This course offers an interdisciplinary social science perspective on key theoretical and empirical implications of international migration and diverse societies. The students will be introduced to central theoretical approaches by drawing on contemporary empirical analyses of migration processes and diverse societies. Though mobility as a global and historical phenomenon will be taken into account, particular attention will be paid to migration and diversity in contemporary Europe. Accounts of the lives, experiences and transnational practices of migrants will be presented in close connection with central overarching theories of social inequality and global, political processes. The politics of international migration and the changing texture of diverse societies will offer key analytical frameworks throughout the course. SOS 117 will offer an introduction to some of the patterns, causes and consequences of migration so as to make poignant the close link between contemporary migration and global/local structures of inequality. The course will also pay attention to political approaches to migration and diversity and provide insight into some of the most controversial issues in our contemporary European political landscape.

The specific contents of the course will vary from year to year, and the course will investigate the impacts of migration and diversity across interdisciplinary empirical fields of research.

A candidate who has completed his or her qualification should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The candidate has

• knowledge about theories, empirical cases and historical contexts central for understanding migration processes
• knowledge about potentials, possibilities and problems related to current mobility processes
• knowledge about some of the ways that current migration processes are shaped by individual and household decisions as well as by structural and historical processes

Skills

The candidate

• can draw on field specific knowledge about migration and diversity to discuss practical and theoretical questions
• is able to critically evaluate information about migration and diversity disseminated by media and political actors
• is able to search for, use and correctly refer to relevant theoretical perspectives, updated information and field specific knowledge and to utilize these analytically

Lectures: 20-24 hours

Seminars: 20-24 hours

Mandatory term paper (3000 words +/- 10 percent).

The essay will be commented and must be approved before the student can take the written exam.