Vacancy - Internship: Advocacy for Migrants in European Transit Zones. Analysing Innovative Strategies for Political Change

About UN University

For the past four decades, UNU has been a go-to think tank for impartial research on the pressing global problems of human survival, conflict prevention, development, and welfare. With more than 400 researchers in 13 countries, UNU’s work spans the full breadth of the 17 SDGs, generating policy-relevant knowledge to effect positive global change. UNU maintains more than 200 collaborations with UN agencies and leading universities and research institutions across the globe.

 

United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS)

The United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS), established in 2001, is one of the research and training institutes of the United Nations University (UNU) network. The specific mission of UNU-CRIS is to foster a better understanding of the processes of regional integration and cooperation and their implications in a changing world order. UNU-CRIS specialises in the comparative study of regional integration, monitoring and assessing regional integration worldwide and in the study of interactions between regional organisations and global institutions. As of October 2016, UNU-CRIS is cooperating with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Ghent University.

 

About CESSMIR, 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 maximize the involvement of stakeholders through the research process.

Every two years, CESSMIR organises some activities on a particular focus theme. In 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, our theme is ‘Language, migration and refugees’. Stay tuned on our website, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook for more information on upcoming study days, trainings, lectures and other activities!

 

Topic

A full-time internship position is available to support the research project  ‘Advocacy for Migrants in European Transit Zones. Analysing Innovative Strategies for Political Change'.  This project investigates citizen collectives’ (and NGOs’) advocacy work within two European transit zones (Brussels and Calais), and transnationally, looking at EU-wide solidarity networks. We examine which advocacy strategies citizen collectives have used since Europe’s 2015 refugee reception crisis until now, and try to understand if and how these strategies correspond to changes in (a) the living conditions of migrants in transit zones and (b) the laws and (c) policies that produce these transit zones. The goal of the project is to contribute to building strategic capacity and knowledge of advocacy strategies for migrants’ and refugees’ rights in an increasingly hostile political climate.

 

Tasks

  • You will be documenting, analysing and describing the evolving national migration and asylum policies of France and the United Kingdom starting from 2011 until 2024 (in themselves and in relation to the evolving EU policies). You will be looking at their repercussions with regard to the evolving possibilities for migrants in both countries to seek international protection or other means to regularise their presence, as well as the timely processing of asylum requests and access to quality reception accommodation during the procedure(s). The analysis will equally include the evolutions with regard to (undocumented) migrants' access to basic rights in France.
  • You will draft and present a working paper in English based on your analysis.

 

The above tasks are performed under the guidance of the principal researcher in this project, Dr. Marlies Casier. The project is supervised by Prof. Dr. Robin Vandevoordt and Prof. Dr. Ellen Desmet of  Ghent University.

 

Profile, qualifications and experience

  • You hold a Master in Law, Public Administration or Political Sciences, or equivalent by experience
  • You have an affinity with policy analysis, migration governance and migration law in a European context
  • You can work in a structured and systematic manner
  • You have strong English reading, speaking and writing skills
  • You read and understand French easily
  • You have strong analytical writing skills

Supervisors: Dr. Marlies Casier, Prof. Dr. Robin Vandevoordt and Prof. Dr. Ellen Desmet

Deadline to apply: 24 March 2024 (23.59 CET)

Starting date: The exact starting date can be discussed, but no later than 1 May 2024

Duration: 3 months

 

Application Process

Please submit a CV and cover letter outlining your interest in the position and relevant experience to Marlies.casier@ugent.be before 24 March 2024 (23.59 CET).

Selected applicants may be invited to attend a short afternoon interview on 27 March 2024.