In view of the 23rd IMISCOE Annual Conference (29 June – 2 July 2026, Girona & Online) on “Strengthening Migration Studies through Community Engagement”, we invite submissions for our roundtable discussion on "The role of universities in local migration governance: An emergent research agenda".
Organizers:
Maria Schiller
Özge Bilgili
Universities across Europe increasingly recognize their societal role – not only as producers of knowledge but also as partners in addressing pressing issues such as socio-economic disparities, discrimination, racism, and political polarization. Concepts such as societal impact, engaged research and the the civic university – while emphasizing diGerent aspects –converge in stressing that universities must actively contribute to solving these challenges to remain relevant.
The idea of civic university calls for deeper and more lasting benefits for local populations, including marginalized communities (Dobson and Ferrari 2023). Such universities hold themselves accountable for contributing to the collective good and for building more democratic, equitable, and just societies. This accountability is often described in terms of the city or locality where universities are situated and maintain historical connections (Addie 2017, Cochrane 2018, Goddard and Valence 2013). At the same time, scholarship on the governance of migration has begun to examine universities’ role in attracting, welcoming, but also restricting and excluding students and staff with immigrant histories, including members of local immigrant communities and international mobile individuals. Research on the local governance of migration and diversity highlights how universities participate in local governance of migration and diversity, for example through partnerships with local administrations to market cities as attractive to international students or to address urban housing shortages by facilitating new student accommodation.
Renewed attention to the civic role of universities – perhaps building on the historic legacy of universities as hotbeds for progressive ideas in the 1970s- emerges at a time when higher education critically reflects on its emphasis on individual advancement, where value is measures by aggregated student achievements (Dobson and Ferrari 2023). Informed by New
Public Management, universities were pushed to prioritize measurable outcomes – graduates, patents or technology - by governments as well as organizations such as the European commission and the OECD (Benneworth 2013). This has created a hierarchy of missions, weakening universities’ traditional synergies between teaching, research, and social engagement (Benneworth 2013). This debate also resurfaces against the backdrop of politicization within universities, as student and academic mobilizations – whether in response to developments in Gaza, discriminatory higher education policies, or funding cuts – reassert universities as political spaces. Increasingly, both institutions and their members recognize shared societal challenges and the urgency for their contribution.
In this roundtable, we bring together scholars from across Europe for an agenda setting conversation on the role of universities in local governance:
- What role do universities across Europe play in local migration governance?
- How do universities develop their strategies and policies with regards to (in)direct / implicit/explicit local migration governance?
- How do you universities collaborate with the city and the labor market, and other actors such as student associations, housing organizations?
- How do regional diGerences aGect the ways in which universities position themselves with regards to local migration governance?
- How do strategic academic and educational objectives of universities interact with internationalization policies?
- What kind of reactions and diGerent perspectives come to the fore within universities with regards to evolving roles and positioning of universities?
- To what extent do universities as institutions collaborate or share knowledge and experiences in adapting to changing sociopolitical and geopolitical dynamics?
- How do universities navigate the diverse perspectives and demands at diGerent levels with regards to their civic role?
- What are examples of contesting political pressures or aligning with them?
- How do universities become places of exclusion and inclusion (and racialization) for academics and students with diverse backgrounds?
If you would like to join us for this roundtable, please send us a short motivation statement (max 200 words) by 23 September 2025 to