Jørgen Carling

Research Interests

See also my personal web site.
Follow me on Twitter: @jorgencarling

Theories of migration and transnationalism
Migration aspirations and intentions
 Networks and chain migration processes
Family and gender in migration
Immigration policy and migration pressure
Border control and migrant fatalities
Undocumented migration and human smuggling
 The demography of immigrant communities
 Remittances and migration-development links

I have conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Cape Verde, Italy and the Netherlands, primarily with Cape Verdeans, but also with migrants from Ghana and China. Through statistical data and secondary analysis, I have engaged with migration to Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and United Kingdom, as well as to Europe more generally. This work has examined migration from Brazil, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Pakistan, Turkey, Ukraine, and other countries. I have used diverse methods, often in combination:

 Semi-structured interviews
 Participant observation in multi-sited fieldwork
 Purpose-made sample surveys
 Statistical analysis of existing survey data
 Demographic projection from register data
 Discourse and document analysis

I hold a position as Research Affiliate at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford.

I am an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, the International Migration Review and Migration Letters.

What I am doing at the moment: Autumn 2016
I will be spending most of the autumn as a visiting resercher at the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG) of Maastricht University, which is integrated within The UNU-MERIT United Nations University. During my stay I am finalizing a number of publications and starting to analyze data from our project Transnational Lives in the Welfare State (TRANSWEL). I will also be working on a special issue entitled 'Desires, Aspirations and the Drivers of Migration', co-edited with Francis Collins (University of Auckland). I will give a keynote lecture at Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development (entitled 'What is transnational? Exploring the ontologies of an evocative adjective') and another one at the Hugo Conference on environment, migration and politics (entitled 'Unraveling the causes of migration).

Background

​​​​​​Personal profiles on other sites
LinkedIn
Academia.edu
Google Scholar Citations
YouTube

Language skills
Proficient: English, Norwegian and Cape Verdean Kriol
Basic skills: Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch
All but forgotten: Esperanto and Japanese

Work experience
2012-: Research Professor; Research Director, PRIO.
2011-2011: Research Professor; Programme Leader, PRIO.
2009-2011: Senior Researcher; Programme Leader, PRIO.
2007-2009: Senior Researcher, PRIO.
2002-2007: Researcher, PRIO.
1999: Research assistant, Statistics Norway
1998: Research assistant, Institute for Social Research
1997: Research assistant, Statistics Norway

Academic visitorships
2016: UNU-MERIT United Nations University and Maastricht University
2010: Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
2005: COMPAS, University of Oxford
2003: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute

Education
2007. PhD (Human geography)
University of Oslo, Norway.
2001. Cand. polit. (Human geography)
University of Oslo, Norway.
1998. Cand. mag. (Human geography, demography and economics)
University of Oslo, Norway.
1993. International Baccalaureate
United World College of the Atlantic, Wales.

Research Groups

• Migration
• Cities and Populations (2012-2015)
• Urbanization and Environment

PRIO Departments

• Social Dynamics

• Ethics, Norms and Identities (1994-2011)

PRIO Projects

• ​Transnationalism from Above and Below: Migration Management and how Migrants Manage (MIGMA) (project leader)
• International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe (IMISCOE) (project leader)
• Personnel security clearance and transnational ties (project leader)
• Possibilities and Realities of Return Migration (PREMIG) (project leader)
• Transnational Lives in the Welfare State (TRANSWEL) (project leader)
• Understanding the Root Causes and Drivers of Migration (project leader)

• Children’s Mobility and Immobility in Transnational Family Networks (project leader)
• Europe and the developing world: Confronting migration pressure (project leader)
• Europe Looking Outwards: The Quest for a European Security Identity
• Europe Under Threat
• Imagining Europe from the outside (EUMAGINE) (project leader)
• Leaving to Belong: Migration, Transnational Connectedness and Social Becoming
• Migrant remittances and development cooperation (project leader)
• Migration and Development Policy Challenges in Cape Verde (project leader)
• Migration-Based Threat (project leader)
• Nigerian immigration, human smuggling and trafficking in Europe (project leader)
• Perceptions and practices of migration among young Moroccans
• Possibilities and realities of return migration: Case study on Iraqi Kurds
• Remittance services in Norway (project leader)
• Remittances from Immigrants in Norway (RIN) (project leader)
• Return Migration and Social Change: Creating Distinctions in the Social Field
• Theorizing Risk, Money and Moralities in Migration (TRiMM) (project leader)
• Theorizing the Evolution of European Migration Systems (THEMIS)
• Training for International Publishing on Transnationalism and International Migration (TIP-TIM) (project leader)
• Transnational entrepreneurs in an African outpost: Chinese migrants in Cape Verde (project leader)
• Transnational Migration and Mobility Conflicts (project leader)
• Transnational Migration, Citizenship and the Circulation of Rights and Responsibilities (TRANSMIC) (project leader)
• Transnationalism, Integration and the Norwegian Policy Environment: Remittance Practices and Integration among Pakistanis in Norway
• Workshop on Migrant Integration and Transnationalism in Contemporary Europe

