge on spatial mobilities. As more and more scholars call for a 'reflexive turn' in migration research, the group aims to add to this debate. Its research focuses on the categories, concepts and data that shape representations of spatially mobile people and that inform the various practices of dealing with their mobilities. Inspired by debates in the History, Sociology and Philosophy of Science, the group analyses the production of knowledge as a situated process that involves specific practices, networks and institutions. It puts a particular emphasis on transnational entanglements and actors. Dedicated to a transdisciplinary, collaborative form of research, it brings together young scholars from different disciplines. By exploring the production and circulation of knowledge on migration, the group seeks to make sense of the ways in which migration is continuously produced and reproduced, both as an object of study and as an object of intervention. It thus hopes to deepen our understanding of how mobilities shape societies (and vice versa), both in the past and in the present.

Research Projects

What counts? The statistical production of knowledge on migration in West Africa

Dr. Inken Bartels

Since the so-called migration crisis of 2015, various actors from politics, media and science have called for an increased and improved production of scientific knowledge on global migration. The growing demand for "scientific data" and "facts" indicates a need for comprehensive statistics, measurable indicators and precise predictions of global migration movements. This demand is based on the widespread assumption that on this basis migration could not only be predicted more precisely, but also managed more farsightedly and efficiently in the future. In this context, migration on the African continent is increasingly moving in the center of international attention. The research project investigates the production of the required "facts and figures" on migration movements in and from West Africa. It focuses on two related research questions: Which practices produce statistical knowledge about migration? And how do the data produced become "scientific facts" through the social interaction of different actors and thus effective in other areas of society? In a double sense, the underlying question of the project is therefore: what counts? Theoretically, I examine these questions from praxeological, transnational and postcolonial perspectives. Methodologically, I conduct a qualitative case study on the production and circulation of quantitative knowledge in and from West Africa. In the sense of an "ethnography of statistics", I therefore reconstruct, compare and trace the history and practice of statistical knowledge production in Senegal and Gambia.

Policing Knowledge. The Contested Production and Circulation of Police Knowledge About Migration

Dr. Philipp Schäfer

Whether at the border, across borders or within nation states - polices are central actors in the production and circulation of knowledge about migration and migrants. The fact that this knowledge production and circulation are contested and controversial has been demonstrated, among other things, by the turbulent dynamics of the so-called long summer of migration, when the cross-border practices of migrants challenged and changed police institutions, actors and processes almost daily. The project asks how police forces get an idea of the diversified and ever-changing societal conditions. With which actors do they enter more or less conflict-laden constellations, which forms of knowledge are relevant for them, and what significance does scientific expertise have in this context? And vice versa: How do scientific studies integrate and translate police knowledge about migration and which shifts in meaning can we observe and in how far are these conflictuous? The research project traces the contested production and circulation of knowledge about migration from a transnational perspective by means of ethnographic field research in various European and non-European regions. 

Big Data, Migration Governance and the Production of Knowledge

Dr. Laura Stielike

The project explores the recent trend to use big data for the analysis and governance of international migration. Focusing on the emerging transnational network of international organisations‘ data hubs and university based data researchers, it examines how the use of big data transforms the production of knowledge about migration. Through multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork the project analyses how assumptions, categories and values from the big data related technological and business sector are carried into knowledge about migration and translated into migration policy. Thus, the project sheds light on the production and circulation of knowledge about migration at the interface between academia, politics and society and builds on and contributes to migration research, science and technology studies and research on knowledge and public policy.