Comparative Analysis of the Lived Experiences of Migrants with Precarious Legal Status
Existing research shows that the lives and opportunities of migrants with precarious legal statuses (such as temporary and/or conditional permits, and undocumented or irregular migrants) are shaped by the social, political, and institutional context in which they are embedded. Despite this, there is a significant gap in our understanding of how legal status affects individuals across different national contexts. Moreover, studies exploring how factors such as migration policies, labor market dynamics, welfare services, and alternative social structures (e.g. volunteer sector, informal social networks) shape the lived experiences of precarious legal status tend to be limited to single nations or institutionally similar countries.
This interdisciplinary project brings together scholars from social anthropology, sociology, geography, and public policy to comparatively examine the lived experiences of migrants holding a precarious legal status across distinct national and institutional frameworks. The goal is to initiate a Franco-Nordic dialogue that explores the crucial role of contextual factors in shaping the lives and opportunities of migrants with precarious legal statuses, with an impact that extends beyond the initial two-year period of seed funding.
Project coordinator
- Synnøve Bendixsen, Professor and Head of Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen.
Network members
France
- Marie Mallet, Associate Professor at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University.
Finland
- Lena Näre, Professor of Sociology at the University of Helsinki.
