„In a fable, a dying farmer tells his children that there is a treasure buried in his field. They then dig up and around the field all over without finding the treasure. In the next year, however, the land thus worked bears threefold fruit. […] We will not find the treasure, but the world that we have dug for it will bear triple fruit to the spirit – even if in reality it had not been about the treasure at all, but about the fact that this digging is the necessity and inner determination of our spirit.“

Georg Simmel: Philosophische Kultur. Gesammelte Essais. Leipzig: Klinkhardt 1911, p. 5f

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News

In June, the final results of the research project „Migration from South-East Europe“ were reported during a conference in Duisburg-Hochfeld. The presentation can be downloaded in German here.

In April, together with Dr. Schramm, I presented the results of a research on Bulgarian and Romanian migration to the Ruhr region at the Ministry of North-Rhine Westfalia. The German slides can be viewed here.

In April, I also gave a lecture on „Investigating Cross-Border Labour Markets: Empirical and Theoretical Challenges – Sociological and Economic Perspectives“ at the launch event of the Research Training Group „Cross Border Labour Markets Bielefeld-Duisburg“.

On 1 February 2024, I held a lecture about “Labour migration and/or asylum migration?” at the conference of the federal association Nemo (Network of Migrant Organizations) revolving around the topic “Skills shortage = prospects to stay? Opportunity residence, “lane changes”, immigration offices and the new “guest workers” – a working conference”. The presentation can be downloaded in German here.

Recent publications

In 2024, three new monographies were released as listed below:

Pries, Ludger/Bohlen, Rafael, 2024: Forced Migration – Present Challenges and Emerging Topics. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. It can be ordered here.

Pries, Ludger/Schütze, Stephanie/Alba Villalever, Ximena/Zülfikar Savcı, Berna Ş., 2024: Forced Migration in Transit. Migrant Experiences of Organized Violence in Mexico and Turkey. London/New York: Routledge. It can be bought here.

Pries, Ludger, 2024: Soziologie. Schlüsselbegriffe, Herangehensweisen und Perspektiven. Weinheim: Beltz-Juventa (5th, updated and significantly expanded edition, René König Textbook Prize of the German Sociological Association (DGS)). It can be ordered here.

One publication in a scientific journal was also published:

Pries, Ludger/Calderón Morillón, Oscar/Estrada Ceron, Brandon A., 2024: Trajectories of Forced Migration: Central American Migrants on Their Way Toward the USA. In: Journal on Migration and Human Security, 12(1), pp. 39-53, https://doi.org/10.1177/23315024231216109.

During this year, two publications as editor or co-editor have already been released:

Zülfikar Savcı, Berna Ş./Pries, Ludger/Erdogan, Murat M. (eds.), 2024: Forced Migration in Turkey. Refugee Perspectives, Organizational Assistance, and Political Embedding. Routledge Studies in Development, Mobilities and Migration. London/New York: Routledge. It can be found here.

Alba Villalever, Ximena/Schütze, Stephanie/Pries, Ludger/Calderón Morillón, Oscar (eds.), 2024: Forced Migration across Mexico. Organized Violence, Migrant Struggles, and Life Trajectories. London/New York: Routledge. It can be ordered here.

In addition to that, several book chapters were published, the most recent ones are listed below:

Pries, Ludger, 2024: Erzwungene Migration und die Grenze zwischen Mexiko und den USA. In: Oltmer, Jochen/Berlinghoff, Marcel/Düvell, Franck/Lang, Christine/Pott, Andreas (Hrsg.), Report Globale Flucht 2024. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, S. 54-65.

Zülfikar Savcı, Berna Ş./Pries, Ludger/Erdogan, Murat M., 2024: Introduction. Forced migration in Turkey – Refugee perspectives, organizational assistance, and political embedding. In: the same (eds.), Forced Migration in Turkey. Refugee Perspectives, Organizational Assistance, and Political Embedding. Routledge Studies in Development, Mobilities and Migration. London/New York: Routledge, pp. 3-28.

Zülfikar Savcı, Berna Ş./Pries, Ludger/ Erdogan, Murat M., 2024: Conclusion. In: the same (eds.), Forced Migration in Turkey. Refugee Perspectives, Organizational Assistance, and Political Embedding. Routledge Studies in Development, Mobilities and Migration. London/New York: Routledge, pp. 266-275.

In 2023, several articles were published in international journals:

Pries, Ludger/Calderón Morillón, Oscar/Estrada Ceron, Brandon Amir, 2023: Trajectories of Forced Migration: Central American Migrants on Their Way Toward the USA. Journal on Migration and Human Security. Please find it here.

Pries, Ludger, 2023: Verstehende Kooperation: Für eine Soziologie der Evolution im Anthropozän!. In: Zeitschrift für Theoretische Soziologie, 2023(1), S. 153-174. The print version can be ordered here, the ebook can be downloaded here.

Pries, Ludger/Zülfikar Savcı, Berna Ş., 2023: Syrian refugees arriving to Germany – Choosing Corridors and Individual Characteristics of Forced Migrants. In: Frontiers in Sociology, Section Migration and Society, Vol. 8, pp. 1-14. It can be found here.

Pries, Ludger, 2023: From economic remittances to societal transmittances. Experiences from the European Union. In: Contemporary Southeastern Europe, 10(1), pp. 1-20, doi: 10.25364/02.9:2023.1.1.

Pries, Ludger/Zülfikar Savcı, Berna Ş., 2023: Between Humanitarian Assistance and Externalizing of EU Borders: The EU-Turkey Deal and Refugee Related Organizations in Turkey. In: Journal on Migration and Human Security, 11(1), pp. 57-74, doi: 10.1177/23315024231156381.

In 2023, also the following exciting events happened:

On July 1st, I held a farewell lecture as I now am a Senior Professor at the Ruhr University in Bochum. My colleagues organized a party in regards to my farewell and my 70th birthday. You can find the lecture in English here and in German here.

On June 30th and July 1st, the Formove-II project organized the international conference „Forced migration in a comparative life-course perspective“ at the Ruhr University Bochum. You can find the program of the conference here and additonal information on the papers presented here.

My review of the book „Die Asyllotterie“ written by Ruud Koopmans appeared in Soziopolis. You can download it here.

I also gave an inaugural presentation at the „Symposium and PhD Training > Lived transnationalism in times of violent conflict – Cross-border connections and mobilities of people, goods and capital<„ at BICC (Bonn International Centre for Conflilct Studies). The slides can be downloaded here.

A new podcast and video were published revolving around the book „The Routledge History of Modern Latin American Migration„ that was edited by Andreas Feldmann, Xochitl Bada, Jorge Durand and Stephanie Schütze (London/New York: Routledge) and includes the chapter 22 „The Nexus of Forced Migration and Organized Violence“ written by Ximena Alba, Stephanie Schütze and me. You can find the book here.