C9525 - MIGRATIONS, BORDERS AND BELONGINGS IN CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL ORDERS

Learning outcomes

The course critically engages with key debates in sociology and critical migration studies to examine how migrants’ heterogeneous trajectories, experiences, and affiliations shape and contest transnational spaces of belonging. Exploring the complex categorisation of migrants (such as asylum seekers, refugees, skilled professionals, and transnational communities), the course situates mobility within global orders marked by deep inequalities and enduring postcolonial hierarchies. It analyses how power, bordering regimes, and mobility infrastructures organise differential access to movement, rights, and recognition, while also bringing attention to migrants’ situated practices of agency, adaptation, and resistance within these unequal conditions. Emphasis is placed on the gendered and racialised dimensions of migration, highlighting inter alia how women’s voices, minoritised experiences, and embodied practices contribute to the social production of belonging and mobility. Through decolonial and intersectional lenses, the course engages with contemporary scholarship that conceives migration not simply as movement, but as a field of struggle over borders, knowledge, and global social transformation.

Course contents

The course aims to enable students to reflect critically on the complex phenomenon of global migration and the consequences for the societies that send and receive diversifying flows of migrants. Students will be able to demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of the key theories and concepts that analyse contemporary migration, transnationalism and diaspora. They will be able to draw from different disciplines and approaches to reflect on contemporary migration issues and debates, with a focus on the politics of social and cultural belonging.

The course will be structured to cover the following topics:

Topic 1: Migrant Categories

Topic 2: Migration Theories

Topic 3: Diaspora, Transnationalism, Globalisation

Topic 4: Ethnicity, Race and Racialisation

Topic 5: Gender and Migrant Women

Topic 6: Bordering and Home-making

Readings/Bibliography

Main Readings

• De Haas, H., Castles, S., & Miller, M. J. (2020). The age of migration: International population movements in the modern world (6th ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
• Hanlon, B., & Vicino, T. J. (2026). Global migration: The basics (2nd ed.). Routledge.
• Gold, S. J., & Nawyn, S. J. (Eds.). (2019). Routledge international handbook of migration studies (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Additional Readings

Additional readings will be assigned throughout the course. Suggested readings will be made available on Virtuale and discussed during class. Students are also expected to engage independently with relevant academic literature that aligns with their research interests and essay topic.

Teaching methods

The course will consist of lectures and seminars and will feature guest lectures by invited speakers. Group presentations will be an integral component of the course, fostering active learning, collaborative discussion, and critical engagement with key themes and readings.

Assessment methods

The course content is the same for attending and non-attending students. Throughout the course, students will develop an in-depth understanding of a specific migration-related topic of their choice by undertaking either a theoretical or an empirical research project, which will form the basis of the final assessed essay. This process requires students to identify, evaluate, and engage critically with relevant academic literature independently. Research topics must be proposed by the students and agreed upon with the lecturer.

Assessment methods differ for attending and non-attending students.

Attending Students

Students who attend at least 70% of classes will be assessed through the development of a research project, the submission of a final essay, and two class presentations. Research projects may be undertaken individually or in groups of two or three students and may adopt either a theoretical or an empirical approach. Empirical projects may include, for example, interviews, policy analysis, media analysis, discourse analysis, document analysis, or case studies. Topics should relate broadly to the themes of migration, borders, identity, culture, or belonging.

1. Mid-Course Research Proposal (Not Graded)

Students will submit a 1,200–1,500-word research proposal outlining a clearly defined migration-related research question. The proposal should engage critically with 6–8 academic sources, identify the principal theoretical debates, and position the proposed research within the existing literature.

Students will also present their proposal in class, focusing on the theoretical framework and leading a discussion of two key academic readings that inform their project.

Although this assignment is not graded, participation is compulsory. Presentations are expected to demonstrate adequate preparation, coherence, and active engagement with class discussion. Failure to meet these requirements may result in a deduction of up to 10% from the final course mark.

2. Final Group Presentation (Not Graded)

Towards the end of the course, students will present the findings of their research project to the class. The presentation should summarise the research question, theoretical framework, methodology (where applicable), and focus on the principal findings developed in the final essay.

Although presentations are not graded, attendance and active participation are compulsory. Presentations must demonstrate preparation, coherence, effective collaboration, and the ability to communicate research findings clearly. Failure to meet these requirements may result in a deduction of up to 10% from the final course mark.

3. Final Essay (100%)

On the examination date for which they are registered, students will submit an individual 2,500–3,000-word essay (excluding the bibliography) based on the research project developed during the course.

The essay should be clearly structured, well written, and appropriately referenced. It should demonstrate critical engagement with the relevant academic literature and, where appropriate, include original empirical analysis. Assessment will focus on the quality of the theoretical framework, methodological awareness, analytical depth, originality of the argument, clarity of writing, and the ability to engage critically with the relevant literature.

Non-Attending Students

Assessment consists of:

• Essay (50%)
• Take-home Written Examination (50%)

1. Essay (50%)

Students will submit an individual 2,500–3,000-word essay on a migration-related topic, with particular attention to issues of culture, identity, and belonging. The essay may be theoretical or empirical and should demonstrate critical engagement with the relevant academic literature. Where appropriate, students are encouraged to include original empirical analysis.

Students are encouraged to discuss their proposed topic and submit a brief outline to the lecturer before beginning their work.

2. Take-home Written Examination (50%)

The examination consists of four essay questions to be completed within two hours on the examination day.

Questions will be based on the required chapters of The Age of Migration (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 10, 12, and the Conclusion), Global Migration: The Basics (Chapters 1, 2, and 6), the additional readings available on Virtuale, and the wider academic literature.

Students are expected to engage critically with at least 8–10 additional academic readings beyond the core textbooks. Answers should demonstrate a broad understanding of the relevant literature, critical analysis, independent thinking, and the ability to relate theoretical debates to contemporary issues in migration studies.

Teaching tools

PowerPoint presentations, academic articles and book chapters, multimedia resources (videos, podcasts, documentaries), and materials available on Virtuale.

Office hours

See the website of Carla De Tona