Mustafa Aksakal holds a PhD in sociology and development studies. He currently works as a scientific coordinator and researcher-teacher in the sociology department of the University of Bielefeld. Its empowerment project focuses on the multidimensional analysis of international migration of highly qualified people promoting social inequalities in different ways. In a second research project, Mustafa, in collaboration with Leticia Calderón, studies the institutional and civil society practices in their efforts to treat and integrate migrants trapped in Mexico or deported from the U.S. In particular, the interdependencies between and transformations of the actors involved receive a specific attention. As part of the research projects mentioned, he is the editor and author of several edited volumes on migration policies and processes in Europe and Latin America.

Publications (selection)

2023 (con L. Calderón, L. Conti y L. Nejamkis). Migración y Desigualdades en Tiempos de la Crisis Pandémica: (Nuevas) Panoramas desde América Latina y Europa, Volúmen especial en Carta Economica Regional, Vol. 35, No. 131.

2021. (con L. Conti y L. Nejamkis, Coords.). (Re)pensando el vínculo entre migración y crisis Perspectivas desde América Latina y Europa. Buenos Aires: Clacso

2021. (con M. G. Trompetero). ¿De lo global a lo local? El rol del Pacto Mundial en las políticas colombianas hacia la migración venezolana, in: L. Nejamkis, L. Conti y M. Aksakal (Coords.): (Re)pensando el vínculo entre migración y crisis Perspectivas desde América Latina y Europa. Buenos Aires: Clacso, pp. 83-111.

2020 (con K. Schmidt, IF:. Introduction: temporary migration and social inequalities, special issue in Asian and Pacific Migration Studies, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 319-332.

2020. Uneven Professional Paths: The weight of social capital and political evaluations on highly skilled Chinese and Indian migrants’ career developments, Asian and Pacific Migration Studies, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp.  381-401.

2020. Warum verlassen Menschen ihre Lebensorte? Ein Überblick über Ansätze zur Erklärung der Initiierung von Wanderung, in: T. Faist (Coord.). Soziologie der Migration. Oldenbourg: DeGruyter, pp. 97-124;

2020.. 'Resisting world politics on ‘migration and development’? Tracing the trajectory of counter discourses in Latin America', in: S. Holtgreve, K. Preuß and M. Albert (Hrsg.). Envisioning the World: Mapping and Making the Global. Bielefeld: Special edition, pp. 125-144.

2020 (con K: Schmidt, Coords). Temporary Migration and Inequalities in the Asian-European Migration System, Asian Pacific Migration Journal, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 319-466.

2019 (con K. Schmidt). The role of cultural capital in life transitions among young intra-EU movers in Germany, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 47, No. 8, pp. 1848-1865.

2019 (con P. Pitkänen, T. Hayakawa, K. Schmidt y I.S. Rajan;). Temporary Migration, Transformation and Development: Evidence from Europe and Asia. New Dehli: Routledge.

2019. International Migration and place-based inequalities: The case of highly-skilled migration and student mobility to eastern Germany, in: I. S. Rajan (Coords.). India Migration Report. Diaspora in Europe. London and New York: Routledge, S. 106-122.

2018 (con B. Bilecen y  K. Schmidt). Qualitative sampling in research on international student mobility: insights from the field in Germany, Globalisation, Societies and Education, Vol. 17, No. 5, pp. 610-621.

2018 (con T. Faist y K. Schmidt). Migration and social transformation, in: P. Vihalemm, A. Masso und S. Opermann (eds.), The Routledge International Handbook of European Social Transformation. London: Routledge, pp. 283-297.

2017 (con P. Pitkänen, M. Korpela y K. Schmidt; Coords). Characteristics of Temporary Migration in Asian-European Transnational Social Spaces. Dordrecht: Springer.

 

Research project as fellow in CALAS (Transatlantic tandem with Leticia Calderón Chelius)

Title: Integration of the migrant population as a challenge for host societies, the case of Mexico

Summary: Integration is a decisive stage of the global migration process that implies a closure of the mobility cycle and poses a settlement process that involves the societies of destination. This process has been addressed mainly in the context of South-North labor migration. However, this issue has become central to South-South migration due to the migration dynamics of the last decade, which is especially notable in the context of international humanitarian migration, visibly in the case of Latin America. Based on this scenario of a new migratory geography in the region accelerated by mass migration from Venezuela and Haiti, this proposal aims to analyze policies and practices related to integrating migrants (often immobilized) in Mexico.
Above all, we are interested in exploring these processes from the different critical moments that have generated the most recent migratory flows in the region. How do transit countries manage forward migration? What are the national and local immigration and integration policy measures in Mexico? What role do economic and civil society actors play in this? How is a public image constructed through the media and various social actors of immigrants? Guided by these and other related questions, this proposal aims to examine the scenario in which the integration of foreigners takes place in two border cities
(Tapachula and Ciudad Juárez) and two metropolitan areas (Mexico City and Monterrey) to detail existing integration policies and practices and to point out the structural barriers faced by people face in (in)mobility once they are established in the country.