„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

Find Ludger Pries on

---

News

The following publications appeared or are in print and will come out soon in 2026:

Pries, Ludger, 2026: Forced migrants experiencing translocal violence: Mexico and Turkey as transit countries. In: Etzold, Benjamin/Godin, Marie (eds.), Translocal Lives in Times of Conflict. Understanding People’s (Im)Mobilities and (Dis)Connections under Conditions of Violence and War. Bonn/Leicester: IMISCOE.

Pries, Ludger. 2026: Veränderungen der mittelamerikanischen Fluchtverhältnisse aufgrund der aktuellen US-amerikanischen Migrationspolitik. In: Oltmer, Jochen/Berlinghoff, Marcel/Düvell, Franck/Etzold, Benjamin/Lang, Christine/Pott, Andreas (Hrsg.), Report Globale Flucht 2026, Bielefeld: Transcript, S. 177-187.

Pries, Ludger/ Zülfikar Savci, Berna/ Linsel, Nick. 2026. Zwischen Rückkehr, Bleiben und Weiterwandern: Forcierte Migrierende in Transitländern. In: Oltmer, Jochen/Berlinghoff, Marcel/Düvell, Franck/Etzold, Benjamin/Lang, Christine/Pott, Andreas (Hrsg.), Report Globale Flucht 2026, Bielefeld: Transcript, S. 87-100.

The following articles appeared in 2025:

Pries, Ludger/Linsel, Nick. 2025. Forced migrants’ agency between victimhood and self-efficacy – Biographies of Syrians in Turkey. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 51:1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2025.2586723.

Pries, Ludger, 2025: Forced migrants’ agency in a life course approach – A conceptual proposal and empirical illustration. International Migration Review, 59(4), DOI: 10.1177/01979183251343883

Pries, Ludger, 2025: Nation/Post-(Trans-)Nationalismus. In: Endreß, Martin/Rampp, Benjamin (Hg.), Politische Soziologie. Baden-Baden: Nomos, S. 547-551.

Pries, Ludger 2025: (Trans-)Migration. In: In: Endreß, Martin/Rampp, Benjamin (Hg.), Politische Soziologie. Baden-Baden: Nomos, S. 789-793.

Pries, Ludger/Zülfikar Savcı, Berna Ş., 2025: Forced migrants as a neglected group of temporary labor migrants? Empirical evidence from migration trajectories of refugees and migrants in Mexico and Turkey. In: Kuptsch, Christiane/Mieres, Fabiola (eds.), Temporary labour migration: Towards social justice? Geneva: International Labour Organization, pp. 129-149.

Pries, Ludger, 2025: Beyond National and Global Labour Policy: The Future of Work and Employment Governance. In: Mückenberger, Ulrich/Fechner, Heiner/ Dingeldey, Irene (eds.), Constructing Worlds of Labour. Coverage and Generosity of Labour Law as Outcomes of Regulatory Social Policy. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 287-311.

Pries, Ludger, 2025: Moderne Verwaltungswissenschaft und reflexive Organisationssoziologie. In: Gräfe, Philipp/Hafner, Jonas/Kastilan, André/Süß, Louisa Anna (Hg.): Politik und Verwaltung: Verstehen und Verändern. Festschrift für Jörg Bogumil. Baden-Baden: Nomos, S. 45-67.

I’m excited to announce that in February 2025, my book „Migration. Kleine Reihe Soziologie. Frankfurt am Main: Wochenschau Verlag“ was published. The book can be purchased and downloaded here.

At the beginning of the year, my book „Migration. Warum man sie nicht steuern kann – aber verstehen und mitgestalten. Frankfurt am Main: Campus. (Migration – why you cannot control it – but understand and help shape it)“ was released. Under this link the book is available for purchase. About the same book I also had an interesting interview with Ms. Dina Netz from Deutschlandfunk in February. The podcast can be listened to here afterward.

In October 2024, my colleague Dr. Zülfikar Savci and I held a lecture on the topic „Different types of migration – different kinds of social cohesion“ during a workshop revolving around the social cohesion among Syrian refugees and the Turkish host community at the Institute for the Study of International Migration in Washington, DC. The same month, I was also a guest at the state conference of (post-)migrant organizations in Baden-Württemberg dedicated to the topic “Networking, strengthening, shaping: Migrant organizations as actors of the future”.