Migration research at Ghent University

The Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR) is an interdisciplinary consortium aimed at societal impact at Ghent University. CESSMIR includes about 100 researchers from seven different faculties. Three elements form the key thread in CESSMIR’s activities: interdisciplinarity, societal impact, and participation. Hence we stimulate interdisciplinary research projects and university-wide courses, organize practical trainings for practitioners and policy-makers, and we maximize the involvement of stakeholders through the research process.

Migration and fleeing may largely impact people's lives, the lives of the migrants themselves as well as the lives of the people in the societies in which the migrants temporarily or permanently reside, from which they leave or return to. As an interfacultary consortium, CESSMIR focuses on these 'social aspects' of migration. We understand 'migration' as any possible form of mobility, such as asylum, resettlement, transit migration, return migration, re-/expatriation, labour migration, family reunion, temporary migration,... .

Because migration processes and the social groups that form part of these processes involve many different aspects, they touch several diverse scientific disciplines, such as economics, sociology, pedagogy, psychology, history, linguistics, criminology, political science, law, (migration) policy, social work and medical sciences. Therefore, an interdisciplinary approaches are crucial to achieve a better understanding of these processes and to support the societal debate on these topics.

More information: https://www.ugent.be/cessmir/