Leitung: Dr. Lydia Potts, Jan Kühnemund

Laufzeit: Oktober 2008 - September 2011

Mittelgeber: EU

IMMIS will implement African migration studies by joint curriculum development and collaborative research, facilitated by fellowships, faculty exchange, conferences, publications, and the improvement of academic infrastructure. Networking of the four partner universities will increase their capacities in the field of African migration research and gender studies. Eastern Africa is strongly affected by internal displacements and forced migration. The region experienced various forms of migration, flight and refuge, historically as well as contemporary, including permanent, internal and external, documented and un-documented, conflict-induced and labour transitory migration. Still - and although global interest in migration processes is rising - African migration processes are underrepresented in migration research and in the global migration discourse. Migration, despite its critical relevance to Africa's development, is often hardly recognised in academic contexts. Theorising migration and challenging predominant images of the migrant from African perspectives, by African scholars, is not yet prevalent. Besides, apart from the humanitarian concern for women being the main victims of forced migration related to armed conflicts and natural disasters, the gender dimension of the issue is still unaccounted for. Gender relations and women's rights are contested areas in contemporary societies and they are at the core of discourses on modernity and tradition. On an international and national level, the state of gender equality is closely linked to development and increasingly considered one of its key indicators.

1st project conference: African Migration and Gender: Focus in Eastern Africa International Conference at the Humboldt University Berlin, Germany, 25 - 26 September 2009.

2nd project conference: African Migration and Gender in Eastern Africa II: Setting the Agenda Conference at Mbarara University Of Technology & Science, Uganda, 5 - 6 July 2010.

3rd project conference: Migration, Gender and Diversity in Eastern Africa Conference at Ahfad University for Women, Omdurman, Sudan, 3 - 5 May 2011.