A Moral Geography Approach to Human Migration

IMIS/SFB Lecture with Dr. Camille Schmoll (Geography, EHESS Paris)

In her talk, Camille Schmoll introduces a novel perspective on how migration is perceived and treated in contemporary France and Europe by using a moral geography framework. Moral geography refers to the ways in which different forms of mobility and immobility are structured and defined within specific geographical spaces as (il)legitimate, in a context where moral sentiments have emerged as a prominent driving force in contemporary politics (as suggested by Didier Fassin, 2010). Camille explores the moral geographies of migration through several prisms and analytical tools: conflicts and controversies, moral panics, and connections between moral sentiments and migration regimes. She shows how a moral approach can provide valuable insights into the construction of social and spatial borders and boundaries.

Camille Schmoll is Directrice d’Études at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris) and a member of the CNRS research team Géographie-cités. Formerly, she was an associate professor of geography at the University of Paris Diderot and a junior fellow of the Institut Universitaire de France. Her research focuses on international migration, gender and space, urban approaches to migration patterns, cosmopolitanism and borders, and qualitative approaches to migration.