Migration and Integration: Refugees, Rights & Realities

What are the forces behind this number? How do international organizations and sovereign state respond to the challenge of millions of displaced persons? And what about the refugees themselves? Are they interested to permanently settle in Europe or are they better off in countries ‘in the region’? How can they, given their diverse backgrounds, be integrated best into European societies? This interdisciplinary three-week course introduces students to key issues in the legal, (geo)political, sociological and anthropological analysis of forced migration. It enables students to understand the context in which forced migration takes place, the social change this triggers in hosting communities and the efforts needed to successfully integrate newcomers. 

Europe is faced with the largest influx of immigrants since decolonization. Seemingly unprepared, nations have struggled to handle the new reality. This course aims to strengthen an understanding of the issues surrounding forced migration and integration. It does so from various perspectives, ranging from crisis management and geopolitics, to international refugee law and anthropology.

The first week of the course will explore the journey of refugees on a macro scale by unpacking the various factors involved in forced migration. Students will delve into the many reasons why an individual decides to flee their home, with the morning module focusing on international refugee law and the afternoon module on the geopolitics at play. The second week of the course narrows down to the micro scale by focusing on refugees themselves, featuring two modules, one that employs an anthropological lens and the other a crisis management lens. Not only are top-down, state-led iniatives featured and analyzed during this week, we also explore grassroots initiatives that have developed during the current refugee situation, including integration possibilities both here in the Netherlands and there ‘in the region’.