Interdisciplinary perspectives on migration and asylum

Migration and asylum are highly complex phenomena that impact many different aspects of social life. Addressing migration and asylum therefore calls for a plurality of analytical perspectives which, taken together, can provide a more comprehensive understanding. Interdisciplinarity is a crucial tool to unravel some of this inherent complexity and can serve to illuminate those aspects of migration and asylum that remain hidden, unknown, or distorted when only using a single lens of analysis. By bringing together empirical insights, theoretical advances, and methodological pluralism across disciplinary boundaries—and extending beyond academia—we can more effectively identify the current shortcomings of migration policy and governance. The upcoming DEMIG Talk series aims to highlight the diversity of disciplines that relate to the field of migration, emphasizing the importance of combining different angles to better grasp human mobility whilst also calling for increasing cross-pollination and knowledge exchange.

We warmly invite you to the next session of the DEMIG talk series, taking place on 23 October from 14:00 to 15:00 (CET). In this online lecture, political scientist Giorgia Zogu will explore the political participation of immigrants in rural Italy, shedding light on how migrants engage in local political processes beyond urban centers.

Migrants’ Political and Social Participation in Rural Italy: Empirical Evidence

Giorgia Zogu, University of Vienna

Thursday, 23 October 2025, 14:00-15:00 CEST | online (Link to the Zoom meeting)

This presentation explores opportunities for political and societal participation of migrants by examining rural case studies from selected regions in Italy. Despite common assumptions about rural political disengagement or populist leanings, rural areas are diverse political and social spaces shaped by socio-economic, cultural, and historical disparities. Through a comparative lens, the webinar analyzes structural conditions, local governance, party system influences, and local and regional actors that support or hinder political and civic engagement, as well as societal participation in rural contexts.

Giorgia Zogu explores how local factors shape immigrant political participation in rural Italy. Comparing nine diverse municipalities, she finds that individual traits (such as language and employment) and community dynamics (including local institutions and social networks) influence engagement.
By focusing on the Italian case, the webinar aims to identify both common patterns and context-specific dynamics that contribute to understanding political behavior and societal engagement beyond urban-centric narratives.

Bio: Giorgia Zogu is a political scientist specializing in migration, minority rights, and political participation. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Vienna and was previously a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at Eurac Research in Bolzano, Italy (Institute for Minority Rights & Center for Migration and Societal Change). Her doctoral research examines the political participation of individuals with immigrant backgrounds in rural areas of Italy, with a particular focus on how rurality influences access to and forms of engagement. Furthermore, she conducted research on the recruitment, representation and political experiences of candidates with immigrant backgrounds in local-level electoral processes. Beyond that, Giorgia Zogu actively engages in science communication through editorial and creative roles, such as in the DoctorIt! (University of Vienna) and AutIn (Eurac Research) podcasts.

Between knowledge and assumptions: The migrant in the eyes of the policymaker

Katharina Natter, Leiden University  

Thursday, 18 September 2025, 14:00-15:00 CEST | hybrid format: University for Continuing Education Krems, Room SE W 1.03 + online 

What role does expert knowledge play in migration policymaking? While previous research focused on differentiating instrumental from symbolic knowledge use, this paper advances scholarly insights into equally important, yet under-theorized knowledge practices: knowledge non-use and misuse. Based on a comparative analysis of justification narratives surrounding Austrian, Italian and Dutch migration reforms since the 2000s, this paper delves into knowledge use dynamics across three policy areas: counter-smuggling, asylum reception, and migrant worker attraction. The analysis shows how “the migrant” is portrayed in fundamentally different ways across policy areas, with clear consequences on whether knowledge is used, cherry-picked, disregarded, or even distorted. 

Bio: Katharina Natter is Senior Assistant Professor at the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University. She researches migration politics from a comparative perspective, with a particular focus on the role of political regimes in immigration policymaking. Katharina’s work seeks to advance migration policy theory and to connect it with broader social science research on modern statehood and political change. Hereby, she also hopes to contribute to the wider academic effort of bridging theorizations of socio-political processes in the ‘Global South’ and the ‘Global North’.

Katharina has conducted extensive field research on the politics of migration in Morocco and Tunisia, but has also worked on European migration policies and on the link between migration and development. She has published in International Migration Review, Population and Development Review, Political Research Exchange, Comparative Migration Studies and the Journal of North African Studies. Her recent book, The Politics of Immigration Beyond Liberal States: Morocco and Tunisia in Comparative Perspective, has just been published by Cambridge University Press.

Katharina received her PhD in Political Sociology from the University of Amsterdam in 2019. Prior to that, she worked at the International Migration Institute (University of Oxford) and studied Comparative Politics at SciencesPo Paris. Since 2011, she is also involved in Asylos, an NGO providing Country of Origin research for lawyers representing asylum seekers.