2024-2025 / SOCI0765-1

Welfare, labour and migration

Duration

30h Th

Number of credits

 Master in human resource management, professional focus in HR policy and management4 crédits 
 Master in Sociology, professional focus in migration and ethnic studies (Finalité spécialisée en Migration and Ethnic Studies)6 crédits 
 Extra courses intended for exchange students (Erasmus, ...) (Faculty of social sciences)6 crédits 

Lecturer

Jean-Michel Lafleur

Substitute(s)

Angeliki Konstantinidou

Language(s) of instruction

English language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

This course is designed to familiarize students with the research fields of welfare, labour and migration. In particular, the course will be dedicated to an increasingly salient topic: immigrants' access to welfare in their home and host countries, as well as their integration in the labour market.  The course will cover, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the broad range of transnational social protection policies, welfare states' configurations, labour market integration policies, but also different themes attached to the migration-welfare and migration-labour market nexus. Furthermore, the complex topics of migrants' welfare and labour integration policies will be examined from a comparative perspective by analysing the different countries and their contexts.

 

Students attending this course will engage in theoretical and practical discussions regarding the links between immigration and welfare as well as migration and labour market  policies, with particular emphasis on topics such as:

-International and transnational social protection arrangements;

-Migrants' formal access - and barriers - to state-based social protection policies and programmes;

-Migrants' practices and informal cross-border social protection strategies;

-EU social security coordination and intra-EU migration;

-Migrants' labour market integration and labour market policies.

 

The course is made of a series of lectures given by ULiege scholars and external speakers. Active participation in all lectures is mandatory and will be reflected in the final grade. The course is interactive and requires the active engagement of students in class discussions as well as preparatory work before the lectures. Students are also expected to work throughout the semester in view of producing a final essay on the topic of this course.

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

This course is designed to help students acquire the following skills:

-Read and discuss scientific literature in sociology, political sciences, and law;

-Understand the normative and empirical implications regarding the link between international migration, social security systems, and labour market policies;

-Develop and articulate a critical discourse on the course topics;

-Conduct a literature review that puts in dialogue different scientific perspectives on the same research topic, as well as be able to empirically demonstrate the different research implications;

-Academic writing;

-Working independently.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

The lectures are given in English. The minimum requirement is a good understanding of the English language (speaking, reading, writing).

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

For every lecture, students are expected to:

-Read beforehand the academic publication posted on MyULiege under "Support de cours";

-Write the short summary (250 words) for the mandatory reading for each lecture and submit the report to the coordinator (A. Konstantinidou) before the class. Instructions: All students can select 1 from the 3 readings for this exercise (1 reading=1 summary)

 

During class, students are expected to:

-Participate actively in lectures throughout the semester;

-Submit a mid-term essay (MA in Sociology, Migration Studies & Erasmus Students) or submit a 1-page outline of the final essay (MA in HR Management)

-Submit a final essay.

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

Face-to-face course


Further information:

The course will be delivered face-to-face. It is required that the students actively participate in the presential and/or hybrid lectures. Nevertheless, depending on the availability of the external speakers, lectures may be delivered via video-conference exclusively (via Teams).

 

Should there be less than 4 students registered in the course: The course will be designed in the form of an independent study. Students will be meeting when required with the course co-ordinator, after some introductory lectures.

 

Course Time: Wednesdays, 09:00 to 11:00

Classroom: Sèmainaire 11 (B31)

Course materials and recommended or required readings

Platform(s) used for course materials:
- MyULiège


Further information:

The reading(s) of every class will be found exclusively on "Support de cours". Also, all lecture material will be uploaded shortly after each lecture at the same space.

 

In addition, on "Support de cours", additional reading material will be uploaded for those who wish to read them.

Exam(s) in session

Any session

- Remote

written exam

Written work / report

Continuous assessment


Further information:

The maximum final grade a student can receive is 20.

 

The evaluation is based on 4 elements:

 

1) Active participation in class (10% of the grade, a max. of 2/20)

The active participation of students in the on-site/online session is mandatory as part of the student's evaluation, should the student won't be able to attend the scheduled lecture, they should inform the class co-ordinator in advance.

 

2) Mid-term evaluation (15 % of the grade, a max. of 3/20)

 

-Students from the MA in HR Management need to submit a 1-page outline containing (in bullet points) with their Research Question, literature/theory base, their ideas on data and analysis.

-Students of the MA in Sociology, Migration Studies & Erasmus Students need to submit their first draft of their essy (RQ, theoretical part of the essay, plans for the empirics). The length of the mid-term essay should be around 1,000 words (excluding frontpage, references, abstract, footnotes, bibliography, annex).

 

The mid-term evaluation should be submitted to A. Konstantinidou (A.Konstantinidou@uliege.be). Failure to submit or late submissions of the midterm evaluation will be reflected in the students' grade.

 

3)Weekly deliverable (25% of the grade, a max of 5/20)

Write the short summary (250 words) for the mandatory reading for each lecture and submit the report to the coordinator before the class (Wednesdays by 09:00). Failure to submit or late submissions of the weekly deliverables will be reflected in the students' grade. Instructions: All students can select 1 from the 3 readings for this exercise (1 reading=1 summary)

 

4) Final essay (50% of the grade, 10/20)

At the end of the semester, students are expected to deliver an essay of maximum 3,000 words (excluding frontpage, references, abstract, footnotes, bibliography, annex) on a topic related to nexus of immigration and welfare or migration and labour market policies. The essays will comprise adequate conceptual and theoretical discussions based on the literature review on their topic of choice. The essays can also include an original input of the student in the form of empirical material collected by him/her (e.g. interviews, observations, dataset compilations, etc.) and/or an original analysis of existing material (newspaper articles, agreements, reports etc.).

 

The essays should be submitted via email to Angeliki Konstantinidou (A.Konstantinidou@uliege.be). Papers submitted after the deadline will be penalised.

 

All deadlines will be announced on the first session (18/09/2024).

 

Second session (Resitting the exam): In the second session, all students are expected to submit an essay of maximum 6,000 words (except the ones of the MA in Human Resources that need to have 4,500 words) on a topic related to immigration and social protection. The guidelines for the essay are the same as in the first session, except that the greater length supposes the inclusion of more literature and data than the paper submitted in the first session (20 points, worth 100% of the final grade). The students should liaise with the co-ordinator (A. Konstantinidou) to discuss the topic of the final essay. The essays should be submitted via email to Angeliki Konstantinidou. Papers submitted after the deadline will be penalised.

 

Should there be less than 4 students registered in the course: The course will be designed in the form of an independent study and count for 20 points. Students will be meeting when required with the course co-ordinator.

Work placement(s)

Organisational remarks and main changes to the course

The students would be notified well in advance should there be modifications in the lecture.

Contacts

Angeliki Konstantinidou (A.Konstantinidou@uliege.be)

 

Office hours: by appointment (via email to A. Konstantinidou)
 
All students should use their @uliege email accounts for the course communications.

Association of one or more MOOCs

The MOOC entitled 'Migrations internationales : Comment les mobilités transforment les sociétés ? (H2)' is associated with this course.


Further information:

Students can follow the MOOC "Migrations Internationales: comment les mobilités humaines transforment les sociétés". It is in French but with English subititles. It is free of charge and can be found here: https://online.jobsatskillscampus.be/courses/course-v1:uLiege+CS06+2024/about