Program
The research of the Centre for Migration Law (CMR) is characterised by three aspects:
- interdisciplinary co-operation,
- international orientation and
- emphasis on the relation between international developments and national legal practice.
The staff members of the Centre cover different disciplines: law, sociology, anthropology, political science, philosophy and Arabic languages. The Centre aims to integrate the results of legal and empirical research. Many research projects have an international, European of comparative component. In publications and annotations much attention is being paid to the relevance of international standards for Dutch legal practice.
The research of the CMR is done in two interconnected programs :
- Minorities
- Migration
Minorities
The research programme Minorities is aimed at analysing the often ambiguous relationship between law and the groups of persons that hold a marginalized position in society.
On the one hand, the legal system functions as a legitimate instrument for the marginalisation of such groups, or as an instrument of their exclusion. Among others, this goes for the legal instruments developed in order to regulate migration, which are based on the dis-tinction between citizens and foreigners, and between one category of foreigners and the other on the basis of their nationality or residence rights. On the other hand, in order to establish equal treatment, foreigners often invoke legal principles or express the need for the creation of new rights. This programme focuses on the situation of ethnic minorities and migrants in The Netherlands. It researches the use of different instruments that influence international migration, and their consequences for migrants in society.
Migration
The research programme Migration focuses on the migration within and to the European Union and its member states, on the position of migrants and on the activities on migration related matters of other organizations, such as the Council of Europe, the OSCE and Schengen.
An important category of the migration process to the European Union is the asylum migration. The European asylum policy therefore constitutes an important part of the research in this programme. In addition, the developments of public international law in Europe are being researched, with the emphasis on the public international law aspects of the crisis in the former Yugoslavia. Herein the law on self determination and the position of (national) minorities are the central focus. The aim of the programme is to gain scientific knowledge that can contribute to the discussion in society as a whole on the policy on minorities and migration in the Netherlands and Europe.
Check for further and detailed info on relevant projects carried out by the CMR: