Biography

The current analysis focuses on the irregular migration flows of Ukrainians to Greece and attempts to provide answers to the question of their expectations and motivations that shape their plans and whether and how their decisions and actions are influenced by various policies or actors. The purpose of the study is to present an assessment of the impact of migration regularisation policies and insurance policies as they appear from the life stories of Ukrainian migrants in Greece. The term ‘irregular migrants’ will be used as an interpretation of irregular residence as a result of legislation and regulations that define certain forms of mobility as desirable and legitimate, and others as illegal and non-desirable (Castles, S. et al. 2012).

What happens to young people at risk of isolation, destitution, exploitation, harassment and criminalisation? In 2007 we commissioned City University's Department of Sociology, working in partnership with the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University and the Evelyn Oldfield Unit, to carry out qualitative research into the lives of young undocumented migrants in the UK. The research explored the experiences of young people from China, Turkey (including Kurds), Brazil, Zimbabwe and Ukraine. Researchers drawn from the communities being investigated explored the pathways of the lives of individual young undocumented migrants. One special feature of this work was our commitment to developing both the skills and capacity of individuals from these communities in the UK. In 2009 we published a report based on this work. 'No right to dream' analyses the findings of the field researchers and is interspersed with real-life stories of some of the young people interviewed.

During the last 20 years their has been an upsurge in research on xenophobic populist parties mirroring their political successes. However, these studies have rarely touched upon the role of women and immigrants within these parties. While women are often invisible in research, located in a marginal role as girl-friends and sisters, migrants support to these parties is often defined as a contradiction in terms and remains un-theorised. The aim of the study is to analyse the double edged relationship between on the one side women and migrants approaching the Swedish xenophic populist party -Sweden Democrats, and on the other side the discourse of the party in respect to women and migrants in their conditions of representatives. It will identify women's and migrant's agency and explore the ways through which these shape, constrain and influence their position in the organisation. Theoretically the project is framed within gender and IMER studies, focusing on the notions of the family and nationhood, and the notions of ethnic belonging and nationhood. Methodologically the study is based on in depth interviews and life-stories with women and migrants representing SD in municipalities.

Schon im frühen 19. Jh. war Migration selbstverständlicher Bestandteil der Gesellschaft, wurde aber erst mit dem Konzept des Nationalstaates stärker als Herausforderung wahrgenommen. Das Projekt richtet daher einen neuen Blick auf innereuropäische Migrationen 1815-1871, ihre Regulierung, Ex- und Inklusionspraktiken sowie die an diesen Prozessen beteiligten Akteure. Es konzipiert die Herstellung von Fremdheit und Zugehörigkeit als Prozess, um Homogenisierung und Modernisierung von Gesellschaft sowie Nationenbildung zu erforschen. Dazu werden die staatlichen Praktiken im Hinblick auf Migration sowie die Motivationen und Handlungsweisen mobiler Menschen kontrastierend analysiert. Mit einem regionalen Zugriff auf das Elsass, Schleswig und Holstein wird einerseits die Vielfalt der Akteure in Migrationsprozessen, andererseits die besondere Bedeutung von Grenzregionen hervorgehoben. Das Projekt verbindet zwei Untersuchungsachsen: Eine erste Achse fragt nach gesellschaftlichen Differenzkategorien in Migrationsprozessen. Methodologisch-theoretisch wird mithilfe einer intersektionalen Perspektive das Zusammenwirken unterschiedlicher Kategorien sozialer Ungleichheit analysiert: Fremdheit, Geschlecht und Bildung. Die zweite Untersuchungsachse verbindet die Analyse von Diskursen, Regimen und Akteuren: Erstens wird Fremdheit/Zugehörigkeit als zentrale Differenzierung in europäischenGesellschaften analysiert, zweitens der staatliche Umgang mit Migration sowie drittens die Motivationen und Handlungsweisen mobiler Menschen untersucht. Die Unterscheidung fremd/nicht fremd strukturierte Diskurse wie Regime. Die zunehmende Mobilität von Menschen mobilisierte Normen und Praktiken, wie an den Grenzregionen Schleswig, Holstein und Elsass gezeigt wird, die ich zugleich als administrativ-politische Gebiete und transnationale soziale Räume begreife. Diese Fallbeispiele erlauben Rückschlüsse auf das Verhältnis von Region, Staat und Nation, nicht zuletzt weil dieuntersuchten Regionen einschneidende staatliche Umbrüche erlebten. Hierfür werden Gesuche um Niederlassung sowie Dokumente zum Umgang mit Fremden quantitativ und qualitativ ausgewertet. Diese staatlichen Quellen werden durch zeitgenössische Berichterstattung und Selbstzeugnisse ergänzt; für die Akteursperspektive werden migrantische Lebenswege kollektivbiografisch untersucht. Das Projekt erschließtunterschiedliche Bewertungsebenen von Migration und greift zentrale Forschungsdesiderate auf: 1) Es erweitert durch seine Kombination von Meso- und Mikroebene vorliegende sozial- und landeshistorische Fragestellungen der Migrationsforschung. 2) Anknüpfend an transnationale Ansätze werden regionale Logiken systematisch herausgearbeitet und an konkreten Fallstudien belegt. 3) Mit demFokus auf die Aushandlung von Differenzkategorien trägt es zur aktuellen Debatte um Herstellung gesellschaftlicher Ungleichheiten bei. Schließlich erweitert es mit seiner innovativen theoretisch-methodischen Rahmung die Migrationsforschung.

