Transborder Mobility and Its Consequences: What Role Do Institutions Play?
What happens when government authorities do not allow family reunification? How much power do individuals have over migrant workers when they act as their sponsors? How do transborder political networks affect the authority of leaders? And what are the consequences for people who reside in a country without secure residency status? For five years, the interregional research group “Transborder Mobility and Institutional Dynamics” at the participating universities in the University of Siegen, Cologne, and Frankfurt investigated how forms of transborder mobility and institutions interact and influence one another. The German Research Foundation (DFG) funded the project, which was initiated by researchers at the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Siegen.
The results show that transborder mobility can only be controlled to a limited extent through policy and depends on a wide variety of factors that cannot always be controlled by a single party. The people involved on the ground are embedded in various institutions that seek to regulate mobility in different ways. Furthermore, attempts at control often have unintended consequences, and transborder mobility affects the institutions involved in its initiation and regulation.
The projects took the researchers to different regions and social contexts. The subprojects examined the transborder mobility of chiefs in southern Africa, the experiences of African migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates, the relationship between individuals granted temporary residence and immigration authorities in Germany, the conditions for family reunification for refugees in Germany and France, and international organizations and their implementation of standards for the protection of refugees. To this end, more than 20 experts from the fields of sociology, ethnology, and political science worked on research projects that included extended periods of fieldwork. This meant they conducted interviews and observed processes on site. In some cases, the researchers spoke the respective languages themselves; in others, translators supported their work. The researchers examined various forms of migration and mobility not in isolation, but within social, political, and institutional contexts.
The research group’s findings have since been incorporated into numerous publications that address specific subprojects as well as overarching questions relevant to the research group as a whole. In addition, academic conferences and workshops were held in Siegen, Cologne, and Frankfurt, along with dialogue events featuring people from countries in the Global South. International guests were invited to numerous events.