Events

• Thu, 20 August 2015 – Thinking About Going 'Home'
• Fri, 29 May 2015 08:15-09:45 – Frokostseminar: Innvandreres tilknytning til Norge og sitt opphavsland
• Fri, 22 May 2015 08:15-09:45 – Reintegration of Returnees and Deportees to Afghanistan
• Wed, 20 May 2015 09:00-16:00 – A Humanitarian Crisis on the Doorstep of Europe
• Wed, 21 Jan 2015 08:15-10:00 – What's Time Got to Do With It? Integration in a Temporal Perspective
• Thu, 19 Jun 2014 08:15-10:00 – Norway's Readmission Agreement with Ethiopia: What Happened?
• Thu, 12 Dec 2013 08:30-10:00 – How do Migration Researchers' Background Affect Their Research?
• Wed, 04 Dec 2013 08:30-10:00 – Proximity and Distance in Transnational Relationships
• Tue, 05 Nov 2013 08:30-09:45 – Why return to Afghanistan?
• Tue, 29 Oct 2013 08:15-09:45 – What lies behind the fantasy of return migration?
• Thu, 05 Sep 2013 08:30-10:00 – Diasporas and Development: A marriage of convenience or true love?
• Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:00-15:30 – Voluntary and Involuntary Return
• Wed, 20 Mar 2013 09:00-17:00 – Return Migration: Out of Norway and Back to What?
• Thu, 28 Feb 2013 08:30-10:00 – Who Wants to go to Europe?
• Fri, 16 Nov 2012 08:00-10:00 – Migration and New Norwegian Foreign Policy Realities
• 04 - 05 Sep 2012 – Return Migration and Transnationalism: Alternatives or Complements?
• 25 - 26 Jun 2012 – Challenges to Multiculturalism
• Tue, 08 May 2012 11:30-15:30 – Snapshots of Research on International Migration and Mobility
• 13 - 14 Dec 2011 – Moralities of Migration
• 11 - 13 Oct 2011 – Research course on Fieldwork Methodology
• 07 - 09 Sep 2011 – Integration and Transnationalism
• Tue, 23 Aug 2011 08:45-12:30 – 'A Dream, a Threat, a Duty' - A conference on return migration
• Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:00-13:00 – How does conflict in the country of origin affect remittance-sending?
• 28 - 29 Mar 2011 – Ethics at the Border: The European Internal/External Security Continuum.
• Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:30-19:30 – Linking Migration and Development
• Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:00-13:00 – Migration seminar: 'Project presentation: Theorising the evolution of European migration systems (THEMIS)'
• Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:00-13:00 – Migration seminar: 'Project presentation: Imagining Europe from the outside (EUMAGINE)'
• Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:00-13:00 – Migration seminar: Protecting Europe and protecting migrants?
• 14 - 15 Jan 2010 – Pakistani migration and transnationalism
• 20 - 21 Nov 2008 – Workshop on Transnational Parenthood and Children-Left-Behind
• 20 - 21 Nov 2008 – Transnational parenthood and children-left-behind
• 31 Oct 2007 - 03 Nov 2007 – PhD Course (PRIO and the University of Oslo)

Publications

See also the publication list on my personal web site and Google Scholar Citations for a list of my most frequently cited publications.

Recent publications

Carling, Jørgen (2016) Trajectórias transnacionais de mães e crianças nas famílias cabo-verdanas [Mother-child trajectories in Cape Verdean transnational families], in Furtado, Cláudio Alves; Pierre-Joseph Laurent; & Iolanda Évora, eds, As Ciências Sociais Em Cabo Verde. Praia: Edições Uni-CV (187–206).

All publications