This project aims for the development of an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in Mixed Migration (MixMIG), addressing diverse forms of cross-border movements of people with varying motivations. It offers a theoretically founded, evidence-based, and didactically sound study program for students worldwide. The universities who will be participating in the development and implementation of this integrated, cross-institutional, and transdisciplinary study programme are situated in sending, transit, and receiving countries of major migration corridors and are all well-established and -networked in migration research and postgraduate training. The consortium consists of three universities located in the European Union – the University for Continuing Education Krems in Austria, University of Palermo in Italy, and the University of Warsaw in Poland and two non-European universities, the University of Ghana, Ghana and Koc University in Turkey. Furthermore, the involvement of the EU Agency for Asylum as well as the International Centre for Migration Policy Development as two potential future employers for graduates of this degree programme will help to design an attractive, tailor-made curriculum ensuring high employability. This Master Programme is specifically dedicated to the rapidly growing phenomenon of mixed migration and is grounded in a variety of geographical, methodological, and disciplinary perspectives to educate future actors involved in addressing the challenges of this social phenomenon - from the policy to practise. The funding will enable the consortium to design and develop a world-class, state-of-the-art curriculum for a two-year Joint Master’s programme attracing international students for partaking in an intensive and comprehensive study period which will prepare them for professional careers in international governmental and non-governmental organisations, public administrations, and also qualify students for the next step in an academic career including a PhD

Host communities often perceive certain refugee or migrant groups as more ‘threatening’ (e.g. security or employment) than others. This can be seen from the recent arrivals of Ukrainian refugees in Europe, but also in many other regions of the world. In Morocco, for example, Sub-Saharan migrants are less favored than others. Unequal treatment by nationality, ethnicity, or time of arrival regarding status, access to employment or residence is often the consequence. Yet, little is known about what impact this has for inter-migrant group relations. How do (forced) migrant groups perceive other migrant group arrivals? Do they consider each other as potential rivals, as to say as competitors or threats? What factors increase or decrease inter-migrant group rivalries and when might they turn violent or rather solidary? MixedRivals applies a novel interdisciplinary approach by analyzing structural (ex. exclusionary policies) as well as socio-psychological factors (ex. perceptions of threat, positive contact, and group identification), bringing together theories on inter-group relations from migration, violent conflict, rivalry, and psychology. MixedRivals moves beyond the common host-migrant focus, and pushes the conceptual boundaries of rivalry, refugee/migrant, violence/non-violence, liberal/restrictive policies further, introducing the concept of “mixed rivalries” underlining the complex and multi-dimensional nature of possible contestations between migrant groups. Using a mixed method approach, furnishing new cross-sectional survey and qualitative data on inter-migrant group perceptions of threat and inequality in four urban hubs in North Africa, as well as de facto (forced) migration policy data, the project aims at advancing the understanding of inter-migrant group relations at a time where North Africa is becoming a major destination for mixed ar(rivals) at the intersection between Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa.

In today’s world, the majority of refugees originate from states plagued by civil war and extreme violence, where the legitimacy of the state as guarantor of protection is unsettled. Furthermore, refugees often find themselves subjected to various forms of violence at the hands of state actors in host states – regardless of whether they seek refuge in authoritarian or democratic ones. Yet, little is known about how refugees perceive and engage with the state throughout their displacement journeys, and how these perceptions shape their roles as political actors: How do they experience and perceive the state, and in the context of state-inflicted violence in particular, before, during and after displacement? How do these perceptions and experiences affect their political participation? Centring refugees’ political agency, the RESTATE project aims to: (1) provide a dynamic understanding of refugees’ experiences and interactions with the state along their displacement journeys; (2) discern which forms of state violence, both within refugees’ origin and host states, erode trust in state institutions and potentially incite political resistance; (3) theorise the conditions of refugees’ political participation throughout their displacement trajectories; and (4) theorise the implications of refugees’ political participation in both origin and host states for processes of ‘state-making’ – attempts to fulfil key government functions such as protection, justice, the provision of basic services and mobility control. Employing a novel comparative mixed-methods and multi-sited approach, the project studies displacement from three civil-war states (Afghanistan, South Sudan and Syria) in four major host states (Iran, Turkey, Uganda, and Germany) for innovative theory-building on refugees’ political agency in state-(re)making. The empirical knowledge gained will critically inform possible avenues for peacebuilding, conflict resolution and political inclusion.