Migration, Rights and Governance (953M3)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Spring teaching

The seductive term ‘crisis’ now describes the state of international migration today. The crisis demands action on the part of international and regional experts. It also demands study so we can understand the legal and political processes that experts and liberal democratic states use to manage migration.

This module explores international and regional migration management, or governance – and thus the practice of migration management as well as its legal, political and ethical connotations. The way in which rights language is used in the practice of migration management is the focus of the course. We'll look at:

• global migration governance and rights
• international migration trends
• how the ‘international community’ responds to refugees and displaced persons using a rights-based approach.

Given the fact that it is one of the main destination regions for migrants, a significant part of the module will have regional focus on Europe and the so-called ‘migrant crisis’. The module examines the broad themes of:

• migration governance
• rights
• security
• solidarity
• mobility.

We’ll consider these themes through the topics including trafficking, immigration detention, relocation, deportation and criminal conviction and family reunification.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 22 hours of contact time and about 278 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2023/24. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.