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Humans migrate, animals migrate – “migration” is a central theme in both human societies and animal populations, deserving of observation and analysis from a variety of perspectives. For politicians, for example, it is quite interesting to know, why migration leads to inequality. For biologists, migration is focused on the migration of different species of animals, such as birds. And cultural scientists look at the different cultural patterns that arise from a migrating and multicultural society.

How intriguing to investigate all these different aspects under the umbrella of a joint series of events! This is why the Zukunftskolleg and the three Excellence Clusters “Politics of Inequality”, “Collective Behavior”, and “Cultural Foundations of Social Integration” presented research talks (so called “lightning talks”) on “Migration” on 25 June 2019, as well as the exhibition “Anima Mundi” by Illustrator George Butler (London) from 12 June until 12 July 2019 in the foyer of the library.

George Butler is an award winning artist and illustrator specialising in travel and current affairs. His drawings, done in situ are in pen, ink and watercolour. In August 2012 George walked from Turkey across the border into Syria, where as guest of the rebel Free Syrian Army he drew the civil war damaged, small and empty town of Azaz. Over the last ten years his desire to record scenes in ink rather than with a camera has meant he has witnessed some extraordinary moments; refugee camps in Bekaa Valley, in the oil fields in Azerbaijan, in Gaza with Oxfam, in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Syria, Iraq and most recently in Yemen... the list goes on.
Corresponding to the title of his exhibition his lightning talk was entitled “Anima Mundi": "When we think of ‘migration’ we think of refugees in boats or swallows on the wing. But not both. These drawings and maps propose that due to the world we have created these issues can no longer be considered separate. Whatever the reason: food, fear, better futures; love, shelter or work homo sapiens and other species move. Why should we be intimidated by that?"

Gisela Kopp (Zukunftskolleg) is a primatologist with research interests at the interface between evolutionary biology, behavioural ecology, and population genetics. In 2018, she received the Hector Pioneer Fellowship at the Zukunftskolleg, where she is currently building her research program on Sociality and Evolution, which ties the link between behavioural ecology and macroevolutionary processes.
She gave an overview of "Animal migration - a quick introduction to the terminology". She introduced the various forms of migration that occur in animals and how they differ. "Migration, sensu stricto, is the movement away and subsequent return to the same location on a regular basis. Dispersal refers to the movement of an individual from its natal site to its breeding site or between breeding sites. Range expansion is the movement to a new region that leads to the alteration of the species distribution."

Andrea Flack (Collective Behaviour) is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Migration at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Radolfzell. She talked about “The impact of social interactions on small and large scale migratory behaviour in a long-distance bird migrant, the white stork”.
"I would like to understand how social migrants (i) synchronize movements during long-distance migration; (ii) form and maintain spatio-temporally dynamic group structures, and (iii) integrate environmental and social information while migrating."

Lorenz Wiese (Cultural Foundations of Social Integration) has been a PhD candidate in Politics and Public Administration at the University of Konstanz and the Center of Excellence "Cultural Foundations of Social Integration".
He asked „Treating human beings like animals?“. In his research he compares the asylum and refugee regimes of Australia, Canada, and Germany.

Nihan Toprakkiran (Zukunftskolleg) is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Zukunftskolleg, affiliated with the Department of Politics and Public Administration. She reported on “Keeping Political Ties after Emigration: The Case of Turkish, Polish and Italian External Voters”.
Her talk was about how emigrants keep their links with their countries of origin for a very long time after the initial migration, with a focus on political ties. In particular, she outlined the spreading practice of external voting, that is the possibility of voting from abroad in national elections, and gave a brief overview of her current research project, which aims to explain the external voting behavior of Turkish, Polish and Italian immigrants in Germany.

Claudia Diehl (The Politics of Inequality) is Professor of Sociology, with a focus on Microsociology, at the University of Konstanz since April 2013.
She is interested to know: “Does migrants‘ religiosity matter for integration processes?”. In many European receiving countries, Muslim migrants integrate at a slower pace than non-Muslims. In her research she questions the popular conclusion that religiosity hampers their integration processes, for example in the educational system or the labor market. Most importantly, she showed that secular Muslims are not better integrated than more religious ones and that Muslim migrants’ low socio-economic status is more important in explaining their ongoing disadvantage than their cultural background.

After the lightning talks and a discussion, the exhibition "Anima Mundi" of George Butler (12 June - 12 July) was officially opened, followed by a meet & greet.

This event was part of our special Jour Fixe event series on "Migration". For more information, please see here.