FASoS researchers have acquired funding for three new PhD projects on cross-border mobility, as part of Maastricht University’s new Institute for Transnational and Euregional Cross Border Cooperation and Mobility (ITEM). ITEM is an initiative developed by the interfaculty Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development (MACIMIDE), in cooperation with the province of Limburg and the municipality of Maastricht.
As part of the “Limburg Knowledge/Axis” cooperation, the goal of ITEM is to increase cross-border mobility and to analyse the functioning of a regional labour market in the Maas-Rhine Euregion. Within Maastricht University ITEM is coordinated by the Faculty of Law.
The three FASoS PhD projects are aimed at studying the connection between cross-border migrants and the Limburg region, especially a) the migration trajectories of immigrants in a border region context, with a specific focus on the province of Limburg; b) formal and informal social security arrangements in a cross-border context; and c) questions of identity, employment and living situation among youngsters in the Limburg region who are affected by demographic and socioeconomic changes.
The project incorporates an interdisciplinary approach and involves researchers from the FASoS research programmes “Arts, Media and Culture”, “Globalisation, Transnationalism and Development” and “Politics and Culture in Europe”. The PhD projects are supervised by prof. Leonie Cornips (professor of language culture in Limburg), prof. Valentina Mazzucato (professor of globalisation and development), prof. Hans Schmeets (professor of social statistics) and prof. Maarten Vink (professor of political science and political sociology, coordinator of the ITEM project at FASoS). The ITEM project also involves collaboration with Statistics Netherlands (CBS).
The three PhD projects will be advertised before the summer with the aim to start in November or December 2015.
See for more information about the ITEM project: http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/web/Main/Sitewide/Content/ProposalToEstablishBorderInstituteForInternationalAndEuregionalIssues.htm
