Start main page content

Events

Re-enforcing Inequalities: The Political and Social Consequences of Internal Migration

When: Friday, 13 September 2024 - Friday, 13 September 2024
Where: Hybrid Event

SCIS Seminar Room, North Lodge, Parktown Management Campus, Parktown, 2193
Start time:9:00
Enquiries:

athenkosi.pono@wits.ac.za

kitso.kgaboesele@wits.ac.za

 

RSVP:

Register here!

Cost: Free but registration is required

SCIS invites you to a seminar with Professor Gabriele Spilker titled Re-enforcing Inequalities: The Political and Social Consequences of Internal Migration

The Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS) warmly invites you to a seminar with Professor Gabriele Spilker titled Re-enforcing inequalities: The political and social consequences of internal migration.  This hybrid session takes place on 13 September 2024, 09:00-10:30 (SAST). 


Abstract: 
Many countries in the Global South experience large flows of internal, rural-to-urban migration with oftentimes ambivalent consequences. While urbanization can drive economic growth and improve public services, it also presents economic, social, and political challenges, often intensifying inequalities between locals and migrants This paper explores when migrants perceive discrimination and how this varies based on their reasons for migrating. Using original survey data from Kenya and Vietnam, we find that migrants who relocate for economic opportunities or to escape environmental hardships report fewer inequalities than locals or social migrants. A possible explanation is that these migrants have lower expectations of their new living conditions, leaving less room for disappointment.

About the speaker:
Gabriele Spilker is a Professor of International Politics – Global Inequality at the Department of Politics and Public Administration and co-speaker of the Excellence Cluster "The Politics of Inequality".  Spilker completed her PhD at ETH Zurich as part of the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) “Challenges to Democracy” in 2009. Before joining the University of Konstanz, she was a Fritz Thyssen Fellow at the Weatherhead Center of International Affairs at Harvard University (2011-2012), a postdoctoral researcher in the “International Political Economy” group at the Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS) at ETH Zurich (2012-2013) as well as Assistant/Associate Professor of International Politics (2014-2020) and Professor for Empirical Research Methods at the Department of Political Science and Sociology of the University of Salzburg (2020-2021). Her main research interest concerns the societal-level consequences of climate change, for instance, in terms of migration and protest.

calendar iconAdd event to calendar