Katharina Natter, Senior Assistant Professor at the Institute of Political Science, Leiden University

Where? Austrian Academy of Sciences, Museumszimmer, Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna and online

When? 4 June 2025, 16:00-17:30

Discussant: Judith Kohlenberger, Institute for Social Policy, WU Vienna

Chair: Wiebke Sievers, Institute for Urban and Regional Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences and Co-Manager of the Thematic Platform Migration and Diversity

Scientific and expert knowledge on migration is often disregarded in policy making and plays only a minor role in public debates – despite the massive growth and institutionalization of migration research in recent years. Katharina Natter’s presentation interrogates the limited impact of migration research(ers) by examining knowledge practices in both policy making and academia. She identifies a fragmentation of migration studies into ever-more fine-grained sub-fields, each with their own knowledge practices and impact strategies – and with little dialogue across them. These sub-fields tend to delegitimize each other’s knowledge and efforts to achieve socio-political change. Such “academic tribalism” creates a self-sabotaging dynamic that undermines the field's wider credibility and impact. The event will serve to discuss this hypothesis also regarding the Austrian context.

The presentation is based on the following article: Katharina Natter, Natalie Welfens: Why Has Migration Research So Little Impact? Examining Knowledge Practices in Migration Policy Making and Migration Studies, International Migration Review, 58, 4, 1669-1700.

Katharina Natter is Senior Assistant Professor at the Institute of Political Science of Leiden University and Fellow of the International Migration Institute (IMI). Her research centres on migration politics from a comparative perspective, with a particular focus on the role of political regimes and the use of evidence in immigration policymaking. Through her in-depth empirical work on Europe, North Africa and South America, she seeks to advance migration policy theory and connect it with broader social science research on modern statehood and political change.

This is an event of the Thematic Platform Migration and Diversity.