Comparing and Contrasting EU Migration and Border Policies

Special topics course: European borders without walls: What can the world learn from EU borders and immigration policies?

The recent and ongoing migration situation in and around Europe is forcing European policy makers to address past and future challenges to integration. The decisions they are making will have a long-standing impact on the EU. EUS 490 examines how the responses to the crisis are shaping Europe’s borders, migration and related security policies in exemplary ways from a comparative perspective and context.  

The material for this course develops from an EU funded research programme led by UVic with a network of partners in France, Turkey, Japan and Canada. This network conducts innovative and forward-looking research comparing the EU’s evolving border, migration and security policies to policies in Canada, France, Japan and Turkey. The activities in the course are aimed at engaging the greater public, undergraduate and graduate students, young researchers and professors, along with the policy makers in each community.

The course material draws on research conducted by the network and features 12 units developed by Prof. Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly:

1. General introduction: Defining borders
2. Is our world a borderless world: Borders in history
3. Cultures and borders
4. Political communities and borders
5. Market and functional linkages and borders
6. Governments and borders
7. Security policies and borders
8. Environmental policies and borders
9. Immigration and borders
10. Border disputes
11. Theorizing borders: Borders as a cultural, social, or political object
12. Theorizing borders: Borders as a functional object

Each unit uses a video presentation by the professor and includes diverse learning activities including video-clips, short readings, quizzes, and discussion forums. Although it is highly recommended you keep pace with the course, you can follow the course material at your own pace. Participating in a timely manner will provide access to a wide range of debates on the history, culture, economics, sustainability, security and governance of borders.

This course is open on a non-credit basis to professionals in the public and private sector, academics, border and migration scholars, and community members with a strong interest in issues of borders and migration; it is co-funded by the Jean Monnet Network: Comparing and Contrasting EU Border and Migration Policy through the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission. 

This course can be taken either FOR CREDIT (through MyPage, EUS 490, 1.5units) or FREE through Continuing Studies.

The course is open to UVic students as an undergraduate credit course (EUS490 CRN 13832), assessed according to university standards and subject to tuition fees. UVic students please contact eusprog@uvic.ca.  

Special topics course: European borders without walls: What can the world learn from EU border and immigration policies? An open online course (EUS 490)

This course can be taken either FOR CREDIT (through MyPage, EUS 490, 1.5units) or
FREE through Continuing Studies.

REGISTRATION for this course is now CLOSED for 2017.
Introduction/Overview

The current migration crisis is forcing Europeans to face past and future issues; and the decisions they are taking will have long standing impact on the EU. Our course hypothesises that answers to the crisis are shaping Europe’s borders, migration and related security policies in exemplary manners and should be studied in comparative perspective and context. To conduct this innovative and forward looking research, we primarily compare Canada, France, Japan and Turkey to leverage their tremendous expertise to compare EU’s evolving border, migration and security policies. 

Activities are aimed at engaging the greater public, undergraduate and graduate students, young researchers and professors at each partner institution along with the policy makers in each community. The network will collectively develop a database of border, migration and related security policies, so that comparison of EU with the rest of the world is systematic and possible.  Today, despite the growing body of work across institutions on border and migration studies, there are very few attempts to network these efforts, particularly when it comes to innovation in data sharing, management, and dissemination, hence this, Open Online course to teach how the EU border, migration and related security policies are evolved during the migration crisis.  

Understanding borders in the twenty-first century is increasingly difficult. Borders are harder to define and manage and policy makers must deal with the multiple and complex activities of governments and the actions of private and public organizations across international boundaries. 

In this free open - online survey course, you will learn about the history of borders and boundary making. You will explore what happens in cultural borderlands, and how current changes affect our understanding and the activities of governments as they face the many challenges related to borders and boundaries: migrations and trade, pandemics and sustainability issues, and security. 

You will have access to a wide range of debates on the history, culture, economics, sustainability, security and governance of borders. Each unit uses a variety of learning activities including video-clips, short readings and online lectures. You can also choose to complete assignments and quizzes and participate in group discussions.

The course material, which you can follow at your own pace, will prepare you to compare North American and European borders and formulate ideas on both. Please visit the DCS website for the full course description.

This course is possible thanks to funding from the European Union Chair, Jean Monnet programs of the European Union. It is open on a non-credit basis to professionals in the public and private sector and community members with a strong interest in borders.

Themes:

History of borders – focus on the EU Cultures and borders – in North America and Europe Migrations and trading across borders Governance of borders in the mediterranean and in North America Sustainability – water issues in North America and in Europe Security – EU/North American differences and similarities The Case of EU Turkish relations  The Case of EU Moroccan relations Borders and Migration in Canada Conclusions

The course is also open to UVic students as an undergraduate credit course (400 level), assessed according to university standards and subject to tuition fees. UVic students please contact eusprog@uvic.ca

Instructor: Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, PhD, is a leading EU Border expert and the Director of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence and Jean Monnet Chair and Jean Monnet Network held by UVic since September 2015. 

Dates: Monday, September 25 for 10 weeks  – Registration is available on an ongoing basis until the end of the course week 10.

Fee: Free for non-credit participants