5YYD0012 Migration and Development

2017/18 Term 2

Value: 15 credits
Convenor: Fiorenza Picozza
Office hours: Friday 10am-12pm, Room K4L.07 (King’s Building)
Email: fiorenza.picozza@kcl.ac.uk
Teaching arrangement: Weekly two-hour session (Fri 1-3pm S-2.08)
Assessment: 1 Examination (2 Hours) (50%), 1 Essay (1,500 Words) (50%), Formative
assessment (500 words)

Aims and objectives:

This module aims to problematise the increasing relevance of national borders in the
postcolonial world order, specifically relating to their impact on the mobility and rights
of migrants originating from ‘developing countries’. Through an interdisciplinary
approach (including development studies, anthropology, sociology, critical theory and
cultural studies), the module introduces students to postcolonial critiques of both
development and migration studies and interrogates representations of the ‘global
South’ and the ‘global North’, with a particular focus on the irregularisation of
migration.
Students will be introduced to a variety of perspectives on contemporary migration,
mobility and displacement, drawing on theoretical engagements, empirical studies, NGO
reports and visual media. Students will be stimulated to critically engage with and
deconstruct traditional theories and analytical tools of migration and border studies; as
well as critically reflect on migration and asylum policy, state-led migration
management, NGO’s developmental and humanitarian aid and civil society’s
spontaneous solidarity initiatives.

Learning outcomes:
• learnt to critically engage with and deconstruct structures, norms, ideologies,
binaries, and categories;
• acquired critical knowledge of migration politics, in terms of factors and modes of
contemporary migration movements, as well as policy and management issues;
• Understood how contemporary migration is situated in global processes of
development, inequality, and globalization;
• Developed a knowledge of contemporary debates on migration issues;
• Gained confidence in critically analysing state and international policies on
migration;
• Have been exposed to a range of research methods, including quantitative, qualitative
and participatory techniques, relevant to the study of migration.
Weekly Outline 2017/18:

Week 1 Critical approaches to Migration, Borders and Development

Week2 Bordering Practices and Border Regimes: the Irregularisation of Human
Mobility
Week 3 Forced Migration, Asylum, Refugee Crises and Humanitarianism
Week 4 The Externalisation of Border Controls: Transit, Cooperation and
Development
Week 5 Migrant Labour, Capitalism and Exploitation
Week 6 Migrant Illegality, Detention and Deportation
Week 7 Development Aid to Potential Migrants and Returnees
Week 8 Solidarity and Migrant Self-Organisation
Week 9 Citizenship, Race and Ethnicity
Week 10 Gender, Intersectionality and Migration

Recommended background readings

- Mezzadra and Neilson. 2013. Border as Method or the Multiplication of Labor. Durham:
Duke University Press.
- De Genova, N. 2017. The Borders of "Europe": Autonomy of Migration, Tactics of
Bordering. Durham. Duke University Press.
- Geiger, M., and Pécoud, A. 2010. The politics of International Migration Management.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Assessment:

Assessment is by means of one formative 500-word essay (not formally assessed) to be

submitted by the 26th of February 2018; one assessed 1,500-word essay (50%) to be
submitted by the 13th of April 2018; and one two-hour written examination in May
2018 (50%).