Forced migration and the treatment of refugees and other displaced people currently find themselves at the center of many political, social, and academic debates. Yet forced migration is neither limited to certain regions nor to present-day developments. It is, indeed, a global phenomenon that has shaped humankind since time immemorial. Risks such as violent conflicts and wars, persecution, discrimination, poverty, as well as changes in climate and environment can all prompt people to leave their places of origin.

While forced migration has been a subject of research in Anglo-Saxon scholarship since the 1980s, the attention paid thereto has recently seen significant increase in a number of specific European academic landscapes. African, Asian, Australian, and Latin American research has also seen a proliferation of such inquiries. Thus far, however, the approaches taken have been fragmented and there remain various thematic gaps, methodological deficits, and limited broader geographic connections. Hence there is a need to strengthen this core research and further expand the horizons of the interdisciplinary field of Forced Migration Studies going forward.

For the Gerda Henkel Foundation this marks an opportunity to commence its special programme on “Forced migration” and therewith build on the promising approaches and developments of global research but also respond to the existing desiderata in related scholarship. The special programme aims to support, in particular, internationally oriented, multidimensional research projects on forced migration that address questions receiving insufficient attention in the relevant debates thus far. This also involves further linking theoretical core research with concepts vital to social, humanitarian, and political praxis.

The Foundation welcomes research projects that adopt multidisciplinary approaches within this framework. Engaging in comparisons across regions and time periods should also be a priority here. Projects that incorporate intersectional perspectives and issues are highly desirable too. Depending on the research approach taken and possibilities at hand, cooperation with local knowledge-producers (researchers as well as civil society actors), or people affected by displacement within countries of origin or asylum (particularly in the “Global South”), is strongly encouraged.

The Foundation expects applicants to reflect on the ethical implications of their work, and also to develop plans to disseminate research results—including finding meaningful ways to address social, humanitarian, and/or political actors, as well as the nonspecialist public media and populace at large.

The special programme is aimed at researchers across a number of disciplines: Humanities, Social Sciences, Cultural Studies, Law, and Economics. Funding for research scholarships and for the implementation of research projects is offered. PhD scholarships are only granted in tandem with a specific research project.

The Foundation's Board of Trustees decides on the applications on the basis of recommendation by an International Advisory Committee.

International Advisory Committee
Prof. Dr. Andreas Eckert | Berlin (Office rests until further notice.)
Prof. Dr. Tamirace Fakhoury | Copenhagen
Prof. Dr. Maja Janmyr | Oslo
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Krause | Osnabrueck
Prof. Dr. Naohiko Omata | Oxford

 The research projects should be linked to one or more of the following five core areas of research:

1) Forced-migration infrastructures

The first thematic area places focus on examining conditions (e.g. actors, institutions, structures) that can encourage, restrain, or otherwise influence forced migration. Possible topics include analysis of the meanings of historical or present-day events and of decision-making processes culminating in leaving one’s place of origin and undertaking journeys to certain specific destinations; the ways in which people take flight upon themselves; the routes and means of transport they use; how they acquire the necessary knowledge for planning and enactment; and, the roles networks or technological equipment play. Another subject of inquiry might be investigating what structures of assistance or care exist for and are created by displaced people in the process of flight and arrival, and how social dynamics among and between these individuals and host societies emerge and evolve.

2) South-South (im)mobilities

The second thematic area places emphasis on research into motives, scopes, forms, and implications of mobilities and immobilities, or mobilizations and immobilizations, within and between southern states. Future studies could address, among other things, issues of rejection, reception, and integration vis-à-vis displaced people, as related to diverse actors; (im)mobilities at different moments in the displacement process, including prevented movements and involuntary immobilities; and, the roles of networks and relationships in intraregional arrival locations. Prospective scholarship could also tackle alternative, non-state integration structures such as the integration of displaced people in local communities, related motives, further to associated social, economic, cultural, and/or political mechanisms as well as consequences.

3) Multiple displacements

The third thematic area goes beyond simplified understandings of monocausal, linear displacements from one place of origin to one place of asylum, approaching forced migration from a process-oriented perspective instead. This is because the conditions for forced migration not only frequently involve temporary stays in certain places, but there may also be nonpermanent temporary return migrations and recurring displacements. Possible studies could, for example, examine the motives behind and triggers of these dynamics as well as the displacement processes and underlying intentions of those affected. Questions of structural and physical insecurities, the effects of multiple displacements on social systems such as families, or developments and chains of recurrent adaptation are also worthy of further investigation.

