Migration Law (national - European - global)

In this research area, I deal with national, European and international migration law issues. I am interested in migrants' rights and in how migrants' social, political and economic participation can be ensured through legal means. Another area of interest is legal issues in European migration governance. Among other things, my research addresses issues of asylum law, border protection and access to international protection for asylum seekers. I am particularly interested in labour migration issues and the relationship between labour migration and global inequality. My main focus is on migrants' agency and the role of their home and transit countries in shaping the process of labour migration.

Current projects and publications:

·        JUST MIGRATION – labour migration regimes in transnationalized contexts (MPI für Sozialanthropologie, Halle (Deutschland)
This project analyses migrants’ agency in current European labour migration regimes and seeks to conceptualize legal agency in migration matters. It combines legal and anthropological research to understand how migrants navigate and use migration law to realize their own aspirations. A specific focus is on the role of rights for legal agency. The project seeks to identify if and how labour migration law and the corresponding legislative processes reflect the interests of migrants and their countries of origin.

·       The European Society of Immigration
The goal of this project is to conceptualize the European society of immigration in the light of EU core constitutional law. I understand the European society of immigration as a super-diverse society of citizens and inhabitants. Using Art 2 TEU as a yardstick, I seek to develop normative principles that guide the regulation of inclusion and exclusion in the European society of immigration. This yardstick helps to critically assess current EU Asylum and Migration Law as well as Member State law.

·       The Political Economy of Labour Migration Law
In this project, I seek to understand the political economy of labour migration law. I explore the interplay between the right to property and migration law and ask more generally how labour migration law is shaped by economic structures and power relations. I am particularly interested in the role individual rights play in this context and how they are used to alter power relations. I seek to clarify diasporas' role in the political economy of migration law (remittances, affidavits). From a historical perspective, I want to understand how property protection shaped migrants’ rights over time and how this has been linked to colonial practices and other forms of transnational economic exploitation.

·       Struggles about Citizenship and Belonging
Here, I address issues of belonging and citizenship rights. One research focus is the role of time and temporality in migration law and its related modes of inclusion and exclusion. I investigate how migration law reflects and shapes images of our societies' past, present, and future and their ideas of belonging. In addition, I am interested in mobility rights and social rights of EU citizens and how they have changed over time. Overall, the aim is to understand the defining features of the respective modes of belonging and their legal shape.

International and National Human Rights Law

Human rights protection is a cross-cutting issue that runs through all of my research areas. Human rights are particularly significant in handling distribution conflicts and issues of migration management and participation. My specific interest is in social rights, particularly equal treatment and the rights of migrant workers and refugees.

Conflicts over Solidarity and Recognition in Constitutional Law

My research in this area focuses on institutional issues related to conflicts over solidarity and recognition in national and European constitutional law. Of particular interest are the role of courts and issues of the seperation of powers. My research is based on the premise that averting the destructive potential of conflicts is crucial to protecting public discourse and institutions in a democracy. I investigate mechanisms for conflict resolution through law and how constitutional law can aid in productive and integrative conflict resolution. Since conflicts over solidarity often have a transnational dimension, my research in this area is also strongly comparative and includes the national legal systems of the EU member states as well as EU constitutional law.

Current projects and publications:

·        Conceptualizing the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice from a European Constitutional Law Perspective
This article examines the constitutional implications of three central areas of conflict in the AFSJ from a constitutional human-rights perspective: Conflicts between freedom and security, shifting increasingly from internal to external borders in the European mobility space; between individuals and public authority,  rendering the relationship between EU citizens and non-EU citizens increasingly relevant; about solidarity between the Member States, but also between the EU and third-country nationals in need of protection. The article shows that it is still open whether the promise and potential of EU constitutional law as a normative frame and source of imagination for further integration of the European society will be realized.                                        

·        Transformative Constitutionalism and Constitutional Openness
This article examines the seeming contradiction between openness and explicit constitutional aspirations in Transformative Constitutionalism as opposed to the principled openness of liberal constitutionalism. In doing so, it also discusses the relation between the preserving power and the transformative power of constitutional law more generally. It asks if and how openness is and should be (better) secured in the transformative constitutional(ism) of the EU.