MSc International Development: Migration, Mobility and Displacement

Course description

The MSc International Development: Migration, Mobility and Displacement offers a coherent, interdisciplinary and applied course that analyses the interaction between migration and development.

It will provide you with strong critical analytical skills, with a good grounding in the theoretical and conceptual debates in the field.

In recent years there has been a growing interest in how people¿s movement may contribute to economic, social and political development ¿ seen most vividly in the growing scale of remittances that outweigh official development aid.

On the other hand, there has also been a surge of interest in how supporting development may address the `root causes¿ of mass (irregular) migration from the poorest regions of the world.

This course will help prepare you for future work in this politically highly-charged arena where questions of global injustice and rights intersect with the social, economic, political and security interests of wealthy and poor states alike. This will course will be perfect for you, if,

As a pathway within the overall MSc International Development, this programme will provide you with both strong foundations in the broad field of development and specialist training in migration, mobility and displacement.

A particular feature of the course will the fieldwork trip which will include visits to communities and projects that are responding to the challenges and opportunities of migration.

The programme will raise many new questions and equip you to start answering them.

You will have the opportunity to practice these research skills by preparing a dissertation on a topic of your choice relating to the course.

Aims

The course will:

• Provide critical insights into different theoretical and disciplinary perspectives on how migration, mobility and development can be understood, measured and explained
• Provide students with a thorough conceptual framework and the skills necessary to critically analyse key theoretical and practical issues and debates relating to migration, mobility and development;
• Provide students with an opportunity to deepen their understanding of how ideas and assumptions about the mobility of poor people are being embedded into the formulation and implementation of development policy;
• Provide critical insights into the key strategies, policies and practices currently employed to make `migration work for development¿ and to invest in development with a view to tackling the `root causes of irregular movement¿.
• Provide a wide range of options for advanced training in areas of specialist expertise relevant to migration, mobility and development;
• Develop advanced competencies in transferable areas, including developing reasoned arguments, gathering, organising and using evidence and information from a wide variety of sources, undertaking both team-based and independent work to deadlines, and both written and verbal forms of communication
• Assist students in developing their specialist area of expertise in the broad field of migration, mobility and development, and in applying their understanding and skills through supervised individual research culminating in a dissertation.

Career opportunities

Teaching and research at the Global Development Institute covers a wide variety of topics and as a result our students can be found in a range of jobs and careers.