Online-Lecture Series „Border Regimes on the Move - On the Reorganization of Europe, Migration and Labor Ten Years after the Summer of Migration“

Online Series of Events of the Centre for Global Migration Studies (CeMig) at the University of Göttingen and the Sociological Research Institute Göttingen (SOFI)

March – November 2025, Thursdays, 5:15-6:45 Uhr CE(S)T (special events*** excluded)

The program can be downloaded here as PDF.
To receive the Zoom link for participation, please register using the form below.

What dynamics characterize border regimes and migration conditions ten years after the “summer of migration”? In view of the ongoing migration debate, it is urgently necessary to ask ourselves this question. In an attempt to find answers, we are taking a broad European perspective in this series of events. We want to discuss the dynamics of the political and economic preconditions of European migration policy. We assume that these dynamics are shaped by transnational and European center-periphery relations. We understand the border and migration regime both as the result and motor of geopolitics on the European continent and as a catalyst for the recomposition of migration. What is essential here is the tension between the so-called free movement of goods and labor and border closures.

So what economic and political redefinitions of a “fluid Eastern European zone” (Balibar) can be observed? How is the economic division of labor and hierarchy between Western and Central Europe's center and periphery changing, not least after Russia's war against Ukraine? What role do valorization, land grabbing and the further development of (Eastern) European peripheral and poverty zones play here? How is the organization of borders within the EU and beyond developing on this basis? What new-old social, economic, racialized inclusions and exclusions of EU citizens and third-country nationals can be observed? Does the post-2015 border and migration regime work with racist differentiation, in which some groups can now be thought of as “white” or “whiter”, while others are confronted with an intensifying practice of exclusion and racist attacks in the context of a definition as “non-Europeans”?

By discussing these questions, we want to make a contribution to the ongoing debate on the connection between border regimes and racism or the racist re-centering of the European project, as it is also being driven by growing right-wing populist movements across Europe. The central aim is to explore how the tension between the recruitment of (migrant) labor in the context of extremely segmented labor markets and jobs on the one hand and isolation and deportation on the other can be explained and how it will develop in the future.

Program

***19.03.2025, 19:30 Uhr (CET)
Film screening: „Caravan“ (OmUeng; Kino Lumière, Geismar Landstraße 19, 37083 Göttingen)
Followed by a discussion with Wasil Faizi who worked on the film with the protagonists as a mentor and translator.

Abstract

Welcome to Vienna, a city in the heart of Europe that four young men want to call home. Fawad, Marwand, Najib and Samim - supported by debut director Lucy Ashton - film themselves as they try to establish their lives, navigate growing up between cultures, and grapple with the complexities of a duplicitous, and sometimes mistrustful, Europe. Together they experience Austria’s acceptance of Fawad and Samim, and rejection of Marwand and Najib - who hide, and ultimately flee. While navigating the tricky relationship between their cameras and their stories, the young men weave a powerful tale of friendship and hope.
Afterwards, there will be an opportunity to talk to Wasil Faizi, who worked on the film with the protagonists as a mentor and translator.
Educational Preview. Admission is free.

20.03.2025, 17:15-18:45 Uhr (CEST)
“How Migration Policies Reproduce Center and Periphery Relations” (English; online via Zoom)
With presentations by:

Manuela Boatcă (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Institute of Sociology)
Marta Stojić Mitrović (The Institute of Ethnography of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia)

Abstract