Immigration Policies

The first objective is to guide participants beyond the common wisdom about the debated issues of migration and asylum. They will acquire more familiarity with statistical data in this field, their collection and interpretation.
A second objective will consist in developing the ability to understand, analyse and discuss the concepts which are commonly employed, e.g. mobility versus migration, regular versus irregular immigration, economic versus humanitarian migrants.
Furthermore, the participants will be introduced into the field of migration policies: conception, implementation and evaluation; potential effects; and involved actors.
A particular concern will be the assumption of an analytical perspective beyond the one of Western receiving societies, promoting thus a more sensitive point of view in relation also to sending and transit countries, and migrants themselves.

Students will acquire the ability to understand the main trends of international migrations, to critically analyse migration policies, and to discuss related political discourses at an international level, with a special focus on Europe.
Furthermore, they will become familiar with concepts commonly employed in this field and with figures which define the actual trends of international migrations.
Last but not least, they will encouraged to take part actively during classes by their interventions.