Zanker, Dr. Franzisca

Position:

Senior Researcher, Coordination Cluster Patterns of (Forced) Migration

Email:

franzisca.zanker [at] abi.uni-freiburg.de

Phone:

+49 (0)761 888 78 31

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/FranziscaZ

Areas of Research:

Migration governance, refugee protection, peace processes, civil society

Regional Focus:

Africa

Education:

2011-2015	PhD Political Science at University of Tübingen (Dissertation Title: The Legitimisation of Peace Negotiations: A Role for Civil Society)
2008-2010	Masters in International Relations and Diplomacy (MA) at University of Leiden
2004-2008	LLB (Bachelor of Law) at Exeter University/M1 en droit européen, Université de Rennes

Professional Experience / Applied Research:

2017 -	Head of Research Cluster "Patterns of (Forced) Migration
October 2016 -	Senior Researcher, Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institute, Freiburg
2011-2016	Research Fellow at GIGA Institute of African Affairs, Hamburg
2010	Research Assistant at the Overseas Development Institute, London
2009	Research Assistant at the Department of Political Sciences, Universiteit Leiden
2006-2010	Internship experiences include the OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities, The Hague (2010), The Association for the Prevention of Torture, Geneva (2008) and the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, Kampala (2006)

Memberships:

Co-founder of AEGIS Collaborative Research Group African Migration, Mobility and Displacement (AMMODI)

Member of Association for African Studies in Germany

Member of DFG-Network Migration and Im/Mobility in the Global South during a Global Pandemic

Member of German Political Science Association (GPSA)

Member of German Network for Forced Migration Studies

Member of International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM)

Miscellanous:

Board Member German Network for Forced Migration Studies (Equal Opportunities Officer)

Co-Editor Reviews Section Journal of Refugee Studies

Projects:

Pandemic (Im)mobility: COVID-19 and Migrant Communities in the Global South

Displacement in Africa: The Politics and Stakeholders of Migration Governance

The Political Economy of West African Migration Governance (WAMiG)

MIASA IFG1: The role of non-state actors in transnational and regional migration governance

Selected Publications:

(2023) A typology of resistance: the ‘hot potato’ of European return in West Africa, Territory, Politics, Governance, online first: 27 April 2023.

(2022) Protective exclusion as a postcolonial strategy: Rethinking deportations and sovereignty in the Gambia, Security Dialogue, 53 (5), pp 475- 493 (with Judith Altrogge).

(2022) The (in)formality of mobility in the ECOWAS region: The paradoxes of free movement, South African Journal of International Affairs, 29 (2), pp. 187-205 (with Kwaku Arhin-Sam, Amanda Bisong, Leonie Jegen and Harouna Mounkaila)

(2022) No hope for the ‘foreigners’: The conflation of refugees and migrants in South Africa, Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 20 (2) pp.253-265 (with Khangelani Moyo).

(2018) Legitimacy in Peacebuilding: Rethinking Civil Society Involvement in Peace Negotiations, Routledge Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution; Abingdon: Routledge

Full list of publications (Last updated April 2023)

Selected Public Outreach

(2023) Tunisia: President's offensive statements targeted black migrants - with widespread fallout, March 2023, The Conversation (with Nermin Abbasi) (available in French)

(2022) Free movement in West Africa: the culture of mobility still matters despite challenges , August 2022, The Conversation (with Amanda Bisong and Leonie Jegen)

(2022) Plans for offshoring refugee protection undermine human dignity, African political interests, and international norms, February 2022, Migration Control

(2021) “Nowhere to be found”: Three Decades of UNHCR in South Africa, March 2021, Völkerrechtsblog

(2020) How to improve the migration cooperation between the EU and Africa?, April 2020, MEDAM

(2020) South Africa’s xenophobic agenda is impeding its coronavirus response, April 2020, African Arguments (with Khangelani Moyo)

(2020) The tiny African country making a big case against Myanmar, February 2020, The Lowy Institute (with Antje Missbach)

staff

Publications

Online-Publikation, Blog-Artikel, op-ed

Free Movement in West Africa: the Culture of Mobility still...

Jegen, M.A. Leonie / Dr. Franzisca Zanker / Amanda Bisong

The Conversation

2022

Zeitschriftenartikel (Wiss.)

African perspectives on migration: Re-centring Southern Africa

Zanker, Dr. Franzisca

Migration Studies

Despite the explosion of migration literature in recent years, there remains a bias in aca-demic literature to focus on Europe or other areas in the Global North. Migration studiestend to follow the political interests of curbing access for refugees and other migrants in the Global North, divorced from the fact that most displacement and indeed much mobil-ity takes place in the Global South (Fiddian-Qasmiyeh 2020).

2022

Online-Publikation, Blog-Artikel, op-ed

Plans for offshoring refugee protection undermine human dignity...

Zanker, Dr. Franzisca

Migration Control

Franzisca Zanker wrote a blog post on Migration Control about efforts to offshore the protection of refugees, which have recently been brought into the spotlight once again.

2022