Dr L. Smith (Lothar)

Lothar Smith takes a special interest in research on the migration - development research field, and has specific expertise on transnational flows and processes between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.

At present he is concerned with research on the position of migrants and their collective involvement in development cooperation in countries of origin. Thereby a transnational, multi-stakeholder approach is taken, in partnership also with colleagues from Italy, Philippines and Ghana (title: TRANSCODE).

Furthermore the potential of migration in the form of new entrepreneurial activities is also being given shape in various projects. In other research initiatives special interest goes out to frontier processes related to changing social configurations coming out of migration such as gender balance changes, local resource management, etc. (New Indonesian Frontiers programme)

Other themes: migration & climate change (with Centre for Migration Studies, Ghana); transnational identities, careers for migrants (Diverse EU project), internal migrants and urban identities in Africa (with Wageningen UR)