The Politics of Mobility, Displacement and Asylum

The course belongs to the general area of political anthropology and the related sub-discipline of the anthropology of migration (e.g human mobility, forced displacement, humanitarianism, globalization etc) as well as to studies on citizenship and political inclusion. In the first part, it pre-sents an introduction to global mobility, global migration flows, displacement and asylum, taking into account their quantitative, legal and sociological dimensions and, specifically, it will deal with (global) South-North and South-South mobility and displacement. In the second part, from an anthropological and ethnographic perspective, in-depth case studies around these themes are presented, shedding light on social worlds, experiences, tensions and transformations related to migration. The third part (9 credits only) is a seminar-style section focused on developing a politi-cal anthropology of citizenship, asylum, political inclusion, nationalism, belonging, community-making: it presents and discusses classical texts as well as new research revolving around these topics.

Knowledge and Understanding

Through a combination of lectures, individual/group presentations and classroom discussions, by the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Critically discuss key issues relating to human mobility, global migration flows, asylum and dis-placement in their quantitative and qualitative dimensions.
2. Analyse detailed case studies, with context-specific and ethnographically documented exam-ples.
3. Understand how the definitions of migrant, refugee and citizen; political exclusion and inclu-sion; statelessness, citizenship and national belonging are co-defined.

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding

1. Assess the political, policy and ethical implications of migration dynamics and the public dis-courses constructed around them.
2. Go beyond generic and stereotypical representations of migration, belonging and citizenship, differentiating between types, categories and dimensions of migration.
3. Go beyond the ethnocentric view of globalisation and migration dynamics.