Research Interests
I do research on global migration, immobility and transnationalism. My work seeks to explain how migration arises, and how it affects societies, families and individuals. These questions have led me to examine migrant smuggling, remittance transactions, migration aspirations, and other specialized topics. I combine my background in Human Geography with perspectives from other disciplines and use both ethnographic and statistical methods. Beyond my thematic specialisms, I have an interest in academic writing, visualization and research communication. See also my
personal web site.
Background
I am Co-Director of the PRIO Migration Centre (see separate page).
My research primarily addresses these themes:
- Theories of migration and transnationalism
- Migration aspirations and intentions
- Networks and chain migration processes
- Family and gender in migration
- Immigration policy and migration pressure
- Border control and migrant fatalities
- Undocumented migration and human smuggling
- The demography of immigrant communities
- Remittances and migration-development links
I use diverse methods, often in combination:
- Semi-structured interviews
- Participant observation in multi-sited fieldwork
- Purpose-made sample surveys
- Statistical analysis of existing survey data
- Demographic projection from register data
- Discourse and document analysis
Editorial board memberships
I am an Editorial Board member of the
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, the
International Migration Review,
International Migration,
Migration Letters, and
Migration Studies.
Personal profiles on other sites
LinkedIn
Academia.edu
Google Scholar Citations
Language skills
Mother tongue: Norwegian
Fluency: English, and Cape Verdean Kriol
Reading proficiency: Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, French
All but forgotten: Esperanto and Japanese
Work experience
2014-current: Research Professor, PRIO.
2012-2014: Research Professor; Research Director, PRIO.
2011-2011: Research Professor; Programme Leader, PRIO.
2009-2011: Senior Researcher; Programme Leader, PRIO.
2007-2009: Senior Researcher, PRIO.
2002-2007: Researcher, PRIO.
1999: Research assistant, Statistics Norway
1998: Research assistant, Institute for Social Research
1997: Research assistant, Statistics Norway
Academic visitorships
2016: UNU-MERIT United Nations University and Maastricht University
2010: Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
2005: COMPAS, University of Oxford
2003: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute
Education
2007. PhD (Human geography)
University of Oslo, Norway.
2001. Cand. polit. (Human geography)
University of Oslo, Norway.
1998. Cand. mag. (Human geography, demography and economics)
University of Oslo, Norway.
1993. International Baccalaureate
United World College of the Atlantic, Wales.
Blog Posts
Posted by Sebastian Schutte, Jonas Vestby, Jørgen Carling & Halvard Buhaug on Thursday, 8 April 2021
Five years after the European migration and refugee crisis, displacement remains a pressing issue worldwide. According to the UNHCR, the global number of forcibly displaced people passed 80 million during 2020 – the highest estimate ever recorded. Several factors have contributed to this increase, including a rise in political violence and instability, ... Read more »
Posted by Marta Bivand Erdal, Erik Snel, Özge Bilgili, Brigite Suter, Paolo Boccagni, Melissa Siegel & Jørgen Carling on Tuesday, 18 February 2020
A post from board members of the ‘Migrant transnationalism’ Standing Committee, IMISCOE-network. The amount of remittances sent by migrants to countries of origin continues to increase and equals more than three times the annual volumes of global development assistance (ODA). Migrants’ cross-border ties include visits, political engagement, business investments, and ... Read more »
Who are we accountable to when doing research on migration and mobility? Many scholars, ourselves included, do research with – rather than about – refugees and other migrants, or indeed communities and individuals in origin or destination country. But to whom are we accountable? And what can and should accountability ... Read more »
Is ‘sustainability’ a good guiding principle for migration policy? Or does using this word muddle well-informed debate on international migration? The notion of ‘sustainable migration’ has been floated as a guiding principle for migration policy. Is it a concept we should embrace? On the one hand, it neatly captures the ... Read more »
Posted by Jørgen Carling & Jessica Hagen-Zanker on Monday, 16 July 2018
Never has it been more dangerous for people in search of protection to make the crossing to Europe. The estimated death rate on boat migration journeys across the Mediterranean has risen from 4 per 1000 in 2015 to 24 per 1000 in the first four months of 2018, according to ... Read more »
Posted by Anne Gallagher & Jørgen Carling on Saturday, 4 November 2017
Migrant smuggling: moving people across borders for profit, is reported to be one of the fastest-growing and most lucrative forms of organized criminal activity. Smugglers crowd their human cargo into shipping containers and onto boats and trucks. Many migrants arrive safely and consider the investment well spent. But migrant smuggling ... Read more »
Posted by Jørgen Carling on Tuesday, 12 September 2017
There’s a lot to gain from better management of migration. That was the idea that inspired States in 2016 to set out on a path towards a Global Compact for Migration. As a step in the process, UN Member States gathered in Vienna on 4 September to discuss the issue ... Read more »
Posted by Jørgen Carling on Wednesday, 21 June 2017
A PhD by publication requires doctoral candidates to submit a set of papers for peer-reviewed journals plus an integrating chapter, rather than the more traditional doctoral dissertation. This remains a less common, sometimes frowned-upon model, but Jørgen Carling outlines eight reasons why a PhD by publication might be a good ... Read more »
Posted by Jørgen Carling on Monday, 19 September 2016
The UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants holds the promise of progress. But ahead of the summit, communications staff were pushing a warped view of migrant diversity. Even the International Organization of Migration (IOM) is straying from its mission to uphold the human dignity and well-being of migrants. When migration issues ... Read more »
Posted by Jørgen Carling on Monday, 7 September 2015
The recent debate over word choice has taken turns that undermine humanitarian principles and cloud the view of how migration is unfolding. The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Guardian, the BBC, and others have examined the usage of ‘refugees’ versus ‘migrants’ over the past week. The general impression ... Read more »
International migration and corruption have several things in common: they play key roles in development processes, feature prominently on policy agendas, and are the subject of large research literatures. However, the connections between migration and corruption, whether in the country of origin or along migration trajectories, remain relatively unexplored. The ... Read more »
Posted by Jørgen Carling & Silje Vatne Pettersen on Friday, 29 May 2015
Immigrants typically have attachments in two directions: to the country in which they live, and to their country of origin. These attachments are often discussed in terms of integration and transnationalism, respectively. A new conceptual framework, which we call the matrix of attachment, enables us to examine immigrant integra-tion and ... Read more »
Posted by Jørgen Carling on Wednesday, 13 May 2015
The European Union has made it clear that bombs were not part of the plan for war against people smuggling after all. “No one is thinking of bombing,” said Federica Mogherini, EU foreign policy chief, yesterday. The alleged plans for bombing had already caused widespread alarm and protest. But what would ... Read more »
Posted by Jørgen Carling on Tuesday, 10 March 2015
(This post was originally published on Jørgen Carling’s personal web site.) Migration affects the lives of women in many ways. One subtle but critical mechanism lies in disputes over ‘who’ migrant women are. Migration researchers can play a role in making the battles apparent and showing how they matter. I ... Read more »
Posted by Jørgen Carling on Sunday, 3 August 2014
The population of the Philippines is surpassing 100 million in late July 2014. That’s a reminder of the country’s importance in global migration. Emigration generally has the strongest impacts in countries with relatively small populations, such as El Salvador, Armenia and Samoa. In fact, as the scatterplot shows, only five ... Read more »
Posted by Jørgen Carling on Sunday, 7 August 2011
A lot has already been written about the the events of 22 July 2011 their consequences. For me, the first weeks have been filled with emotionally draining experiences, coupled with debates that I haven’t felt prepared to engage in. Trying to see it all from a bit of distance, beyond ... Read more »