About transMID

About transMID

About transMID

Transborder Mobility and Institutional Dynamics

This Research Unit brings together scholars from sociology, anthropology and political science in order to examine the nexus between transborder mobility and institutions from a transregional and transnational perspective that extends beyond European host countries. It aims to explore the ways in which institutions frame, shape or control mobility (especially labour migration, educational migration and forced migration) and considers the influence of these forms of mobility on institutional endurance or change. Building on five closely intertwined subprojects, the particular focus of the Research Unit’s theoretical and empirical analyses are the institutional dynamics – i.e. processes of institutionalisation, de- and re-institutionalisation and institutional pluralisation – that accompany transborder mobility and the mechanisms of internal and external institutional regulations of mobility. As numerous public socio-political debates indicate, transborder mobility poses significant challenges to existing institutions. At the same time, institutional practices and (un)certainties are potentially as mobile as the actors involved in transborder mobility. This means that institutions can materialise, re-materialise, change or dissolve beyond their societal context of origin and thus trigger, shape or impede various forms of mobility. The Research Unit thus builds on the assumption that the interplay between institutions and various phenomena of transborder mobility is conflict-laden and also challenges existing social scientific frameworks of analysis. With a particular focus on institutional dynamics and the institutional strategies of social actors enmeshed in transborder mobility, the Research Unit seeks to explain the ways in which institutions simultaneously have the potential to mobilise or immobilise social actors and how transborder mobility probably transforms or even transnationalises institutions. The particular relevance of this Research Unit is founded, firstly, in its systematic empirical and theoretical focus on the intersections of transborder mobility and institutions from a transdisciplinary, transnational and transregional perspective. Secondly, it addresses an existing research gap since, to date, social scientists have often explored mobility and migration separately from institutions and institutional dynamics. Ultimately, the Research Unit aims to gain empirically nuanced and theoretically grounded insights into the nexus between transborder mobility and institutional dynamics and contribute to a better understanding of these publicly relevant socio-political phenomena by developing an analytical toolkit for this purpose.

Institutions

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Overview of transMID Subprojects

Subproject 1

Mobility and Institutions of Intermediary Rule in Southern Africa


Principal Investigators: Prof Dr Katharina Inhetveen & PD Dr Mario Krämer
Researcher: Laura Pargen, M.A.

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Subproject 2

Precarious Presence: Mobilisation and Immobilisation in the Interactions between Local Immigration Authorities and Persons with Exceptional Leave to Remain 


Principal Investigator: Prof Dr Christian Lahusen
Researchers: Stephanie Schneider, M.A. & Dr Annett Bochmann

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Subproject 3

Migration, Intersectionality and Institutional Interaction: African Migrants’ Experiences in the United Arab Emirates


Principal Investigator: Prof Dr Michaela Pelican
Researcher: Saleh Seid Adem, M.A.

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Subproject 4

Asylum Regimes and Transnational Refugee Families in Germany and France: Family Reunification in Official Practice and Everyday Experience


Principal Investigator: Prof Dr Karin Schittenhelm
Researchers: Manuela Barriga Morachimo, M.A. & Dr Emmanuel Ndahayo

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Subproject 5

International Organisations: Norm Setting and Norm Implementation for the Protection of Forced Migrants


Principal Investigator: Dr Nele Kortendiek
Researcher: Melina Tretmans, M.Sc.

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Speaker

Prof Dr Karin Schittenhelm
Department of Social Sciences
University of Siegen
Adolf-Reichwein-Str. 2
57068 Siegen
schittenhelm@soziologie.uni-siegen.de

Deputy Speaker

Prof Dr Katharina Inhetveen
Department of Social Sciences
University of Siegen
Adolf-Reichwein-Str. 2
57068 Siegen
inhetveen@soziologie.uni-siegen.de

Scientific Coordinator

Dr Dominik Schieder
Department of Social Sciences
University of Siegen
Adolf-Reichwein-Str. 2
57068 Siegen
dominik.schieder@uni.siegen.de

Secretary

Beata Koziol
ENC-D 312
University of Siegen
Walter-Flex-Str. 3
57072 Siegen
beata.koziol@uni-siegen.de