Sociology of Migration, Race and Ethnicity

Migration is at the forefront of contemporary debates globally, and has been a centre piece of electoral and political discourses in the Global North since the 1990s. From the so-called “migration crisis” of 2015 in Europe to the Brexit debates on keeping migrants out and to the current anti-immigrant mobilisations in Ireland, the UK, the USA, and elsewhere, migration remains a contentious issue. Often entangled with racism, discourses on migration show us how societies categorise themselves and others, and how they deal with otherness through policies and dynamics of inclusion and exclusion. In this module, we will learn to disentangle the terms used in public, media, and political discourses on migration and race by using concepts and theories from the sociology of migration and race.