Past Events

On 9 January 2020, Prof. Melissa Siegel and Nava Hinrichs travelled to Bern, Switzerland to discuss past and future migration work with representatives of the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC). 

On 6 February 2020, Prof. Melissa Siegel gave a lecture on the “Myths and misconceptions around migration” in Brussels as part of the sixth edition of Maastricht University’s Star Lecture Series. This year, 14 lectures took place simultaneously in different cities across five countries

On 20 February 2020, Ayla Bonfiglio successfully defended her PhD dissertation entitled “Student Migrant, Refugee or Both? Exploring Refugee Agency and Mobility through Tertiary Education in Kenya, South Africa and Uganda”.

In February 2020, Dr. Katie Kuschminder gave a keynote speech at the Migration Studies Delegation (Delmi) in Stockholm, Sweden, on “Return Migration and Reintegration”. The workshop included an international group of experts on return migration and reintegration from Europe. 

An interview with Dr. Katie Kuschminder was published in Maastricht University’s independent newspaper Observant, on 11 March 2020 as part of a series on the dilemmas related to scientific integrity. The series is jointly run with Maastricht University’s Platform for Research Ethics and Integrity, which aims to promote a healthy academic research culture. 

In conjunction with the Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development (MACIMIDE), the Migration and Development research theme at UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance organises a series of migration-related seminars to provide a platform to discuss the research output of researchers at the institute and to invite external speakers to share their work. 

On 9 July 2020, Prof. Melissa Siegel and Dr. Katrin Marchand were invited to provide input in a webinar for the staff of the German Development Cooperation Office (GIZ) on ‘Remittances, their role for economic development and how they are affected by the corona crisis’.

On 5 October 2020, Elaine Lebon-McGregor successfully defended her PhD dissertation entitled ‘International Organizations and Global Migration Governance’. 

On 4 September 2020, Prof. Melissa Siegel contributed to a live webinar organised by the Oxford Consortium for Human Rights (OCHR) entitled ‘Migrants, Displaced People and the COVID Crisis’. 

On 17 December 2020, the book ‘COVID-19 and Migration: Understanding the Pandemic and Human Mobility’ edited by Prof. Ibrahim Sirkeci and Prof. Jeffrey H. Cohen and published by Transnational Press London was launched virtually. The edited volume comprises 17 chapters bringing together the world’s foremost experts on human mobility to understand the many and complex links between the pandemic and human mobility.