Prof. Dr. Christine Lang
Junior Professor of Social Geography and Reflexive Migration Studies
Head of the working group Social Geography and Reflective Migration Research
Main research interests: Migration and diversity; cities, urban policy and governance; organizations and the production of space; social inequality and discrimination
My research focuses on the social production of migration, diversity, and inclusion/exclusion, with a particular emphasis on the role of space. Currently, I am specifically investigating geographies of migration of medical professionals and urban governance of diversity. I am particularly interested in how diverse actors and organizations contribute to the creation of spaces of migration and difference, the factors influencing these processes, and their consequences for social structures, inclusion/exclusion, and broader societal transformation.
Since November 2023, I have been a Junior Professor of Social Geography and Reflexive Migration Studies at Osnabrück University. Prior to this, I held postdoc positions at the Institute for Geography and the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) at Osnabrück University, as well as at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen.
I received my doctorate in 2018 from Osnabrück University with a dissertation entitled “The Production of Diversity: Municipal Administrations and the Employment of Migrants and their Descendants.” During my doctoral research I held a doctoral fellowship and I worked as research associate at IMIS on a project examining social mobility among the descendants of immigrants. I hold a master’s degree in sociology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, following studies in sociology and political science in Freiburg i. Br. and Paris.
Prof. Dr. Christine Lang
Institute of Geography
Osnabrück University
Seminarstraße 19 a/b
49074 Osnabrück
Room: 02/205
Phone: +49 541 969-4201
christine.lang@uni-osnabrueck.de
Office hours
n.V.
Monographs
Lang, C. (2019). The production of diversity in urban administrations. Change and persistence of organizations in the migration society. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. link
Lang, C., Pott, A., & Schneider, J. (2018). Success not intended: Social advancement in the immigration society - and what makes it so difficult (2nd updated and abridged edition). Münster: Waxmann. link
Lang, C., Pott, A., & Schneider, J. (2016). Unlikely to succeed: social advancement in the immigration society (IMIS-Beiträge 49/2016). Osnabrück: IMIS. link
Collected volumes
Oltmer, J., Berlinghoff, M., Düvell, F., Etzold. B, Lang, C. & Pott, A. (eds.) (2025). Report Global Flight 2025. Frankfurt a.M.: S. Fischer.
Oltmer, J., Berlinghoff, M., Düvell, F., Lang, C. & Pott, A. (eds.) (2024). Report Global Flight 2024. Frankfurt a.M.: S. Fischer.
Journal article
Lang, C., & Badenhoop, E. (2025). Civil society organizations and the local politics of migration: How funding contexts matter. Comparative Migration Studies, 13(1), 3. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-024-00420-0
Lang, C. (2022). "Organizations and geographies of migration: The case of health professionals". Erdkunde, 76(4), 255-269. doi. org/10.3112/erdkunde.2022.04.02
Lang, C. (2022). "(Un)Suitable Difference: Ethnic and Racializing Differentiations in Recruitment Practices of Local Administrations in Berlin". Swiss Journal of Sociology 48 (3): 489-508. doi.org/10.2478/sjs-2022-0024.
Lang, C., Pott, A., & Shinozaki, K. (2021). Organizations and the production of migration and in/exclusion. Comparative Migration Studies 9(60). doi.org/10.1186/s40878-021-00274-w
Lang, C. (2021). Accessing the public workforce: Organizational recruitment practices and the inclusion or exclusion of individuals of immigrant origin. Comparative Migration Studies 9(26). doi. org/10.1186/s40878-021-00233-5
Schiller, M., Lang, C., Schönwälder, K., & Moutselos, M. (2020) Vielfalt and diversité: how local actors in France and Germany evaluate immigration and socio-cultural heterogeneity. Comparative Migration Studies 8(48). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-020-00205-1
Lang, C. (2020). "Workforce Diversity Policies in Practice: Drivers and Barriers in Local Administrations." Ethnic and Racial Studies 43(11): 1961-1980. doi. 1080/01419870.2020.1754444
Schneider, J., & Lang, C. (2014). Social Mobility, Habitus and Identity Formation in the Turkish-German Second Generation. New Diversities, 16(1), 89-105. link
Articles in edited volumes
Keskiner, E., Lang, C., Konyali, A., & Rezai, S. (2022) Becoming Successful in the Business and Law Sectors: Institutional Structures and Individual Resources. In J. Schneider, M. Crul, & A. Pott (Eds.), New Social Mobility: Second Generation Pioneers in Europe (pp. 79-104). Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05566-9_4 (Open Access)
Lang, C., Pott, A., & Schneider, J. (2022). Context Matters: The Varying Roles of Social Ties for Professional Careers of Immigrants' Descendants. In E. Keskiner, M. Eve, & L. Ryan (Eds.), Revisiting Migrant Networks: Migrants and their Descendants in Labor Markets (pp. 61-81). Cham: Springer. doi. org/10.1007/978-3-030-94972-3_4
Lang, C. (2021). The value of migration background: The importance of ethnic differentiation in public administration recruitment. In F. Meier & T. Peetz (Eds.), Organization and evaluation (pp. 217-236). Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Lang, C., & Schneider, J. (2017). From Kreuzberg to Tempelhof: Spatial and social mobility among descendants of immigrants from Turkey in Berlin. In T. Geisen, C. Riegel, & E. Yildiz (Eds.), Migration, city and urbanity. Perspectives on the heterogeneity of migrant lifeworlds (pp. 237-258). Wiesbaden: Springer.
