300628 Interasian Mobilities (30-M25) (S) (SoSe 2025)

This course will explore the migrations and cross-border mobilities that occur from and within Asia. While social science research has seen a broadening interest in how nations are interconnected in today's globalized world, much of the field continues to be focused on movements towards destinations in the West. In this class, we will critically examine our conventional understanding of global mobility in the context of Asia, where nationhood is "new” and migration is "old". We will draw on a wide range of case studies, including transnational families, unauthorized migration, "new" racisms, and multinational migrations within the region, to answer the following questions: What forms of mobility occur from and within the Asian region and how has this changed in the contemporary period? What new social issues and tensions arise due to these changing forms of interAsian mobility? How does a turn to Asia challenge or reinforce existing approaches in migration studies (which are largely based in the West)?