Undergraduate Course: Anthropology of Displacement and Migration (SCAN10077)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course examines some of the key questions that displacement and migration raise for those concerned with development. How should the international community respond to refugee crises? Can transnational diasporas help build peace - or do they foment war? Should we distinguish between migrants from poverty, those fleeing conflict, and other civilians trapped in crisis? Do labels like 'economic migrant', 'refugee', 'internally displaced person', and 'asylum seeker' ensure appropriate treatment - or rather legitimise political containment? |
| Course description |
Migration is simultaneously an aspect of everyday life, political debate, and media discourse. This course will examine how anthropology has shed light on the motivations for and experiences of displacement and migration. Students will engage with a range of ethnographic and theoretical literature on migration and displacement to examine why and how people migrate. Students will analyse the nature of mobility and immobility, including the gender, class, and ethnic implications for those engaging in processes of migration. What are the implications for development that is the cause or result of migration and displacement? How are social and political affiliations and responsibilities negotiated by migrants and those left behind?
Indicative sessions include:
- Transnationalism and 'flexible citizenship'
- Gender, kinship, and migration
- Displacement for development, conservation, or military
- Conflict-induced migration
- The journey: smuggling, trafficking
- Encampment and detention: control, management, and immobility
- Migration for development (aspiration; health; remittances)
- Diasporas, remittances, and 'long-distance nationalism'
- Reformulations of 'home' and 'homeland'
- Migration trajectories (return, onward, circular)
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 Anthropology courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate detailed knowledge and critical understanding of specialised theories, concepts and principles in the history and forefront of anthropology of displacement and migration studies
- Critically evaluate the contributions made by professional anthropologists as internal advisors, independent consultants, or academic critics of displacement for development, conservation, or military activities
- Develop original and creative responses by applying insights from anthropology of displacement and migration studies to related development and human rights issues
- Engage constructively with others during class debates and online discussions, and exercise autonomy and initiative in individual assessment activities
- Effectively communicate their extensive, detailed, and critical knowledge of complex debates in the anthropology of displacement and migration studies in discursive essays
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Reading List
Glick-Schiller, N. & A. Simsek-Caglar. 2011. Locating Migration: Rescaling Cities and Migrants. New York: Cornell University Press.
Jeffery, L. 2011. Chagos Islanders in Mauritius and UK: Forced Displacement and Onward Migration. Manchester: MUP.
Long, K. The Point of No Return: Refugees, Rights and Repatriation. Oxford: OUP.
Malkki, L. H. 1995. Purity & Exile: Violence, Memory & National Consciousness among Hutu Refugees in Tanzania. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ong, A. 1999. Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality. Durham: Duke University Press.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
By the end of the course students should have strengthened their skills in research and enquiry, and should be able to:
- apply different theories to the interpretation and explanation of human conduct and patterns of behaviour;
- recognise and account for the use of such theories by others;
- judge the value and relevance of empirical evidence and theoretical argument and interpretation in social science;
- identify and design ways of solving problems with a social and cultural dimension;
- question cultural assumptions;
- discuss ideas and interpretations with others in a clear and reasoned way; and
- apply anthropological knowledge to a variety of situations.
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| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Laura Jeffery
Tel: (0131 6)51 3865
Email: laura.jeffery@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Emma Thomson
Tel: (0131 6)50 3932
Email: Emma.Thomson@ed.ac.uk |
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