As migration and the questions surrounding the movement of people changes over time the dialogue between countries of the Mediterranean regarding these topics is in a constant state of flux. Much of it has been formed by neo-colonial approaches in border externalization and so-called “development aid”. Since the early 2000s, the European Union has successively advanced its migration and border politics on the African continent. Numerous bilateral agreements have been concluded between individual countries, and the EU participates in regional dialogues to harmonize migration policy approaches.

We believe that an intercultural, interdisciplinary and intersectional framework and dialogue is needed in order to further our understanding of migration, politics and dynamics between the two shores of the Mediterranean, including historical and contemporary power relations and geo-political interests.

The aim is to bring together students and scholars from Egypt and Germany to engage in a series of academic and intercultural activities. The project will offer young scholars, as well as students from both universities the possibility to explore in-depth the European-African relations concerning migration and mobility from different angles. In the envisioned Autumn and Summer Research Academies the workshops, as well as the lecture series, we will look at historical, political, economic, juridical, as well as societal aspects, which are on the one hand, frames, and on the other hand, are impacted by migration politics and the discourses surrounding it.