Duration
30h Th
Number of credits
Lecturer
Substitute(s)
Language(s) of instruction
English language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the first semester, review in January
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. In particular, the course will be dedicated to an increasingly salient topic: immigrants' access to social protection in their home and host countries. The course will cover not only a broad range of transnational social protection policies (pensions, healthcare, family benefits, minimum income), but also different themes attached to the social protection-mobility nexus. Furthermore, the complex topic of migrants' social protection would be examined from a comparative perspective by analysing the different countries and their contexts. Lastly, the conversation will also steer to the new context caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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:
-International and transnational social protection arrangements;
-Migrants' formal access - and barriers - to state-based social protection policies and programmes;
-Migrants' practices and informal cross-border social protection strategies;
-EU social security coordination and intra-EU migration;
-Social security agreements with third countries.
The course is made of a series of lectures given by ULiege scholars and external speakers. Participation in all lectures is mandatory and will be reflected in the final grade. The course is interactive and requires the active engagement of students in class discussions as well as preparatory work before the lectures. Students are also expected to work throughout the semester in view of producing a final essay on the topic of this course.
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, as well as be able to empirically demonstrate the different research implications;
-Academic writing;
-Working independently.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
The lectures are given in English. The minimum requirement is a good active knowledge of the English language (speaking, reading, writing).
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
The course combines lectures in class (in which the active participation of students is encouraged), along with activities done at home (preparatory readings and a final essay). Presence in the class/online session is mandatory as part of the student's evaluation, should the students won't be able to attend the scheduled lecture, they should inform the class co-ordinators in advance.
For every lecture, students are encouraged to:
-Read beforehand the academic publication posted on MyULiege under "Support de cours";
-Write a short summary (250 words) for the mandatory reading for each lecture, and submit the report to the coordinators before the class.
During class, students are expected to:
-Participate actively in lectures throughout the semester;
-Submit and present a final essay.
Furthermore, students are encouraged to participate in the different seminars organised by CEDEM that are related to migration and social protection (information would be given in advance of the seminars throughout the semester).
Should there be less than 4 students registered in the course: The course will be designed in the form of an independent study (4000 words) that students write under the supervision of their course co-ordinators. The study has to be submitted to the course co-ordinators by the end of the Fall semester (Tuesday, 14th of December 2021).
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Face-to-face course
Additional information:
It is required that the students actively participate in the presential and/or hybrid lectures. Nevertheless, depending both the Covid-19 context and the subsequent measures, as well as the availability of the external speakers, lectures may be delivered via video-conference exclusively.
Should there be less than 4 students registered in the course: The course will be designed in the form of an independent study. Students will be meeting when required with the course co-ordinators.
Course Time: Tuesdays, 10:00-12:00
Classroom: B31 Ricardo (0/111), Sart Tilman Campus
Recommended or required readings
The reading of every class will be found on "Support de cours", a week in advance of the class.
Assessment methods and criteria
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- Remote
written exam
Written work / report
Continuous assessment
Additional information:
The maximum final grade a student can receive is 20.
The evaluation is based on:
1) Presence in the lectures (5% of the grade, 1/20)
(Active) presence in the classroom/online session is mandatory as part of the students' evaluation, should the students won't be able to attend the scheduled lecture, they should inform the class co-ordinators in advance.
2) Mid-term submission (15% of the grade, 3/20)
Students need to submit their first-draft of their essay (1500-2000 words) including the RQ and the theoretical part by the 9th of November 2021 at 4pm.Failure to submit or late submissions of the midterm essay will be reflected in the students' grade.
3)Weekly deliverable (15% of the grade, 3/20)
Write a short summary (250 words) for the mandatory reading for each lecture, and submit the report to the co-ordinators before the class. Failure to submit the reports or late submissions will be reflected in students' grades.
Please note that supplementary readings will be added on the "supports de cours". Those will be clearly marked as optional readings, and students are not obliged to read then nor are part of the evaluation. They are purely for information purposes and to assist students with the course and the final esssays.
4) Final essay (65% of the grade, 13/20)
At the end of the semester, students are expected to deliver an essay of maximum 4,000 words (excluding frontpage, references, footnotes, bibliography, annex) on a topic related to migration and social protection. The essays will comprise adequate conceptual and theoretical discussions based on the literature review on their topic of choice. The essays can also include an original input of the student in the form of empirical material collected by him/her (e.g. interviews, observations, dataset compilations, etc.) and/or an original analysis of existing material (newspaper articles, agreements, reports etc.).
The essays should be submitted via email to Angeliki Konstantinidou (A.Konstantinidou@uliege.be) and Roberta Perna (roberta.perna@csic.es) by 14/12/2021, at 4pm. Papers submitted after the deadline will be penalised.
Second session (Resitting the exam): In the second session, students are expected to submit an essay of maximum 6,000 words on a topic related to immigration and social protection. The guidelines for the essay are the same as in the first session, except that the greater length supposes the inclusion of more literature and data than the paper submitted in the first session (20 points, worth 100% of the final grade). The deadline for the essay submission for the second session will be announced after the end of the exam period of January.
Work placement(s)
Organizational remarks
The course starts on 21/09/2021. There is no preparatory reading before the first class.
The students would be notified well in advance should there be modifications in the lecture.
The number of students who can register to this course is limited to 50, out of which no more than 30 can come from the Master en Gestion des Ressources Humaines (MA in Human Resources Management).
Contacts
Course leader: Jean-Michel Lafleur (JM.Lafleur@uliege.be)
Course co-ordinators:
-Angeliki Konstantinidou (A.Konstantinidou@uliege.be)
-Roberta Perna (r.perna@uliege.be)
Office hours: by appointment (via email)
Meetings: Depending the evolution of the pandemic, meetings could take place at the office R.42 (B31), or on-line should there be another lockdown.