General entry requirements + English 6

The course constitutes the level 1-30 within the main field of International Migration and Ethnic Relations.

The aim of the course is that the students will acquire basic knowledge and analytical skills in the multidisciplinary subject area of International Migration and Ethnic Relations.

The course contains the following modules:

Global Migration – Introduction to Concepts and Theories

The first module comprises an overview of the field of International Migration. The students will be introduced to different concepts, theories and trends in International Migration and Ethnic Relations. The module will address questions such as: What is International Migration? What trends can be noted from different historical periods? How can we use International Migration theory to help us make sense of the world around us? How do societies cope with the challenges of International Migration?

Ethnicity and Culture in a Contemporary World

The second module comprises an overview of Ethnic Relations. The students will be introduced to fundamental concepts concerning ethnic relations, and will learn how to identify different perspectives of relevance for the construction and reconstruction of ethnicity in a contemporary world.

Global Migration – Introduction to Concepts and Theories

After completing the module the students shall be able to:

• Give an account of contemporary global migration trends and of how migration has throughout history influenced the formation of societies.
• Identify and describe key concepts and terms in the IMER-field, for example international migration, integration and assimilation.
• Give an account of and discuss major international migration theories depicting causes of migration and its effect on sending and receiving societies.
• Identify and reflect on key structural, social and institutional areas for integration/assimilation and segregation.
• As part of a group, conduct and critically reflect on an assignment of limited scope, which is conducted within agreed timetable.
• Start addressing questions within the field of international migration and ethnic relations from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Ethnicity and Culture in a Contemporary World

After completing the module the student shall be able to:

• Identify and understand the content of essential key concepts used in the field of IMER; such as ethnicity, race, culture, identity and stigmatization.
• Describe how ethnicity and culture is constructed and reconstructed and explore the correlation between ethnicity, gender, religion and culture.
• Identify and analyse how in- and out-groups mechanisms are constructed in terms of stereotypes and stigmatization.
• Both orally and in writing, make a small presentation within an agreed timetable, based on reflections of a phenomenon of ethnic relations using concepts such as culture, identity, stereotypes and stigmatization.

Teaching in both modules is conducted primarily in the form of lectures and seminars. A major part of the work consists of independent studies. Students are responsible for reading the course material based on instructions given. They are also given brief tasks to complete in class as well as in preparation for class. Students are therefore expected to read all the course material and pursue some independent reading in connection to the course syllabus.

Global Migration – Introduction to Concepts and Theories

The students’ performance in this module is assessed by: a) a class room exam (7.5 credits) and b) a presentation of migration issues in different regions of the world which consists of an oral group presentation and an individual written assignment (oral group assignment 3,5 credits and individual assignment 4 credits).

Ethnicity and Culture in a Contemporary World

The students’ performance in the module is assessed by two sit-down exams (5 credits each) grading A-U and an oral presentation (5 credits) grading pass or fail.

The various examinations test knowledge and understanding of the issues of International Migration and Ethnic Relations covered in the modules as well as the student’s ability, within agreed timetables and in line with other examination requirements, to critically analyse, evaluate and resolve questions of International Migration and Ethnic Relations.

Students who do not pass the regular course exams have a minimum of two re-sit opportunities. Re-sits follow the same form as the original exams, except for re-sits for group assigments, which will take the form of individual written and oral assignments.

Global Migration – Introduction to Concepts and Theories

• Compendium with articles (700 p)
• Castles, Stephen, de Haas, Hein, & Miller, Mark J. (2020 or later), The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World (Fifth Edition), Palgrave Macmillan, New York
• Fiddian-Qasmiyeh E., Loescher G., Katy Long, and Sigona N. (2014) The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, Edited by , Oxford University Press: Oxford. (parts)
• Penninx, R, Berger, M & Kraal, K (eds) (2006) The Dynamics of International Migration and Settlement in Europe – A State of the Art, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. [318 p] [Available on www.oapen.org)

Ethnicity and Culture in a Contemporary World

• Compendium with articles (800-900 pages)
• Barth, F. (1998). Ethnic groups and boundaries: The social organization of culture difference. Waveland Press. (Introduction chapter, 30 pp.)
• Goffman, Erving (1990) Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity, London: Penguin Books (chapter 1, 60 pp)
• Jenkins, R. (2014). Social identity. Routledge. (chapters 1 & 2, 30 pp)
• Hall, S. (2021). Selected Writings on Race and Difference (P. Gilroy & R. W. Gilmore, Eds.). Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1hhj1b9 (selected chapters)

500 p additional literature

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).

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.

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.