Podcast ›Production Site‹
How is migration negotiated in society? What perspectives shape academic and public debates? And how can we rethink migration beyond what is taken for granted?
In the first season of our new Production Site podcast, international researchers and experts discuss central questions in migration research across six episodes. What makes it special: each conversation is followed by a reflexive dialogue with researchers from the Collaborative Research Centre “Production of Migration” (SFB 1604) at Osnabrück University. Together, they contextualize the topics discussed, question established perspectives, and examine them through the SFB's reflexive research lens. The season is rounded out by a bonus episode that portrays the Collaborative Research Centre and offers insights into its research, questions, and ways of working.
Production Site invites listeners to look at migration anew — as a socially produced phenomenon, approached critically, interdisciplinarily, and in dialogue.
Season 1 (6+1 episodes): Summer 2026
Bonus Episode : In Portrait
The Collaborative Research Centre "Production of Migration" (SFB 1604)
In this bonus episode, we take a closer look at the Collaborative Research Centre “The Production of Migration” (SFB 1604). What terms and concepts does it use, and how is it structured? What does “Production of Migration” actually mean? And why does the research conducted in the SFB affect us all? Science communicators Feline Engling Cardoso and Vera Hanewinkel host this episode and meet with researchers who explain what SFB 1604 does.
Season 01 Episode 01 : The Forerunner
Czarina Wilpert and the Beginnings of Migration Research in Germany
She helped shape migration research in Germany during its earliest days: Czarina Wilpert. As a scholar who had herself migrated, how did she carve out a place in a field dominated by white men? What life experiences informed her research and her perspective on immigrants and their descendants? And what was she able to see that researchers with a “purely German gaze” could not?
Season 01 Episode 02 : Crossing Boundaries
Gerhard Kromschröder and his Role-play Feature Story ›When I was a Turk‹
What was everyday life like in 1980s Germany for a German journalist disguised as a Turkish street sweeper? What did he experience while working undercover in the world of migrant labor, and how did those experiences shape his understanding of German society? In this episode, journalist Gerhard Kromschröder reflects on his extraordinary undercover investigation. He also discusses everyday racism, his undercover investigations on Germany's far-right movement, the country's struggle with its suppressed history, and the role and responsibility of journalism.
Season 01 Episode 03 : Cityscape(s)
Contested Knowledge Production About Migration in the City
Autumn 2025: The so-called cityscape debate, sparked by Federal Chancellor and CDU leader Friedrich Merz, has ignited heated public discussion: Is migration a “problem in the urban landscape”? This provides a timely opportunity to take a closer look at the relationship between migration and the city. How—and by whom—is knowledge about migration in urban contexts produced? How is migration spatialized? Which powerful concepts and categories shape these debates, and what alternatives to a problem-centered perspective can be identified? These are the questions explored in this episode.
Season 01 Episode 04 : The New Minority
Integration and Cohesion in Superdiverse Neighborhoods
Large cities are becoming increasingly diverse. In some neighborhoods, no single group constitutes a numerical majority anymore — people without a migration background have become one minority among many. What does this mean for social cohesion and prevailing ideas about integration? Maurice Crul and Frans Lelie of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam have researched these questions and discuss their findings with migration researcher Jens Schneider, who is joined by colleague Norma Schemschat in a concluding dialogue.
Season 01 Episode 05 : (No)Where to Go?!
Climate (Im-)Mobilities in the United States of America
Climate change drives migration — but who moves, who stays, and why? Aurora A. Sauter speaks with climate adaptation expert Jesse M. Keenan of Tulane University about the links between climate change, migration, and immobility, with a focus on the United States: one of the world's largest carbon emitters, now increasingly confronting climate disaster on its own soil. Aurora A. Sauter and Thomas Scheffer reflect on the implications in a concluding dialogue.
Season 01 Episode 06 : The Scholar-Activist
Nina Glick Schiller’s Mission Against the Erosion of Human Rights
How activist can, should, or must migration research be — especially in times of growing authoritarianism and an observable erosion of human rights and the rights of migrants? In this episode, professors Christine Lang and Janine Dahinden speak with internationally renowned migration researcher Nina Glick Schiller about precisely these questions. How politically neutral can research ever truly be, and what responsibility does it carry toward society?