This report provides a unique, in-depth analysis of the impact of EU policies in addressing the socalled European migration or refugee ‘crisis’ in 2015 and 2016. Crossing the Mediterranean Sea by Boat undertook 257 in-depth qualitative interviews with a total of 271 participants across seven sites in two phases: Kos, Malta and Sicily from September-November 2015, and Athens, Berlin, Istanbul and Rome from May-July 2016. Uniquely, the project focused directly on the impact of policies upon people on the move, drawing together policy analysis and observational fieldwork with in-depth analysis of qualitative interview data from people making – or contemplating making – the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. As such, the report provides previously-unconsidered insights into the effects of policy on the journeys, experiences, understandings, expectations, concerns and demands of people on the move. In addition to providing seven site-based case study analyses, the project also provides the first detailed assessment of policies associated with A European Agenda on Migration in terms of policy effects both across routes (eastern and central Mediterranean) and over time (2015 and 2016). The findings and analysis summarised in this report are presented with the aim of informing policy developments, moving forward.

Europe’s response to the so-called ‘migration crisis’ has been driven almost exclusively by a border control agenda. This has significantly reduced the number of refugees and migrants arriving in Greece, for the time being at least, but has done nothing to address the drivers or causes of migration to Europe, including the movement of people from Libya which continues unabated, or the protection and integration needs of those who are already here. The research aims to: • Shed light on the dynamics (determinants, drivers and infrastructures) underpinning the recent unprecedented levels of migration across, and loss of life in, the Mediterranean; • Provide insights into the interaction of refugees and migrants with a multitude of non-State actors (for example smugglers, facilitators, and Non- Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and State actors (for example, the navy / coastguard) in order to better understand their decision making processes; and • Explore how the decisions made by refugees and migrants on their journeys interact with dramatically changing global economic, security and political contexts.

In 2015 over one million people crossed the Mediterranean to Europe in search of safety and a better life. Thousands died along the way. The MEDMIG project seeks to better understand these unprecedented movements in the region by examining the journeys, motivations and aspirations of refugees and migrants in Italy, Greece, Turkey and Malta.

In 2015 an estimated 1,011,712 people crossed the Mediterranean to Europe in search of safety and a better life. 3,770 are known to have died trying to make this journey1. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Department for International Development (DfID), the MEDMIG project examines the dynamics, determinants, drivers and infrastructures underpinning this recent migration across and loss of life in the Mediterranean. This research brief presents some of our findings in relation to the Central Mediterranean route from North Africa to Italy and Malta, exploring the dynamics of migration before, during and after the sea crossing. We will place particular focus on the motivations, routes and experiences of those making the journey and local, national and European Union (EU) policy responses.