300660 Migration and Cities (MA: Soziologie und Anthropologie der globalen Welt) (S) (WiSe 2026/2027)

Course description
Most migration processes occur through and unfold in cities. Cities represent sites of transit and destination that provide resources for migrants’ spatial and social mobility, spaces of various forms of inclusion, protection, and participation, as much as of exclusion and exploitation. At the same time, migration and migrants shape urban life and contribute to urban social and economic transformations. This course explores the multi-faceted connections and interdependencies between migration and cities that raise extensive research interest and are explored through various disciplinary lenses (sociology, anthropology, urban studies, human geography, and political science). Focusing on the European context, the course introduces key concepts set forth in foundational works and refined by recent empirical studies on migration to cities and urban processes related to the arrival of newcomers and their long-term settlement. By addressing place-based conditions of migration and their embeddedness in processes at different scales, the course critically engages with methodological challenges involved in the research of migration-related issues in urban settings. It addresses key themes, including migration and urban economies and labour markets; arrival and settlement processes; urban belonging and citizenship; arrival infrastructures; and local politics and policies of migration and multi-level governance of migration. Students are encouraged to engage with the existing literature and public debates and to develop their own research questions.