Selected ongoing and completed projects of the department
Ongoing projects
VISION: Envisioning Convivial Europe
Contact person at the department: Kyoko Shinozaki
MARS: Non-Western Migration Regimes in a Global Perspective
Contact person at the department: Dženeta Karabegović (2024 – 2028)
MARS is an MSCA Staff Exchange Program that aims to improve our knowledge and scholarly understanding of the global, regional and national governance of migration and mobility. It aims to contribute to global and national efforts to enable safe, regular and orderly migration. The program has three interrelated objectives:
- To produce original empirical data and comparative perspectives on migration governance and migrant experiences in non-Western migration regions.
- Integrate research into relevant theoretical debates in (comparative) migration studies to contribute to theory building by developing new conceptual and methodological insights on migrant experiences and practices of migration in non-Western regions.
- Provide strategic information and policy insights to international organizations, development agencies and policy makers within and outside the EU to improve migration policy(ies) and support the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration and the Global Compact for Refugees.
The project is made possible by a multidisciplinary and multisectoral research and staff exchange program involving 11 European universities and organizations and 11 associated partners from Central Asia, the Middle East, North and West Africa, Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Gulf States and Latin America.
Completed projects (in the last five years)
Diaspora and Terrorist Recruitment
Contact person at the department: Dženeta Karabegović
The project ‘Diaspora and Terrorist Recruitment’ was funded by the OeAD between 2022 and 2023 through the STC program with the Czech Republic. The project was carried out with Asya Metodieva at the Institute of International Relations in Prague. It resulted in a publication, Karabegović, D., & Metodieva, A. (2024). Deradicalization of Foreign Fighters and the Agency of Diaspora. Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 15(1).
Retirement Migration Infrastructure from an Asian-European Comparative Perspective
Contact person at the department: Kyoko Shinozaki
The project ‘Retirement Migration Infrastructure from an Asian-European Comparative Perspective’ is a cooperation/research/teaching activity funded by ASEA-UNINET and took place between 2022 and 2023. International Retirement Migration (IRM) has emerged as a significant global phenomenon that is receiving increasing research attention. Thailand has become an important destination for international retirees in recent years. This trend has led to increasing research on the impact of retirement migration on the economy and society of destination countries. We are also planning further research into the challenges associated with retirement migration, particularly in relation to health and care for the destination countries and the migrants.
In addition, Master’s and Bachelor’s students from the department took part in excursions to Thailand and wrote theses on this topic, which underlines the practical application and consolidation of the field of research. A workshop on “International Retirement Migration to Thailand: The Infrastructure Approach” was organized with colleagues from Mahidol University in Thailand, in which Kyoko Shinozaki, Wolfgang Aschauer, Dženeta Karabegović and Christian Smigiel took part.
Retreat tourism (On the journey to yourself)
Contact person at the department: Wolfgang Aschauer
In connection with the stays in Thailand, a ‘project on retreat tourism (on the journey to oneself)’ was also created. In recent years, the western world – influenced by far-reaching perceptions of crisis – has seen a veritable boom in the search for personal happiness. In alternative-spiritual milieus, this is manifested in new travel trends such as yoga and tantra trips for a short or longer-term escape for self-discovery. The island of Koh Phangan in Thailand, which has been a popular destination for dropouts for many years, has developed into an Eldorado for retreat tourism in recent years. This seems to be exclusively geared towards a Western clientele who have dedicated themselves to the search for higher spheres of happiness. On the basis of ethnographic research in a selected retreat, we gained insights into the effects of wellbeing interventions on young adults and people in the middle phase of life and the stages of their journey to themselves. Even if the qualitative study based on seven interview participants does not allow for many generalizable conclusions, it provides profound insights into current dynamics of alienation.
A further application to ASEA-Uninet was approved for an in-depth analysis. In the RETOUR project (Revitalizing the Exhausted Self, contact person Wolfgang Aschauer), analyses of retreat tourism are now being carried out in the Austrian context and compared with Thai offers. In 2026, together with researchers from Mahidol University, an in-depth analysis of the effects of retreat tourism on local service workers in tourism and on the local population on Koh Phangan will also be carried out.