Lang, C. (2017). Of 'typical' and 'atypical' immigration districts: Migration-related diversity and the 'intercultural opening' of urban administrations. In M. Barbehön, & S. Münch (Eds.), Variations of the urban - variations of local politics (pp. 351-373). Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Schneider, J., & Lang, C. (2016). Barriers and Opportunities: Trajectories of Teachers with Turkish Background and the Institutional Context in Germany. In C. Schmidt, & J. Schneider (Eds.), Diversifying the Teaching Force in Transnational Contexts. Critical Perspectives (pp. 165-178). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Schneider, J., & Lang, C. (2015). Educational success and upward careers: Problems of research on intergenerational mobility in immigrant families in Germany. In I. Dirim, I. Gogolin, D. Knorr, M. Krüger-Potratz, D. Lengyel, H. H. Reich, & W. Weiße (Eds.), Impulses for the migration society. Education, politics and religion (pp. 239-251). Münster: Waxmann.
Lang, C. (2014). "More migrants in the public service!" What hurdles could make access more difficult? In S. Bertelsmann (Ed.), Weltoffen, bürgernah and kompetent. Municipalities as a mirror of a diverse society (pp. 35-38). Gütersloh: Bertelsmann Foundation.
Gans, P., Lang, C., & Pott, A. (2013). Population dynamics and migration. In H. Gebhardt, R. Glaser, & S. Lentz (Eds.), Europe - a geography (pp. 329-377). Heidelberg: Spektrum.
Lang, C. (2013). Europe as a transnational migration space and compartmentalization space. In H. Gebhardt, R. Glaser, & S. Lentz (Eds.), Europe - a geography (pp. 203-208). Heidelberg: Spektrum.
Lang, C. (2010). "All men are created equal?" - Human rights policy after September 11. In G. Riescher (Ed.), Security and freedom instead of terror and fear. Perspectives on democratic security (pp. 249-272). Baden-Baden: Nomos.
FFVT: Flight and Refugee Research: Networking and Transfer
Joint project of IMIS, BICC, CHREN
Duration: 01/2025 - 12/2029
Funding: BMBF
IMIS management: Prof. Dr. Christine Lang, Prof. Dr. Jochen Oltmer, Prof. Dr. Andreas Pott
IMIS staff: Dr. Franck Düvell
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The production of spaces of skilled labor migration: Recruitment and mobility of physicians
Subproject C3 of the SFB 1604 "Production of Migration
Duration 04/2024 - 12/2027
Funding: DFG
Project management: Prof. Dr. Christine Lang
Project collaborators: Jurica Volarević, Viktor van Versendaal, Anna Zinter (student assistant)
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Integrated Research Training Group of the SFB 1604 "Production of Migration"
Duration 04/2024 - 12/2027
Funding: DFG
Project management: Prof. Dr. Christine Lang, Prof. Dr. Helen Schwenken
Project staff: Dr. Johanna Ullmann, Xin Wang
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TraMS: Transatlantic Exchange in Migration Studies
Duration: 08/2025 - 07/2029
Funding: DAAD ISAP program
Project management: Prof. Dr. Christine Lang
Administration: Petra Lehmeyer
Summer semester 2025
Preparatory seminar Large-scale study project Serbia
Field phase Large-scale study project Serbia
WS 2024/25
Hauptseminar: Grundlagen der geographischen Migrationsforschung
Lecture Social Geography (with Roland Lippuner)
Day excursion: Johannisstraße Osnabrück
Summer semester 2024
Proseminar Human Geography (PS 1 + PS 2)
Human geography exercise: "The post-migrant gastronomic landscape of Osnabrück"
WS 2023/24
Advanced seminar: Fundamentals of geographical migration research
Methods seminar: Qualitative Methods in Human Geography
Day excursion: Dortmund: Urban development programs in the northern part of the city
Summer semester 2023
Proseminar Human Geography
Human geography exercise: "Urban development and local economy"
WS 2022/23
Advanced seminar "Fundamentals of geographical migration research"
Excursion: "Social urban development: Nordstadt in Dortmund"
Summer semester 2022
Proseminar in human geography
Human geography exercise: "Neighbourhood development in disadvantaged urban districts"