Seminar Migration and Global Labour Markets

Many international agencies and governments have discovered migration as an important global issue. A range of publications and conferences reflects this heightened attention: the World Bank's report -Global Economic Prospects 2006- on remittances or the -Global Forum on Migration and Development- that takes place annually since 2007. In this course, labour migrations will be discussed from an interdisciplinary and interregional perspective, particularly paying attention to current discussions and controversies about the governance of migration. From a more theoretical perspective, we are going to deal with factors determining who migrates, how these moves take place, and what impact migration has on the existing socio-economic structures in origin, transit and destination countries. In a second part, we will focus on controversies that evolve around labour migrations: What are the social and economic consequences of migratory moves in different world regions? Does the proliferation of temporary labour migration programmes improve or worsen the working conditions of labour migrants? What are the benefits and costs of migration of highly skilled workers? Does development lead to more or less migration? What is the relation between state sovereignty and human right? Do international regulations make a difference? As migration is a gendered phenomenon, all issues have to be analysed with regard to gender and the intersections between gender, ethnicity, class and age. Castles, Stephen; Miller, Mark J. (2003 [1993]): The Age of Migration. International Population Movements in the Modern World. Third Edition, Revised and Updated. Houndsmills, Basinkstoke/New York: Palgrave. Oishi, Nana (2005): Women in Motion: Globalization, State Policies, and Labor Migration in Asia. Stanford: Stanfort University Press. Rodriguez, Robyn Magalit (2010): Migrants for Export: How the Philippine State Brokers Labor to the World. Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press. FB 05 Gesellschaftswissenschaften Uni Kassel SoSe 2011 Politikwissenschaften Prof. Dr. Schwenken Helen