Entry requirements

Bachelor degree in social sciences or humanities + the equivalent of English 6

Progression level in relation to degree requirements

The course is not part of a main field of study.

Course contents

This course offers in-depth knowledge of central issues in international migration and ethnic relations (IMER). It draws on ongoing research at the department and the expertise of the teaching researchers. The aim is both to develop knowledge of the state of the art in the field and to examine how such knowledge is and can be produced. In so doing, the course consistently combines theoretical and methodological queries. The course is divided in two modules (15 + 15 credits), each of which covers a delimited area in current IMER research.

The course’s underlying pedagogical philosophy is that the generic intellectual skills of critical thinking and independent analysis are best developed in delimited thematic contexts, in which the connection between knowledge about and knowledge how are most visible and open for scrutiny. To this end, the course is focused on key problems and questions in contemporary IMER research, and benefits from the expertise and current research in the department. Apart from offering students in-depth knowledge on a selected set of subjects in the IMER field, the course also develops a more profound and general understanding of what it means “to know” something and how such knowledge is produced in IMER research.

For the fall semester of 2026, the following to modules are offered:

Module I**: Critical Engagement with Analytical Tools in Migration Research**

Acknowledging that theoretical language is deeply shaped by the social, historical, and political contexts in which it is produced and deployed, this module invites students to critically engage with analytical tools in contemporary migration research. Particular attention is paid to the concepts of identity, culture, diversity, and integration. These concepts are examined in relation to relevant methodological considerations, as well as to the political logics underpinning processes of homogenization and the problematization of migrants as “others”. The module further examines scholarly efforts to redefine the object of migration studies through reconceptualizations of society and societal change in relation to migration.

Module II: Migration in a Global Historical Perspective

This course examines global migration as a central force in world history and as a key factor in the formation of societies and cultures across time. It traces major historical phases of migration, from early imperial expansion and slavery to nineteenth-century mass migration, postcolonial movements, and displacement in the modern era. Selected sessions focus on Sweden as a case in global migration history, including nineteenth-century emigration, postwar immigration, and the displacement of the Sámi population.

Alongside historical analysis, the course draws on cultural studies perspectives to explore how migration has been interpreted, represented, and remembered, and how cultural identities and diasporas have developed in different historical contexts. Through this combined approach, students gain a comparative understanding of how migration has shaped societies in the past and continues to influence cultural and political life today.

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of the course the student should demonstrate:

1. God knowledge of two contemporary research areas in IMER.
2. And very good knowledge of two well delimited subjects within those research areas.
3. Ability to critically identify key issues and debates within the research areas as well as blind-spots and weaknesses.
4. Ability to compare and critically review different theoretical and methodological approaches within the research areas.
5. Ability to summarize and critically review existing research on selected research subjects.
6. Ability to formulate and develop original research on the selected research subjects on the basis of secondary sources.
7. Ability to carry out an independent analysis on the basis of a selected relevant material of secondary sources.
8. Ability to present and critically discuss research in good academic English.

Learning activities

The course is based on active and informed participation of the student. The course blends lecture-oriented elements with student-led presentations and discussions. It also includes supervision seminars in group. Seminars have compulsory attendance. The student will spend most of the time working on their own and is expected to come well prepared to each class.

Assessment

The course consists of two modules of 15 credits each. Each module is examined via an individual portfolio of oral and written assignments (5 credits), graded pass or fail (G or U), and an individual course paper (10 credits) graded A-U. The portfolio is assessed on the basis of learning goals 1 and 3-5, and the course paper on the basis of learning goals 1-8.

A pass on both counts on both modules is required for passing the whole course.

