MA in Migration and Intercultural Relations (Campus-Erasmus Mobility)

The European Master in Migration and Intercultural Relations (EMMIR) is the first African-European-Asian Erasmus Mundus Joint Master (EMJM) in migration studies and is jointly run by three African, four European, and two Asian partners: University of Oldenburg in Germany, the University of Stavanger in Norway, University of South Bohemia in Czech Republic, University of Nova Gorica in Slovenia, Ahfad University for Women in Sudan, Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda, University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, and the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group and Rabindra Bharati University in India. They jointly provide the content and the logistics for EMMIR as a fully integrated study programme with various elements of joint teaching and awarding a Joint master’s degree registered with EQAR (European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education). EMMIR is an EMJM co-funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ Key Action 2.

EMMIR’s rationale is based on the observation that the migration societies of the 21st century need professionals addressing and mediating the various challenges and demands, the threats and opportunities connected. It answers to the challenges of migration societies need to be found on cultural, social, legal, political, socioeconomic and economic levels. Indeed, there is a large variety of unresolved questions around migration to/in Europe, difficulties in developing common European policies, an obvious need for evidence-based policy – all this influencing migration discourses and contributing to discursive shifts, challenging inclusion/social cohesion in Europe. Migration is a decisive dimension of global challenges and there is a need for future-oriented discourses – with regard to climate change and migration, (civil) wars and forced migration, or the pandemic and migration, all connected to imbalances of power, questions of access to technology and information from post-colonial perspectives. This growing diversity of discourses on migration and intercultural relations in Europe but also globally, especially along the global North–South divide and with regard to African – Asian relations, is giving shape to a relatively new field of knowledge and mediation. The new awareness of the importance of migration and migrants – including refugees, trafficked and displaced persons – leads to new demands for the expertise and, consequently, growing labour market needs for migration and intercultural communication professionals. Politicians and officials as well as civil society organisations are seeking solutions for migration policy issues and request experts in sound critical analysis, knowledge production and its transfer to practical applications.

Student mobility is one of the programme’s crucial features. The two-year programme begins at the University of Oldenburg, Germany for the first semester. In the second semester, all students move to the University of Stavanger, Norway.

In the third semester, students attend the partner university of their choice, they complete courses and a project-based internship. Before the final semester, a joint proposal colloquium in Oldenburg leads to the formation of supervision groups continuing in the fourth semester in order to support the research and thesis writing.

The institutions where students can do their third and fourth semesters are:

• University of Oldenburg, Germany
• University of Stavanger, Norway
• University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia
• University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic
• Ahfad University for Women, Sudan
• Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda
• University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
• Rabindra Bharati University, India"

Student mobility is one of the programme’s crucial features and the EMMIR study plan combines both group and individual mobility. You study the first semester in Oldenburg, Germany (UOL) and the second semester in Stavanger, Norway (UIS), together with the whole group. Then you choose your individual mobility path during for the third semester, which includes a project-based internship and one of the modules offered by EMMIR partner universities.

The fourth semester starts with the proposal colloquium in early December at UOL, after which you are free to design your own mobility according to your master thesis. You can focus on your research as well as do internships in any country under the direct supervision of one of the full partner universities.

All four semesters are organised in modules according to the Eu­ropean Bologna standard. Each module consists of a number of seminars, lectures, workshops, study trips, tutorials, and other forms of teaching as detailed in the relevant module syllabus (see Module Catalogue); once you have successfully completed a module, you are assigned a specific num­ber of ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) credit points. Each semester you need to gain 30 ECTS (120 ECTS in four semesters). One ECTS credit point refers to a workload of 25 to 30 hours (including contact hours, reading, assignments and independent study).

Mobility Path

Diversity. The mobility path exposes you to different approaches to migration theories and policies, as well as varied intercultural relations perspectives. You study in diverse academic institutions located in economic, social and cultural settings in which you learn through your own experience. You learn about what shapes migration processes from different angles, including migrant's experiences, which are systematically integrated into the study programme.

Individual research focus. EMMIR allows you to develop an individual research focus drawing on the expertise of all involved partners and their specialisation in a decentralised way. Your focus might combine previous knowledge and experiences with a more nuanced understanding of your topic of interest, as well as stronger research skills to address it.

EMMIR has four programme foci: gender, diversity and intersectionality; development, conflict and justice; representation, power relations and knowledge production; and education and citizenship. They serve as the foundation you will use to develop your individual specialisation and profile, for example by combining them with a geographic focus involving one or more of the countries in the partnership, potentially also linked to your individual language skills.

