MSc Migration, Mobility and Development

Description

This innovative new programme in the Department of Development Studies offers students the opportunity to combine study and analysis of critical perspectives on development and the increasingly important and related field of migration studies.

The MSc in Migration, Mobility and Development will focus attention on the political economy of migration from a historical perspective, major trends in migration theories, and different forms of and approaches to the study of migration and displacement. The programme draws on the expertise of staff in development, migration and forced migration contexts from the Development Studies department, and encourages inter-disciplinary dialogue with other relevant departments and centres within SOAS.

The programme’s 20-week core course will focus on the migration–development nexus, broadly conceived and defined. It will also expose students to a range of interlocking theoretical approaches which set out to account for constructions of and responses to migration and migrants, as well as to the scope and scale of migratory processes. Broadly, Term 1 provides analysis of the institutional, political, social and economic contexts where migration takes place and considers differentiated/mitigated effects. Term 2 builds on this to discuss types of migration via case study and other material, placing more emphasis on migrants’ perspectives and how these are mitigated by ‘contexts’.

Topics and themes include:

  • Sedentarism and the study of migration
  • Polities & economies of migration
  • Colonialism
  • Nations, states and territory
  • Globalisation
  • (Illegal) workers in the global economy
  • Place and emplacement
  • Assimilation/acculturation/discrimination
  • Transnational migrants & mobile lives
  • Trafficking
  • Development and migration
  • Diasporas and development
  • Refugees and internally displaced persons
  • Development-induced displacement
  • Environment and refugees/displacement
  • Climate change-related migration
  • Policy responses to migration
  • Transformations North and South

The MSc in Migration, Mobility and Development will provide a thorough analytical grounding in international migration including different types of forced and voluntary migration, facilitating the development of specialized knowledge of particular case studies, as well as overall trends and theoretical frameworks. A rigorous academic programme, it will also give students the confidence to think in policy relevant terms and will be equally valuable to those proceeding to professional employment in the sector with international organizations, NGOs and government bodies, and for students intending to go on to carry out PhD research.

For more information, please visit http://www.soas.ac.uk/programmes/prog47390.php


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