Forced migration: Conditions, forms, and consequences

Forced migration (flight, expulsion, deportation, resettlement, etc.) occurs when a state, semi-state or quasi-state actors place far-reaching restrictions on the power to act and thus on the freedom and freedom of movement of individuals or collectives. Violent migration is caused by a compulsion to emigrate that does not allow for any realistic alternative course of action. It can be a flight from violence that directly or expectably threatens life, physical integrity, freedom and rights, usually for political, racial, gender or religious reasons. Forced migration was and is usually the result of war, civil war or measures taken by authoritarian political systems. The backgrounds, patterns of movement and consequences of forced migration are the subject of this IMIS research area, as are the global, regional, national and local protection regimes and the specific social negotiations, shaped by numerous actors, through which protection is offered, under what circumstances and with what scope.

Ongoing research projects:

Forced Migration and Refugee Studies: Networking and Knowledge Transfer (FFVT)

Christine Lang / Jochen Oltmer / Andreas Pott / Franck Düvell

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Measuring Irregular Migration and related policies (MIrreM)

Franck Düvell

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Norms, Administration, and Refugee Agency: Negotiating the Regime

Christoph Rass / Frank Wolff

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The Production of Spaces of Migrant Disappearance (C4)

Maurice Stierl

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Completed research projects:

  • Frauen, Flucht - und Frieden? Friedensfördernde Praktiken von Frauen in Flüchtlingslagern, 2019-2023 (Ulrike Krause)
  • Seenotrettung im Mittelmeer, 2022 (Franck Düvell)
  • Globaler Flüchtlingsschutz und lokales Flüchtlingsengagement. Ausmaß und Grenzen von Agency in gemeindebasierten NGOs von Flüchtlingen, 2016 - 2021 (Ulrike Krause)
  •  Von der Flüchtlingshilfe zur Fluchthilfe, 2018-2020 (Helen Schwenken / Helge Schwiertz)
  • Gender, Flucht, Aufnahmepolitiken. Prozesse vergeschlechtlichter In- und Exklusionen in Niedersachsen, 2017-2020 (Sabine Hess / Elke Grittmann / Helen Schwenken)
  • Flucht - Forschung und Transfer, 2016-2019 (Jochen Oltmer / Andreas Pott / Conrad Schetter)
  • Exil in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Bedingungen und Herausforderungen für Künstlerinnen und Künstler, 2018-2019 (Jochen Oltmer)
  • Volunteering for Refugees in Europe, 2016-2018 (Serhat Karakayali / Olaf Kleist)
  • Netzwerk Grundlagen der Flüchtlingsforschung, 2015-2017 (Jochen Oltmer / Andreas Pott)
  • Taking Sides: Protest Against the Deportation of Asylum Seekers in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, 2013-2016 (Sieglinde Rosenberger / Gianni D'Amato / Helen Schwenken)
  • Beschäftigungsfähigkeit und -hindernisse von Asylsuchenden, 2005-2008  (Birgit Behrensen / Manuela Westphal)