Duration
30h Th
Number of credits
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
English language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the second semester
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
This course is designed to familiarize students with recent social and political debates in migration and ethnic studies. This year, the course will be dedicated to a very salient topic in European politics: immigrants' access to social protection. The course will cover a broad range of social protection policies including pensions, unemployment benefits, healthcare, family benefits, minimum income, etc.; and will discuss the conditions of access of immigrants to formal and informal welfare, as well as the politics around immigrant welfare. The course will focus mainly on Europe and the Americas from a comparative perspective. Students attending this course will engage in theoretical and practical discussions regarding the link between immigration and welfare, with particular emphasis on topics such as:
- socio-economic hardship, social risks and the social protection needs of immigrant communities;
- migrants' formal access to state-based social protection policies and programmes;
- inequalities in immigrants' practical access to social security systems;
- the exportability of home country's entitlements to social protection across borders;
- EU social security coordination and intra-EU migration;
- social security agreements with third country;
- immigrant families and informal cross-border social protection strategies in times of crisis;
- diaspora policies and home countries' engagement for the social protection of citizens abroad.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
This course is designed to help students acquire the following skills:
- Read and discuss scientific literature in political science, sociology and law;
- Understand the normative and empirical implications regarding the link between international migration and social security systems;
- Develop and articulate a critical discourse on this topic;
- Conduct a literature review that puts in dialogue different scientific perspectives on the same research topic;
- Academic writing;
- Working independently
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
The course is taught in English. The minimum requirement is a good passive knowledge of the language.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
The course combines two types of activities
- independent readings of academic publications posted on MyULg under "Support de cours";
- optional lectures on migration and social protection
Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)
It is required that students actively participate in the lectures. Depending on the availability of external speakers, some lectures may be given via video-conference.
Recommended or required readings
Assessment methods and criteria
The evaluation is based on
Final essay (20 points)
At the end of the course, students are expected to deliver an essay of maximum 4,000 words (excluding frontpage, references, footnotes, bibliography, annex...) on a topic related to immigration and social protection. The essays will comprise adequate conceptual and theoretical discussions based on the literature review on this topic. They will make use of readings from the portforlio of readings (but not exclusively that).The essays can also include an original input of the student in the form of empirical material collected by him/her and/or an original analysis of existing material (newspaper articles, social security agreements, etc.).
The essays should be submitted via email to the professor at a date that will be communicated during the course. Further details regarding the essays and the final presentations will be provided during the first lecture.
Second session (Resitting the exam) (20 points, worth 100% of the final grade): In the second session, students are expected to submit a 6,000 words essay on a topic related to immigration and social protection. The guidelines are the same as in the first session. The deadline for this paper submission will be set after the first exam session.
Work placement(s)
Organizational remarks
Optional lectures may take during the first quadrimester
Keeping yourself informed: Given that this course is concerned with contemporary developments in migration and ethnic studies, it is highly recommended that students follow news coverage on this topic.
Contacts
Course coordinator:
Dr Jean-Michel Lafleur (JM.Lafleur@ulg.ac.be)
Office hours: by appointment only (via e-mail)