Profile and Career

Migration and mobility pervade and transform today’s societies and have done so throughout history. Virtually every aspect of society is influenced and shaped by migration, including labour markets, education systems, culture, politics, religion and civil society. These developments present both opportunities and challenges. Opportunities may involve filling labour market shortages, as well as development and cultural enrichment; while challenges concern catering for the needs of refugees, the brain drain in developing countries, and preventing tensions and conflicts between cultural groups in host societies.

The MA in Advanced Migration Studies adopts an interdisciplinary approach in each course included in the programme.

Throughout the programme, different approaches are combined, for example:

  • contemporary patterns of migration are contextualised by historical accounts of the role of migration;

  • immigration and integration policies are scrutinised using both philosophical analysis of their underlying values and anthropological analysis of their impact on the everyday lives of migrants;

  • the experience of being a migrant is investigated both through migrant literature (and other artistic expressions) and ethnographic accounts of the lives of migrants; and
  • migrant identity formation (and counter-identification) are studied on the basis of both sociolinguistic and sociological accounts of identity.

Students obtain a range of high-level competences as regards multi-dimensional analyses of migration and integration in a wide range of contexts, including the competence to understand the causes, patterns and effects of international migration, understand and use both quantitative and qualitative methods, as well as cultural analysis, analysis of diversity politics, analysis of the role of religion in diverse societies, conflict analysis, and diversity management and administration.

Career Opportunities

The Master's programme in Advanced Migration Studies qualifies for a career in political institutions concerned with immigration and integration policies (e.g. at the national level and in local government), private companies facing the challenges of diversity management and recruitment of international talent, unions and organisations concerned with migrants in the labour market and various aspects of immigration and integration, NGOs making policy recommendations and assisting public institutions to cater for migrants, private companies providing analyses of issues related to migration to national and local government, cultural institutions committed to representing the history, culture and artistic expressions of migrants, as well as universities and other research institutions.

Read about the programme structure.