Migration Policy and Politics

This course is offered by The Swedish Program in collaboration with Stockholm School of Economics

Instructor: Jonas Brodin, E-mail: jonas.brodin@swedishprogram.org

Class hours: Monday & Wednesday 13.15–14.45 (preliminary)

Office hours: Monday & Wednesday 9.00–10.00, A987

**Course description: **

People move from one place to another—and always have. Migration might be voluntary and economic—in search of a better life—or forced and political—simply to save one’s life. Whatever the nature of the migration, it always has consequences that go far beyond the simple increases and decreases in population—for example, the current migrant crisis in Europe has strengthened far-right populism and isolationism, seen most dramatically in Britain’s decision to withdraw from the EU. It should come as no surprise, then, that migration is perpetually at the center of our political discourse. In this course, we will investigate migration and its consequences from a number of different perspectives.

Google Classroom: The Swedish Program uses the Google Classroom platform for all its courses. On the course Classroom page, you will find the readings, assignments, and lecture notes, as well as links to useful resources for further study. The course platform is also where you will submit your assignments. It also functions as a discussion forum outside of class: you are highly encouraged to participate in extending class discussions by posting questions and links throughout the semester. I will use the course platform to post links to articles and books that are relevant to the class, as well as reminders of deadlines and questions I have for you as a group outside of class.

Readings: Many of the readings for the course will be available to download on the course platform. There is also one required book, which we will read throughout the semester:
Stephen Castles, Hein de Haas, and Mark J. Miller, The Age of Migration, Sixth Edition

Laptops & phones: You may only use electronic devices for note-taking and solving group assignments. One cannot be engaged in the class while scrolling social media or browsing the internet (even if only to look up something relevant to the class discussion). Moreover, it is distracting for other students and discourteous toward them. In particular, phone use is strictly prohibited during class time (unless I explicitly state otherwise). If I see you using a phone during class, I will mark you as absent.

Course administrator: Anna.Meijerberg@hhs.se

At the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate in-depth knowledge about both general theories and specific case studies of migration
• Understand the process of research, from initial idea to final research report
• Prepare a clear and concise collaborative presentation
• Produce a long, rigorous, empirically based research paper

General entry requirements.

Required books:

There is one required book for the course:

Stephen Castles, Hein de Haas, and Mark J. Miller, The Age of Migration, Sixth Edition (ISBN: 9781352007121)

Many of the literature will be shorter readings, such as articles and reports, provided by the instructor.

Grading: Your grade will be calculated according to the following breakdown:
Active participation: 25%
Briefings: 20%
Research project: 55%

Active participation (25%): This course is a seminar, which means that it requires not only attendance—which is mandatory—but also active and constructive participation in discussions and group assignments. It is imperative that you are engaged in both the general class discussions and the various in-class group assignments. Besides active engagement in class discussions and asking questions during my and other students’ presentations, you can participate by being active on the Classroom stream—sharing observations, links, and recommendations—or by coming to talk to me during office hours. It is also good practice to prepare some questions you want to discuss about the reading or the topic of that day’s class.

Briefings (2 x 10%): You will do two joint in-class briefings during the semester. Each briefing should introduce the rest of the class to a specific case study—either a country or cluster of countries, a particular migratory flow, or some other topic related to migration. The briefings should be about 20 minutes in length.
Research project (55%): All of the assignments outside of class time will be part of a semester-long individual research project on a topic of your choosing. You are required to come talk to me about the research project during the first two weeks of the course. This project should be an in-depth investigation of some aspect of migration that we do not cover in class. The research project should use and incorporate what you have learned in lecture and through the class readings. To help structure your research, you will have a written research task every few weeks. Guidelines for all of the research tasks will be available on the course website. The research tasks are as follows:

Prospectus (10%). The prospectus is a brief (5–7 pages) statement describing your intended research project. It includes not only a more developed research question, but also a description of your methodology and expected findings, in addition to a tentative bibliography. You will be given a detailed list of what to include to help guide you when writing your prospectus.

Peer review (5%). When you submit your prospectus, you should also share it with the other members of your peer review group. For this assignment, you will provide feedback on the prospectuses of your peer review group members.

Literature review (5%). Here you will outline the existing research on your topic by giving short summaries of your most important sources as well as explaining how those sources have contributed to and advanced our understanding of your topic.

Outline (5%). At this point, you should have preliminary results for your project—enough to turn in a an outline of your final product, focused on presenting your results to date.

Final project (25%). Your final research report should be 10–15 pages in length. I will give you a set of guidelines for structuring and formatting your paper, as well as an explanation of the criteria I will use to evaluate your final report.

Late assignments: Assignments that are submitted after the deadline and without prior agreement will be marked down. The late penalty will be progressively more severe the later the assignment is submitted.

Academic dishonesty: Any form of academic dishonesty is a violation of our code of conduct and will result in disciplinary actions. Plagiarism or other forms of cheating will result in an automatic F for the assignment, and may also result in an immediate F for the course as a whole, based on the assessment of the Director of Studies and the Executive Director. If you want to use AI to assist your writing, you must adhere to the following guidelines: AI-assisted writing is permissible as long as its use is properly documented and does not substitute for students’ doing the actual writing work. For all written take-home assignments, students who have used AI to assist them are required to submit a summary describing how they have used AI to help them complete the assignment (producing text, proofreading, finding citations, etc). In addition, students also have to clearly indicate which passages have been produced or assisted by AI, for example in a footnote that details how AI was used in that particular instance. Failure to acknowledge one’s use of AI to complete an assignment will count as academic dishonesty and be subject to the same penalties as outright plagiarism or other forms of cheating.

Find the course schedule in TimeEdit

Schedule (preliminary):
Monday 18 January 2027, 13:15–14:45
Wednesday 20 January 2027, 13:15–14:45
Monday 25 January 2027, 13:15–14:45
Wednesday 27 January 2027, 13:15–14:45
Monday 1 February 2027, 13:15–14:45
Wednesday 3 February 2027, 13:15–14:45
Monday 8 February 2027, 13:15–14:45
Wednesday 10 February 2027, 13:15–14:45
Monday 15 February 2027, 13:15–14:45
Wednesday 17 February 2027, 13:15–14:45
Monday 22 February 2027, 13:15–14:45
Wednesday 24 February 2027, 13:15–14:45
Monday 1 March 2027, 13:15–14:45
Wednesday 3 March 2027, 13:15–14:45
Monday 8 March 2027, 13:15–14:45
Wednesday 10 March 2027, 13:15–14:45
Monday 15 March 2027, 13:15–14:45
Wednesday 17 March 2027, 13:15–14:45
Monday 22 March 2027, 13:15–14:45
Wednesday 24 March 2027, 13:15–14:45
(Spring Break)
Monday 12 April 2027, 13:15–14:45
Wednesday 14 April 2027, 13:15–14:45
Monday 19 April 2027, 13:15–14:45
Wednesday 21 April 2027, 13:15–14:45
(Back-up: Monday 26 April 2027, 13:15–14:45)

Have you been granted educational support because of a documented disability? If so, please contact the course director as soon as possible so that adequate accommodations can be made.

Contact specialneeds@hhs.se if you have questions about being granted educational support or need a copy of your educational support certificate.

For more information, visit the Specific Educational Needs page on the Student Hub (login required).