Lambert, Laura M.A.

Position:

Senior Researcher (Interim Cluster Head)

Email:

laura.lambert [at] abi.uni-freiburg.de

Phone:

+49 761 88878 31

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/lejlambert

Areas of Research:

Migration and refugee regimes, externalization, bureaucracy, infrastructures

Regional Focus:

West Africa, Europe

Education:

01/2018-2022	“Everyday Externalization. The Transformations of Individual Asylum in Niger”, PhD in Social Anthropology, Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
08/2013-12/2013	Study Visit in the Sociology Department, New School for Social Research, New York, USA
10/2012-07/2017	M.A. Social Sciences, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany
09/2010-01/2011	Study Visit in the Sociology Department, Université Lille I – Sciences et Technologies, France
10/2008-09/2012	B.A. Social Sciences, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany

Professional Experience / Applied Research:

07/2022-	Senior Researcher, Interim Head of Research Cluster Patterns of (Forced) Migration, Arnold Bergstraesser Institute
02/2022-	Fellow, Law and Anthropology Department, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
12/2020-09/2021	Legal Expertise: Refugee Recognition and Protection in Niger, ERC Research Project „RefMig – Refugees are Migrants. Refugee Mobility, Recognition and Rights“ (PI: Prof. Cathryn Costello)
03/2020-03/2021	University Teaching Certificate, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.
10/2020-03/2021	M.A. Seminar “We Didn’t Cross the Border, but the Border Crossed Us” – Introduction to Critical Migration Studies. M.A. Cultural Studies, Institute for Sociology and Cultural Organization, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany.
11/2017-01/2022	Doctoral Candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle (Saale)
08/2017-11/2017	Research Contract: State of the Art on the University Access and Higher Education of Refugees, PI: Prof. Julia von Blumenthal, Research Project “Flucht: Forschung und Transfer” at the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS), University of Osnabrueck, and the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC), in Cooperation with the Berlin Institute for Integration and Migration research (BIM), Humboldt University Berlin.

Memberships

Coordinator of the West Africa Working Group, migration-control.info (together with Leonie Jegen, Hassan Ould Moctar, Moctar Dan Yaye)

European Association for Social Anthropology (EASA)

Association for the Anthropology of Social Change and Development (APAD)

Working Group Political and Legal Anthropology, German Anthropological Association (DGSKA)

Network on Science and Technology Studies in Migration Research (STS-MIGTEC)

Network Critical Migration and Border Studies (Kritnet)

Working Group Africa, Netzwerk Fluchtforschung

Study Group on Political Ethnography, Humboldt University Berlin, Institute for European Ethnology

Member of the Department "Integration, Social Networks and Cultural Lifestyles at the Berlin Institute for Integration und Migration Research (BIM), Humboldt University Berlin

Presentations / Invited Talks:

Selected Public Outreach

(2019) The Mediterranean and the Sahara: deaths in the desert. Berlin: Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung. (D, EN)

(2019) Niger. Country Report. Migration-control.info. (D, EN, FR)

(2018) Studium für Geflüchtete: Aufgaben für Hochschulen und Politik. Flucht 08b. Osnabrück; Bonn: Institut für Migrationsforschung und Interkulturelle Studien; Internationales Konversionszentrum Bonn (with Steffen Beigang, Julia von Blumenthal).

Selected Publications

(2022) "Changing the Administration from Within. Criticism and Compliance by Junior Bureaucrats in Niger's Refugee Directorate. International Journal of Law in Context. https://www.doi.org/10.1017/S1744552322000271

(2022) Externalisierungspolitik als "travelling model": die Rolle lokaler Praktiken und Normen beim Ausbau des Asylverfahrens im Niger. In: Valeria Hänsel, Karl Heyer, and Matthias Schmidt-Sembdner (eds.). Von Moria bis Hanau: Brutalisierung und Widerstand Grenzregime IV. Berlin; Hamburg: Assoziation A, pp. 220–237.

(2021) Extraterritorial asylum processing: the Libya-Niger emergency transit mechanism. Forced Migration Review 68: 18–21. (EN, FR)

(2020) Who is doing asylum in Niger? State bureaucrats' perspectives and strategies on the externalization of refugee protection. Anthropologie et Développement 51: 85–101.

(2019) Asyl im Niger: Politische Rolle und lokale Adaptionen des Flüchtlingsschutzes. In: Reinhard Johler and Jan Lange (eds.): Konfliktfeld Fluchtmigration: historische und ethnographische Perspektiven. Kultur und soziale Praxis. Bielefeld: transcript, pp. 191–205.