Course literature

Module I:

• Amelina, A. (2022) Knowledge production for whom? Doing migrations, colonialities and standpoints in non-hegemonic migration research, Ethnic and Racial Studies 45(13), 2393–2415.
• Anderson, B. (2019) New directions in migration studies: towards methodological denationalism, Comparative Migration Studies 7, 36.
• Borrelli, L. M. & D. Ruedin (2024) Towards a precise and reflexive use of migration-related terminology in quantitative research: Criticism and suggestions, Comparative Migration Studies 12, article number 10.
• Brubaker R. (2013) Categories of analysis and categories of practice: a note on the study of Muslims in European countries of immigration, Ethnic and Racial Studies 36, 1–8.
• Crawley, H. & D. Skleparis (2018) Refugees, migrants, neither, both: categorical fetishism and the politics of bounding in Europe’s ‘migration crisis’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 44(1), 48–64.
• Dahinden, J. (2016) A plea for the ‘de-migranticization’ of research on migration and integration, *Ethnic and Racial Studies *39(13), 2207–2225.
• Dahinden, J. & A. Pott (eds) (2026)* Reflexivities and Knowledge Production in Migration Studies: Pitfalls and Alternatives*. IMISCOE Research Series. Cham: Springer. (selected chapters)
• Gaonkar, A. M., A. S. Øst Hansen. H. C. Post & M. Schramm (eds) (2021) Postmigration: Art, Culture, and Politics in Contemporary Europe. Bielefeld: transcript. (selected chapters)
• Glick Schiller, N. (2012) Situating identities: towards an identities studies without binaries of difference, Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 19(4), 520–532.
• Hadj Abdou, L. (2019) Immigrant integration: the governance of ethno-cultural differences, Comparative Migration Studies 7, article number 15.
• Khosravi, S. (2024) Doing migration studies with an accent, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 50(9), 2346–2358.
• Klarenbeek, L. M. (2019a) Relational integration: a response to Willem Schinkel, Comparative Migration Studies 7, article number 20.
• Klarenbeek, L. M. (2021) Reconceptualising ‘integration as a two-way process’, Migration Studies 9(3), 902–921.
• Korteweg, A. C. (2017) The failures of ‘immigrant integration’: the gendered racialized production of non-belonging, Migration Studies 5(3), 428–444.
• Marotta, V. (2019) The ‘migrant experience’: an analytical discussion, European Journal of Social Theory 23(4), 591–610.
• Petersen, A. R. (2024) Postmigration, Transculturality and the Transversal Politics of Art. New York and London: Routledge. (selected chapters)
• Raghuram, P. (2021) Democratizing, stretching, entangling, transversing: four moves for reshaping migration categories, Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies 19(1), 9–24.
• Römhild, R. (2017) Beyond the bounds of the ethnic: for postmigrant cultural and social research, Journal of Aesthetics & Culture 9(2), 69–75.
• Schinkel, W. (2018) Against ‘immigrant integration’: for an end to neocolonial knowledge production, Comparative Migration Studies 6, article number 31.
• Åkesson, L. (2025) Digitally mobile Swedes and their experiences: a contribution to the de-exceptionalization of migrants, Global Networks 25(1): e12495.

Articles and chapters may be added to this list.

Module II:

• Anderson, B. (1983/2006). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso. (Selected chapters)
• Bhat, K. S. (2025). Cultural Studies: Theory and Methodology. London: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. (Selected chapters)
• Gatrell, P. (2013). The making of the modern refugee. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Selected chapters)
• Gilroy, P. (1993). The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. London: Verso. (Selected chapters)
• Goldin, I. (2024). The Shortest History of Migration. London: Old Street Publishing.
• Hall, S. (1997). The work of representation. In: Hall, S. (ed.) Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Sage/Open University, pp. 13–64.
• Hoerder, D. (2002). Cultures in contact: World migrations in the second millennium. Durham & London: Duke University Press. (Selected chapters)

The core literature will be complemented by additional scholarly readings on specific topics, as well as selected works of fiction and films relevant to the themes of the course.

Course evaluation

Malmö University provides students who participate in, or who have completed a course, with the opportunity to express their opinions and describe their experiences of the course by completing a course evaluation administered by the University. The University will compile and summarise the results of course evaluations. The University will also inform participants of the results and any decisions relating to measures taken in response to the course evaluations. The results will be made available to the students (HF 1:14).

Interim rules

If a course is no longer offered, or has undergone significant changes, the students must be offered two opportunities for re-examination based on the syllabus that applied at the time of registration, for a period of one year after the changes have been implemented.

Additional information

The syllabus is a translation of a Swedish source text.

If a student has a Learning support decision, the examiner has the right to provide the student with an adapted test, or to allow the student to take the exam in a different format.