OCMO 2350 - Migration Diplomacy with the MENA Region

***NEW COURSE***

The notion of migration diplomacy has gained increasing traction in academia and international politics in recent years, particularly in relation to the Middle East. Taking the EU-Turkey Statement of 18 March 2016 as a point of departure and examining different cases in depth (Jordan, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Morocco), this course will explore what migration diplomacy is, how it works, and what to think of it. In doing so, the course has a strong focus on applied policy-making and on equipping students with both a theoretical and a practical understanding of the topic. To achieve this, the literature and exercises will pay special attention to policy papers, and the sessions may occasionally host via online video-conferencing practitioners who share their professional experiences.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Understanding migration diplomacy as a theoretical concept and a policy field
• Understanding how migration diplomacy is done in practice
• Forming an own opinion on migration diplomacy as an approach
• Understanding how policy proposals are developed in this field
• Ability to develop and propose own ideas in this policy field

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

• Negotiation and intercultural communication
• Strategic and creative thinking
• Policy paper writing
• Argumentation and persuasion
• Ethical reasoning in professional settings

A sincere interest in the topic!

Students will be provided feedback over the course both on the oral participation and on the occasional small (and non-graded) assignments they are asked to prepare, which will help them work on the two main assessments

• Class participation, whole semester, 10%
• Doing the readings and participating in class is really essential for this course as both the benefit you will personally get from this course and the two final assessments live off the development of your own ideas. (It also makes the course a lot more fun when everyone actively participates :-) .)
• Policy paper, Deadline Session 11, 60%
• You will be asked to address a real-world policy problem in migration diplomacy, develop your own innovative policy recommendations, and convincingly argue for them, based on what we study in the course, your own research and analysis, and your ability to make the case for your ideas. Many of the course readings are policy papers from various think tanks and institutions, which will gradually show you how such a paper is written. Details will be discussed in class. Like in the real world, the policy paper will be only 2500 words long.
• Essay, Deadline Session 12, 30%
• You will be asked to produce a 1500-word essay on a more fundamental question regarding migration diplomacy.

• In Class Presence: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
• Reading and Preparation for Class: 10 hours a week / 120 hours a semester
• Research and Writing for Individual Assessments: 56 hours a semester