Project

Background and objectives

Along with various migratory movements in recent years, a broad spectrum of local, national and transnational social protection practices in multidimensional regulatory spaces has emerged. The research project “Migrant Organizations and the Co-Production of Social Protection - A Multi-Level Analysis of Migrant Practices in Welfare State Arrangements” (MIKOSS) examines the transformation of institutional and informal social protection under conditions of migration, transnationalization and globalization on the example of migrant organizations, which have become important agents of political intervention.
We believe that migrant organizations are important actors in providing access to and delivering informal (network-based) and formal (welfare-state) social protection resources. Accordingly, the project will address the following three research-related questions:

• How does the political level address the social risks of migrants?
• How are local migrant organizations reacting to this challenge?
• How do migrants use formal and informal protection structures to achieve their goals?

Project structures

The joint project unites the three universities of the UA Ruhr university alliance (the University of Duisburg-Essen, the Ruhr University Bochum and the TU Dortmund University) and is financed for 30 months (5/2020 – 10/2022) by the MERCATOR Research Center Ruhr (MERCUR). It combines several work areas of the participating chairs and institutions in the fields of local social policy, migration and network research. In order to establish a sustainable research network, the purpose is to deepen future-oriented research structures in the field of migration and integration between the three universities.
The research and networking process is supported by a scientific advisory council, which will provide research and practical expertise to the project on a regular basis.