300190 Poverty and International Migration (S) (SoSe 2009)

The existence of the huge economical inequalities between different geographies of the world is a well-known fact. One of the basic strategies of the people against these inequality and poverty is the migration from the poorer geographies to richer regions. However, the relation between poverty and migration is much more complicated and many-sided than this observation. Recently, several researches perceive the migrants, for example, not only passive victims of the poverty situation, but also one of the most important agents of development and for poverty alleviation in the world.

In the first part of the seminar, competing approaches to poverty and migration (like modernization, liberal, Marxist, dependency and post-colonialist theories) will be introduced. In the second part, we will discuss a number of selected related concepts and aspects of the subject like development, globalization, gender, exclusion, class, racism. And the last and the largest part of the seminar will be devoted to the case studies – i.e., regions, countries, institutions, historical contexts, etc. The aspects and the case studies will basically be chosen according to interests and prior knowledge of students. Hence, students are strongly encouraged to involve in the shaping the content of the seminar.