MIGRATION AND INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION POLICY

Knowledge and understanding.
At the end of the course, students will be familiar with   the historical, political, and socio-economic factors influencing global migration patterns  with particolar attention to  Europe; They will be able to identify the main concepts and the principal theories of the theoretical debate in international migration in order to understand the structure of international politics and the global political system.

Applied knowledge and understanding.
By the end of the course, students will demonstrate the ability to use the notions and theories acquired, applying them to practical situations in order to solve problems, analyze international phenomena, support arguments, and carry out activities with a professional approach, thereby showing effective mastery of the subjects studied.

Autonomy of judgment.
By the end of the course, students will be able to integrate knowledge and manage complexity, formulate judgments on the main events of the global migration, and collect and interpret relevant data relating to events and issues within the global system.

Communication skills.
By the end of the course, students will be able to express ideas and arguments clearly and accurately on the topics studied, using the technical-scientific language of the discipline and interacting effectively with different interlocutors, including in diverse cultural contexts. They will also be able to integrate into multidisciplinary groups and facilitate communication between people with different areas of expertise.

Learning skills.
At the end of the course, students will be able to use the knowledge acquired in class in relation to the international migration  and the phenomena that characterize it. Furthermore, they will be able to independently gather bibliographic sources for the analysis of migration  politics.

 The course combines lectures (erogative teaching) with interactive activities (structured debates, laboratory sessions, student-led workshops). Lectures build knowledge and understanding; interactive activities build the capacity to apply concepts, make judgements, and communicate. 

Attendance is compulsory, with partial exemptions as provided by the Glopem academic regulations. Only international students admitted to the programme who arrive after the course has started, or after it has ended, because of the late granting of a visa may sit the exam as non-attending students; they should contact the instructor at the start of the course to agree on an equivalent set of tasks.

The course provides an introduction to the global refugee and migration policies. It will focus

on the global and European governance of migration and asylum. The international and

European policies regulating migration and migrants’ protection will be analised, with a special

focus on the developments of the European migration and asylum policy.

Key contemporary problems in the fields of immigration, asylum and refugee policy will be

examined

1.        Module 1 –  introduction to the global refugee and migration policies; hystorical overview of migration flows; IR main theories on migration; analysis of the multilevel system of migration governance

2.        Module 2 – Migration and asylum governance: Global and regional systems with particular regard to European Union policy on migration and asylum. Comparative analysis of European and American system og governing borders control.

3.        Module 3 – External dimension of migration governance in the European Union

TEXT BOOKS:

1.        Catherine Wihtol de Wenden, Migration and  International Relations, IMISCOE Short Reader Chapters: . 1 (1.1;1.2). Ch.2 (2.1;2.2;2.3;2.4;2.5) Ch. 3 Ch. 5

2.         F. Longo: Migration as a common challenge, in Casu S. (ed.) The European Parliament Elections, Cacucci, 2024

3.        F. Longo, I. Fontana, «When Securitization Spills  over Across EU Borders: A Quantitative Mapping of the External Dimension of EU Migration and Asylum  Policies’. European Foreign AffairsReview, 27, no. 4 82023): 485–512.

4.        A reading  from recommended readings

Reccomended readings:

Arne Niemann & Natascha Zaun (2023) Introduction: EU external migration policy and EU migration governance: introduction, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 49:12, 2965-2985,

Lorenzo Piccoli, Migration representation in movies from 1940 to 2024: The spectacle of human mobility and the North-bound bias, Migration Studies, Volume 14, Issue 1, March 2026,

Ana Beduschi, International migration management in the age of artificial intelligence MIGRATION STUDIES VOLUME 9 NUMBER 3 2021 576–596

Longo F, Panebianco S, Cannata G. Mind the gap! Organized hypocrisy in EU cooperation with Southern neighbor countries on international protection. Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica. 2023;53(3):367-383.

 A.K.M.AhsanUllah.  Migration as International Relations Global Networks Volume 25, Issue 3

Sandra Lavenex and Frowin Rausis, Three faces of migration policy-making in the EU

Bermejo, R. (2009). ‘Migration and Security in the EU: Back to Fortress Europe?’, Journal of Contemporary European Research. 5 (2), pp. 207-224.

Assessment method

·      Type of assessment: Oral exam

·      Structure: Questions on the different part of the program

·      Assessment criteria: Ability to organize knowledge in a clear and structured manner; Ability to demonstrate independent and critical reasoning on the material studied; Ability to apply analytical tools with confidence, connecting themes and issues to develop original ideas; Quality of oral presentation (use of specialized terminology, clarity, effectiveness)

·      Attending / non-attending students: attendance is compulsory at Glopem; the few students admitted as non-attending under the late-visa exemption will be requested to read specific reading texts.

·      Language: English.

·      Use of AI tools: during the course AI will be used under the guidance of the professor for organizing debate sessions.

To ensure equal opportunities and in compliance with current laws, interested students may request a personal interview in order to plan any compensatory and/or dispensatory measures based on educational objectives and specific needs. Students can also contact the CInAP (Centro per l’integrazione Attiva e Partecipata – Servizi per le Disabilità e/o i DSA) referring teacher within their department (https://www.cinap.unict.it/content/referenti).

• Externalisation of migration policy
• Actors of the global governance of migration policy
•  Realist Theories and migration
• Multilevel governance of migration
•  Dimensions of externalisation in EU migration policy