How Were Different Actor Groups Intertwined During the 2015 Refugee Crisis?

Ludger Pries

During the refugee crisis of 2015, about 1.5 million refugees entered the European Union. LUDGER PRIES examined how it was possible that this massive inflow of people was managed relatively successfully. In particular, he researched how different actor groups, from volunteers and leftist activists to the police, worked closely together. Employing an organizational network analysis in five Mediterranean countries, as he describes in this video, his research group added to existing studies a view that shows how different actors in the refugee crisis were intertwined on the level of organizations. Interestingly, they found that these networks were very heterogeneous and not homogeneous as is commonly assumed in organizational networks. This can be explained by the special context of refugee protection.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21036/LTPUB10552

Researcher

Ludger Pries is Chair of Sociology/Organisation, Migration and Participation at Ruhr University Bochum. Until recently, he was also Wilhelm und Alexander von Humboldt Chair at El Colegio de México. He has worked as lecturer and researcher in Germany, Spain, Mexico, Brazil and the USA. Among his fields of expertise are the sociology of work, organization, and migration in a comparative perspective as well as transnationalism and globalization research. His publications include nineteen monographs and twenty-five edited books and he has reviewed for more than fifty international journals and foundations. In addition to board activities for several journals, he is also co-editor of Soziologische Revue.

Ruhr University Bochum (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)

Located in the midst of the dynamic, hospitable metropolitan area of the Ruhr, in the heart of Europe, the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) with its 20 faculties, RUB’s disciplinary institutional units, is home to 5,600 employees and over 41,000 students from 130 countries. All the great scientific disciplines are united on one compact campus.The RUB is on its way to becoming one of the leading European universities of the 21st Century. Almost all courses are offered as Bachelor and Master degree programmes. Our excellence programmes have made themselves an international name: RUB Research School as an international college for structured doctoral research in the life sciences, natural sciences, engineering, the humanities and social sciences; the Cluster of Excellence RESOLV (Ruhr Explores Solvation); interfaculty and interdisciplinary Research Departments, which are mutually, nationally and internationally networked, sharpen the profile of the RUB. Added to this is an unsurpassed programme for the promotion of Early Career Researchers, and an excellent infrastructure. What makes it all come alive is the people who meet on campus with their thirst for knowledge, their curiosity, and their commitment. They help shape the RUB and their open-mindedness makes the RUB an attractive place for people from around the world. (Source: RUB)

Original Publication

Refugees, Civil Society and the State. European Experiences and Global Challenges

Ludger Pries

Published in 2018