(2019) Studium gestattet? Die symbolische Herrschaft des Aufenthaltsstatus und des Asylverfahrens beim Hochschulzugang von Geflüchteten. In: Emre Arslan and Kemal Bozay (eds.): Symbolische Ordnung und Flüchtlingsbewegungen in der Einwanderungsgesellschaft. Wiesbaden: Springer, pp. 347–365.

(2018) Logistics under construction: mobility and standstill in the Berlin-Brandenburg airport region. Berliner Blätter 78, pp. 27–55. (with Franziska Baum, Patrick DeDauw, Carmen Grimm, Žiga Podgornik-Jakil, Fabian Stark, Mira Wallis)

(2018) Flucht und Bildung: Hochschulen. Flucht 08b. Osnabrück; Bonn: Institut für Migrationsforschung und Interkulturelle Studien; Internationales Konversionszentrum Bonn (with Julia von Blumenthal, Steffen Beigang).

(2017) Pionierinnen der Willkommensgesellschaft: Strukturen und Motive des Engagements für Geflüchtete. Forschungsbericht: Solidarität im Wandel. Berlin: Berliner Institut für empirische Integrations- und Migrationsforschung (BIM), pp. 103–119 (with Ulrike Hamann, Serhat Karakayali, Leif Jannis Höfler, Leoni Meyer).

(2015) Die Politik des O-Platzes: (un-)sichtbare Kämpfe einer Geflüchtetenbewegung. Movements 1(2): 1–23 (with Holger Wilcke).

staff

Publications

Zeitschriftenartikel (Wiss.)

Contested promises. Migrants’ material politics vis-à-vis the...

Lambert, Dr. Laura

Science as Culture

10.1080/09505431.2023.2221289

What promises do humanitarian infrastructures make to encourage migrants to abandon their migration projects? And how do migrants contest these promises? In order to curb EU-bound migration in the transit state Niger, the two UN agencies for migrants and refugees established support and outreach infrastructures that incentivized them to enroll in this humanitarian border and abandon migration. These infrastructural promises prompt their own contestation, because they may not be realized.

2023

Online-Publikation, Blog-Artikel, op-ed

Uitbesteden van asiel aan Afrikaanse landen? Een vreselijk idee...

Lambert, Dr. Laura / Martin Lemberg-Pedersen

NieuwWij

Voorstellen zijn vaak weinig meer dan gebakken lucht, menen wetenschappers

2023

Online-Publikation, Blog-Artikel, op-ed

Defense and Some Recruitment

Lambert, Dr. Laura

migration-control.info

In West Africa, Germany is playing a key role in expanding the European border regime.

2023

Berichte, Studien, Policy Paper, Workingpaper

Niger. The Gate to the Sahel. Country Brief on Migration...

Arhin-Sam, Dr. Kwaku / Dr. Laura Lambert

Externalisation has become a prominent pillar of EU migration policy. How is externalisation put into practice? What impact does it have on migrants, refugees and partner countries? What lessons can we learn for future cooperation? Brot für die Welt and misereor explore these questions in country briefs on EU Migration Partnerships with third countries.

2023

Online-Publikation, Blog-Artikel, op-ed

Europe outsourcing asylum to African countries is a terrible...

Lambert, Dr. Laura / Martin Lemberg-Pedersen

The Conversation

2023

Online-Publikation, Blog-Artikel, op-ed

Abwehr und etwas Anwerbung

Lambert, Dr. Laura

analyse&kritik

In Westafrika ist Deutschland maßgeblich am Ausbau des europäischen Grenzregimes beteiligt.

2023

Online-Publikation, Blog-Artikel, op-ed

Abschreckung in Dauerschleife. Asylzentren in Afrika sind keine...

Lambert, Dr. Laura

FluchtforschungsBlog

2023

Beitrag Sammelband/ Buchkapitel (Wiss.)

Externalisierungspolitik als ‘Travelling Model’. Die Rolle...

Lambert, Dr. Laura

Von Moria bis Hanau. Brutalisierung und Widerstand. Grenzregime 4

2022

Zeitschriftenartikel (Wiss.)

Zwischen Abenteuer, Risiko und Überleben. Westafrikanische...

Lambert, Dr. Laura

Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte (APuZ)

Die Perzeption afrikanischer Migration nach Europa ist von vielen Mythen geprägt. Ursächlich für diese Migration ist ein komplexes Zusammenspiel von gesellschaftlichen Normen, restriktiven Migrationspolitiken, kolonialem Erbe und innerstaatlichen Konflikten.

2022

Zeitschriftenartikel (Wiss.)

Changing the administration from within: criticism and...

Lambert, Dr. Laura

International Journal of Law in Context

Laura Lambert has recently published an article about bureaucrats as political actors who were invested in organizational change in Niger.

2022