300641 Migration and Mobility in Asia-Rethinking Global Migration - Thursday (30-M25) (S) (SoSe 2026)

This course examines migration and cross-border mobility from and within Asia, challenging the dominance of Western experiences in migration studies. While migration is often treated as a recent outcome of globalisation, the course shows that mobility in Asia long predates modern nation-states and remains central to social, economic, and political life across the region. Drawing on case studies of labour migration, transnational families, irregular mobility, racialisation, and displacement, students explore how different forms of movement have changed over time and how they generate new social tensions and inequalities. The course asks what studying Asia reveals about migration more broadly, and how an Asia-centred perspective challenges assumptions that underpin much migration research based on Europe and North America.