8 PRIO The Peace Research Institute Oslo
8.2 Research group: Migration
8.2.1 Organisation, leadership, strategies and resources
The Migration research group dates from 2005, when PRIO prioritised migration in its research strategy. Like other groups at the institute, it is led by a coordinator and involves researchers from different departments at PRIO. The aim is to achieve PRIO’s strategic goals through a number of high-quality, research-related activities.
The research group relies entirely on external funding, like the rest of PRIO. PRIO provides it with infrastructure such as library and IT services, however. Most of the group’s funding comes from the RCN; a four-year project on ‘Transnational lives in the Welfare State’ is the largest contributor (NOK 11 million). There are also other national public sources of funding for smaller projects, as well as international private foundations. One twelve-month project about transnational migration, citizenship and the circulation of rights and responsibility is financed by the EU. The annual budget is approx. NOK 11 million for 20 ongoing projects.
The migration group is small, but seems to be quite well-organised. With some well-financed projects, there are good conditions for successful research contributions.
8.2.2 Research personnel
As the research group focuses on a specific topic, the researchers are recruited based on the relevance of their skills and expertise. The overall strategy resembles the recruitment strategy of PRIO as a whole as regards gender equality, career development etc. The group leader is joined by two researchers (both women) with permanent, full-time positions at PRIO. Another woman has a full-time but temporary position at the Cyprus Centre, while two other researchers have temporary 20% positions at PRIO. The research group has four PhD candidates and another four have graduated in recent years.
Sometimes, a prospective PhD candidate leads the development of a project. In such cases, the PhD position is not advertised. This is possible because PRIO is not a public sector institution. In other cases, PhD positions are advertised in larger projects. According to the self-assessment, it is important to safeguard the candidate’s need for autonomy in relation to the project’s need for specified research.
There is an international recruitment policy for PhDs and, since 2011, half of the candidates have been
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foreign-born. This is limited, however, by the need for Norwegian language skills, which is illustrated by the statement in the self-assessment that calls for research on migration by the Research Council to have an explicit orientation towards research on Norway. The international outlook of the group has also resulted in visiting fellows and fieldwork outside Norway, in Europe and Asia, for example. Of the six listed members of the group, three graduated at universities in Norway and three graduated abroad. In addition to these listed researchers, there are 12 affiliated researchers. All but two are women and most are below 40 years of age. Four are PhD students and all but one of the others have other kinds of temporary employment at PRIO. Of the six listed members of the group, one is a Senior Consultant at the PRIO Cyprus Centre in Nicosia. Six are PhD students, one is a researcher at the Cyprus Centre and one is a ‘Global fellow’ from the University of Sussex.
8.2.3 Research production and scientific quality
The research is grouped under three headings: Migration processes about how migration outcomes are shaped by interplay between individual agency and structures; Belonging and Diversity, such as questions of identity, home and belonging from individual and society perspective; and Transnational Practices such as long-distance political engagement, support for armed struggles, charity donations remittances etc. The overall focus is peace and conflict.
The research has been successful, with widely cited articles in high-quality journals and an impressive number of publications overall. Some of the most cited articles were published in journals focusing on ethnicity such as Ethnic and Racial Studies and Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, but other geographical and economic journals, such as International Migration Review, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Annals of Association of American Geographers and Antipode, have also been favoured. The main theoretical focus on the interplay between individual agency and social structures informs projects with a particular focus on transnationalism and remittance practices.
The journals are relevant to the theme of the research, and they are of high scientific quality. They are also chosen with a view to addressing an appropriate academic audience and are for that reason journals from disciplines other than geography, such as migration and ethnic studies journals. Some articles have received a significant number of citations, suggesting that they are well read within the field. The submitted texts concern transnational practices and belonging and diversity, with less reference to the migration process per se. One of the submitted texts is written by a guest researcher with a 20% position. The others have permanent positions at PRIO or a temporary position at the Cyprus Centre. The texts reflect a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research. In terms of theory, the interplay between social structure and agency presented in the self-assessment is not explicitly expressed in the submitted papers (even though it can be present implicitly). Most of the articles have an empirical rather than a theoretical orientation, although one article had a clear theoretical point of departure. The overall evaluation of the research group is that it produces research of international standard with acceptable productivity and that it makes a relevant contribution to the development of the field of migration studies.
8.2.4 Networking
The group has high expectations of its networking activities. Most of the research is conducted together with partners at other universities in Norway and abroad, either as partners in a consortium or as subcontractors to PRIO-led projects. This includes many universities in Norway and universities in Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK, Pakistan and Somalia. The research group represents PRIO in Europe’s largest interdisciplinary research network in the field of migration, integration and diversity
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studies (IMISCOE). The group also collaborates with civil society organisations, such as ministries of justice and public security and foreign affairs, as well as public immigration organisations and NGOs.
8.2.5 Interplay between research and education
The research group is engaged in a number of teaching activities, primarily in PhD courses in fieldwork methodology, the politics of human migration, political geography and mobility and migration.
Researchers also give lectures in bachelor and master’s degree courses as guest lecturers.
8.2.6 Societal relevance and impact
The impact case submitted is a project on promoting public understanding of migrants’ transnational engagements, where the idea is to reduce suspicion among the Norwegian population about the motivations behind remittances and show that migrants can be highly engaged with their country of origin and also effectively integrated in Norwegian society. The case is based on research conducted by the research group since the group was established. It has dealt with the question of remittances and how this practice affects both the places left behind and the integration process in Norway. The research has been conducted through interviews with migrants and their relatives, survey data and analyses of media and policy documents. This has resulted in the conclusion that successful integration can coexist with transnational engagement. This result forms the core of the impact case as it contradicts public opinion. The impact has been achieved through involvement with policymakers and the media. The handbook for policymakers and practitioners published in 2010 has been used by NGOs and government agencies. An analytical framework, the Matrix of Attachment, has also been of help for the National Security Authority, as demonstrated by some press releases from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other agencies. Migration Research produces a newsletter, ‘Migration Update’, containing information about the research results, and researchers are active in social media and other public channels.
8.2.7 Overall assessment
Although the research group is small in number, it has managed to secure impressive levels of external funding for transnational research. Most of the research is of a high scientific standard and has reached international audiences. The research impact has been high, especially within migration studies. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the institute, the research is oriented towards international topics regardless of disciplinary borders. The theoretical orientation is thus broad and related to each research topic. The research group has also been successful in its work with policymakers and practitioners.
Assessment of research group: 4 – very good
8.2.8 Feedback
• Consider whether, since the group is small, it is useful to divide its attention between three different themes or whether these could be reduced to one or two.
• Evaluate how successful collaboration with researchers at other universities in Norway and elsewhere is in terms of increasing scientific impact.
• Explore the option of securing funding from other sources than the RCN, such as EU funding.
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