4) Displaced people’s agency

The fourth thematic area concentrates on research into agency of the displaced. While those affected by forced migration are sometimes portrayed in humanitarian and political discourses as passive victims or even as threats to state security, displaced people’s own perceptions and practices must receive adequate attention too. Possible studies could, for example, address the links between the vulnerabilities and agency of displaced people, examine the latter as political or legal subjects given their numerous individual and collective decision-making strategies and courses of action throughout the entire process of displacement, and explore motives and aspirations in movement as well as resilience.

5) (Supra-)state influences on displacement processes

The fifth and final thematic area looks at the intimate connections between displacement and statehood. Even though eroded statehood often precedes displacement, it is by no means sufficient to focus primarily and exclusively on state dysfunction. Processes of forced migration are always influenced by state policies, be they repression, restrictive border regimes, or various forms of cooperation and confrontation between different states. Prospective projects could, for example, explore the role of nation-states and supranational organizations in causing, preventing, and shaping movements of the displaced. Here, scrutinizing indirect factors such as economic relations or clientelism, the influence of international, regional, and/or domestic law, or even the spatial dimension of mobility processes (“scale”) would be extremely valuable.

Prerequisites

The Foundation generally accepts applications for the funding of research projects by universities, other research institutes or comparable institutions, as well as by one or several postdocs or by scholars holding the postdoctoral-lecturing qualification (Habilitation). Depending on the type of project pursued, funding would cover associated costs for personnel, travel, acquiring relevant materials, and/or other necessary expenses. Doctoral students are not eligible to apply for funding independently.

Applicants must be actively involved in the research work underpinning the project. Project staff will only be financed by way of PhD or research scholarships. A fundamental prerequisite for receiving funding is that project staff carry out their own research, to be published under their own name. The simultaneous receipt of a salary or pension and a research scholarship is not possible.

 

Applicable to new permits from 1 January 2024.

PhD Scholarships

Monthly scholarship award: 1.920 euros

•    for one child: EUR 480
•    each further child: EUR 120

The family grant is awarded for children who have not yet turned 18.

Monthly endowment for scholarships abroad: 480,- euros

Travel aid: as required
Material aid: as required

 

Research Scholarships for Postdocs

Monthly scholarship award: 2,760 euros

•    for one child: EUR 480
•    each further child: EUR 120

The family grant is awarded for children who have not yet turned 18.

Monthly endowment for scholarships abroad: 690 euros

Travel aid: as required
Material aid: as required

 

Research Scholarships after Post Doctoral Lecture Qualification

Monthly scholarship award: 3,720 euros

The higher grant rate is approved after successful conclusion of the professorial examinations (habilitation) process and/or alternatively at the earliest after positive interim evaluation for a junior professorship. For applicants from academic systems that do not envisage habilitations, the Foundation recognizes holding a tenured position as an associate professor or as a full professor or distinguished professor (in the US system) or as a senior lecturer or as a reader/professor (in the Commonwealth system) as an equivalent of passing junior professorial examinations. The administration of the Foundation can in individual cases assess other national qualification levels.

•    for one child: EUR 480
•    each further child: EUR 120

The family grant is awarded for children who have not yet turned 18.

Monthly endowment for scholarships abroad: 930 euros

Travel aid: as required
Material aid: as required

Electronic Application Form for the Foundation

1. Please complete the application form in full. Please be aware that each subsection has its own form. The link to the correct form appears if you click on the subsection below this text. Within the form, the header shows  which subsection you are applying for.

2. The application form can be saved at any time. Using your own personal link, you can return to and edit the form for a period of ten days. However, after this period (10 Days), your data will be deleted from the server.

3. Once you have completed the form, you will receive a short summary, which needs to be confirmed in order to be sent to the Foundation electronically.

4. During the transmission process your data will be sent to the Foundation in electronic form. Confirmation of receipt will be sent to the e-mail address provided in the application.

Please follow these rules when uploading your application files:

• All documents need to be uploaded as pdf-files.
• Please do not upload protected PDF documents.
• A single file may not exceed a file size of 6 MB each.
• You cannot upload more than one document per upload field.
• The application can only be sent, if all necessary documents are included.

Please note the following additional information:

• Your data will be stored by the Gerda Henkel Foundation for the purpose of processing your application and will not be passed on to third parties.
• The Gerda Henkel Foundation will be happy to provide you with information about the data that we have stored on your person at any time. If so required, personal data can be changed or deleted.
  
• This form may only be used to make an application to the Gerda Henkel Foundation. The Foundation reserves the right to delete application data without prior notification, if necessary.

Publishing aid is currently only awarded to especially successful projects already being supported by the Foundation. Please include the following documents:

• two-page summary of the academic merit and innovativeness of the monograph/collection
• cost calculation by the publishing house
• manuscript on which the calculations have been made (digital)

A copy of the (preliminary) PhD certificate should be included in proposals submitted for the publication of PhD theses supported by the Gerda Henkel Foundation.

Applications can be submitted at any time.