Further options enhanced by the mobility path are:

• to focus on ‘major’ nations in global migration, for example Germany, South Africa or Sudan;
• to focus on intercultural relations/migration issues in small nations and young nation states (Europe, Africa);
• to change perspectives also regarding theoretical and methodological approaches to migration by, for example, focusing on scholarly work emerging in the Global South;
• to specialise in comparative research on two or more of the involved countries, drawing on the expertise and access to selected partner networks;
• to specialise in overarching questions, for example, research on global migration;
• to become part of a network of networks and to further specify your profile with regard to future employment.

Semester 1

You will spend your first se­mester with the full cohort at University of Oldenburg (UOL), Germany.

Starting with the Intensive Phase (IP) Studying Glob­al Migration in the 21st century (MM11) in September, you will become acquainted with all partner universities and their aca­demic teachers from the very beginning. All partner institutions carry out the IP and provide input on their respective focus module and perspectives as well as their discipli­nary orientations and interdisciplinary net­works.

Starting during the IP you may attend a course on German Language and Socie­ty in order to locate yourself in Germany and to fos­ter multilingual expertise. At the end of the IP, you will begin negotiating your individual study plan with the EMMIR staff, sketching your focus and mobility track and linking the courses selected with your individual profile and objectives.

The first semester includes two congruent courses focusing on methods/methodology and on theories of migration and intercultural relations. In both modules, UOL academic staff will cooperate with international scholars and other guest speakers.

Semester 2

For semester 2, you will move with the full cohort to Stavanger, where the Norwegian and the Slovenian partners are jointly in charge of planning and carry­ing out the teaching. Semester 2 consists of two modules, offering the possibility to further specialise in your field of inter­est.

• Module MM21 focuses on Migration between Time and Temporality: Regional Perspectives.
• Module MM22 Theorising Migration and Multiculturalism will give you the possibility to select three out of at least six sub-modules.

In the second half of se­mester 2, EMMIR staff at the University of Stavanger and the EMMIR coordinator will provide you with support to organise your individual mobility path. By the end of semester 2, you will have further devel­oped your concept of specialisation and research perspective in the field and you will commit your further studies to one of the four programme foci (i.e. gender, diversity and intersectionality; development, conflict and justice; representation, power relations and knowledge production; education and citizenship).

Semester 3

In semester 3, you will start fol­lowing your individual mobility path and at­tend a Focus Module (MM32) at one of the partner universities. Also, you will concen­trate on a Project-Based Internship (MM31) following your individual research focus.

Framed by a small thematic research team, you will enhance your individual profile: link­ing your disciplinary with transdisciplinary perspectives, having expert knowledge in a specific area, further accentuated by a bi/multilingual profile, research and interaction in the field. Already in con­tact with your potential MA disserta­tion supervisor, you will also use the third semester to develop your disser­tation proposal.

Options for third semester mobility are: UOL, MUST, USB, UNG, Wits, and Ahfad.

Semester 4

The full cohort will meet at the start of semester 4 for a man­datory proposal colloquium at UOL in order to prepare for the thesis from a theoretical and methodological level.

The colloquium is carried out jointly by all partners. Subsequently, super­vision groups will be formed attending research colloquia offered at the partner universities.

After the proposal colloqui­um, you will dedicate the fourth semester entirely to thesis research and writing. The thesis has to be submitted by 30 June.

After your thesis is submitted and graded, passing students attend the EMMIR graduation ceremony in Oldenburg.

The aim of the study programme is to provide students with comprehensive knowledge in migration and intercultural relations, focusing on analytical and critical thinking skills as well as the various soft skills needed in the European and global labour market. It enables students to systematically evaluate existing scholarship and to contribute to knowledge production in migration studies, to engage in dialogues and discourses on various levels (global, national, regional, local).

EMMIR caters to the described developments, and qualifies professionals:

• with diverse backgrounds in terms of discipline, language, nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, able-bodiedness,
• who have personal experience with mobility, especially transcontinental mobility,
• who have both, field specific knowledge as well as transversal and soft skills,

for positions in a variety of fields connected to migration, including forced migration and intercultural relations. The most convincing argument that there is a need for EMMIR might be the labour market success of its graduates. The EMMIR Consortium considers it the key indicator for the constantly increasing demand for well-trained professionals in the field of migration, and takes it as evidence that EMMIR has been successfully geared its curriculum and the study programme towards this demand, adding substantially to the employability of its graduates and contributing to a smooth transition from university to professional/skilled employment (which, especially in a social science and cultural studies context, is often tricky).