Sara Kalm

Associate Professor | Senior Lecturer 

Political Science 

Main research areas 

• International migration
• International institutions
• Social movements

Current research

I have long been fascinated by international migration, and have approached that subject from several perspectives in my research. I am particularly interested in how migration challenges existing political practices – both nationally and internationally – as well as our understanding of basic political-theoretical concepts. At the moment I conduct research in this field within three different contexts. One project explores theRight to citizenship, empirically as well as normatively, with particular focus on the consequences of international migration. In theSTANCEresearch programme, I study how migration controls evolved during ”the long 19th century” and how they were debated in various international forums. In the new research project Migration Policy and the Welfare State in Comparative and Historical Perspective we investigate the interrelationships between migration policy and social policy. 

Another research interest of mine concerns civil society and activism. I participate in the new research programme Civil Society Elites? In which we explore whether a new societal elite has been established as civil society organizations have acquired more significant roles. I have also studied the activities of social movements in relation to international institutions. Within the research programmes TRANSDEMOS and EUROCIV I have investigated both the strategies of influence that social movements employ, and how relations of cooperation as well as competition and conflict arise when these actors appear at arenas outside of the traditional nation state.