This Blended Intensive Programme offers students a transdisciplinary and transnational approach to understanding global migration in practice.

Through virtual and face-to-face components, students engage with migration studies, policy discussions and practical experiences, working with international civil society organisations. The course fosters critical thinking, civic engagement and problem-solving skills, while integrating academic knowledge with real-world applications.

The international migrant population represents approximately 3.7% of the world's population (IOM GMDAC / UN DESA 2025), but political and media discourses on their presence in certain world regions or countries provide a distorted view of the phenomenon.

In this course, students will learn how to critically analyse migration data, political discourses and media approaches to migration and migrants in different world regions in order to demystify global migration. In direct contact with international experts, students will discuss the latest developments in migration research related to demography, climate change, economics, international law, urban spaces, gender and education from different disciplinary and geographical perspectives.

The course will provide an opportunity to understand global migration in its everyday and material aspects through direct contact with various civil society organisations and field research in Tübingen. Students will be challenged to reflect on their own preconceived notions and to connect their life experiences, theoretical debates and the work of civil society organisations.

By fostering cooperation within the CIVIS Alliance and with partners in civil society, the event aims to make students aware that global issues do not have simple solutions - they require cooperation between different academic specializations and multiple stakeholders.

The contact with participants from different countries, where global migration has different causes, effects and is dealt with in different ways, will support the development of critical thinking and open up new possibilities for international cooperation and global solutions.

The pshysical mobility section of the course will take place between 9-13 February 2026, in Tübingen - Germany. 

09 Feb 2026 (Monday): 09:00 - 18:00

• Welcome session and Migration Data
• Presentation of the week's activities and the challenge question, formation of groups for the week's activities, keynote with a representative of IOM-UN, followed by a group activity and an assignment.

10 Feb 2026 (Tuesday): 09:00 - 18:00

• Impact of climate change on migration
• Lectures, exercises and an assignment.

11 Feb 2026 (Wednesday): 09:00 - 18:00

• The materiality of migration
• Lectures, exercises, short field research in Tübingen ("On the footsteps of migrants in Tübingen") and an assignment.

12 Feb 2026 (Thursday): 09:00 - 18:00

• Legal frameworks for global migration
• Lectures, exercises, visit to a local civil society organization and an assignment.

13 Feb 2026 (Friday): 09:00 - 18:00

• Reflexivity in migration studies and Closing session
• Lecture, exercises, group presentation of their answer to the challenge question based on the assignments done during the week, peer-evaluation and feedback, evaluation of the course, and closing remarks.

The virtual part will take pace between 24 October - 21 November 2025 on Zoom, Padlet, Miro and Moodle.

Pre-course: getting to know each other, self-assessment of migration knowledge and learning goals, setting personal and collaborative expectations (Padlet), and readings.

24 Oct 2025, 09:00 - 17:30 CET: Welcome session, introuction - part 1, lectures and activities in groups 

31 Oct 2025: 09:00 - 17:30 CET: Lectures, activities in groups and review

07 Nov 2025: 14:00 - 18:00 CET: Introduction - part 2, workshops with civil society organizations

14 Nov 2025: 10:00 - 18:00 CET: Workshops with civil society organizations and group work

21 Nov 2025: 10:00 - 18:00 CET: Workshops with civil society organizations and presentations

Wrap-up activity: self-assessment of what was learned, main takeaways in both parts and ellaboration of expectations for the physical part.