Birte

Nienaber

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Birte Nienaber, associate professor, is a political geographer who obtained her PhD at the Westfälische Wilhelms University in Münster, Germany (with a grant of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (German National Academic Foundation)) in 2005. After her studies, she worked at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, inLeipzig, Germany as a PostDoc. From 2007-2013, she was Assistant Professor of European Regional Studies at Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany. She obtained her Venia legendi (habilitation thesis) in Geography in 2012. In 2013, she joined the University of Luxembourg as associate professor.

She received a certificate on university education, by the Hochschulevaluierungsverbund Südwest, Mainz, Germany in 2010 and has been a guest lecturer in Finland, Slovenia and Ukraine.

Her research interest focuses on migration, border studies and regional development. She is involved as lead partner or partner in several on-going and completed H-2020 and FP7 projects (e.g. MIMY, MOVE, RELOCAL, CEASEVAL) and other international projects.

She is the coordinator of the European Migration Network NCP Luxembourg since 2015 and of FRANET Luxembourg since 2018. She was the coordinator of the ESPON NCP Luxembourg from 2013 until 2020. Her team is currently in charge of the drafting of the Luxembourg national report for the OECD SOPEMI report.

She is steering board member of the UniGR- Center for Studies and member of the Board of Directors of the IMISCOE. Since 2017, she is the Study Programme Director of the trinational Master in Border Studies.

She is a member of the Faculty Council of the FHSE and a member of the management committee and board of the Department of Geography and Spatial Planning.

Research interests

Migration

Borders

Mobility

Regional development

Integration

Asylum

Rural

Latest content Birte Nienaber took part in

Geography & Spatial Planning

Interdisciplinary UniGR Center of Expertise at the University of Luxembourg

The University of the Greater Region (UniGR) has founded the first interdisciplinary centre of expertise for border research. It is a cross-border structure with border researchers from Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg, coordinated at the Department of Geography and Spatial Planning of the University of Luxembour

Geography & Spatial Planning

SOPEMI - Continuous Reporting System on Migration

The Continuous Reporting System on Migration (known under its French acronym, SOPEMI, from Système d’observation permanente des migrations) was established in 1973 to provide the OECD member countries with a mechanism for the timely sharing of information on international migration, the collection of migration statistics as well as the improvement of their comparability, and to serve the basis for an annual OECD report on international migration.

Geography & Spatial Planning

MIMY: EMpowerment through liquid Integration of Migrant Youth in vulnerable conditions

MIMY (EMpowerment through liquid Integration of Migrant Youth in vulnerable conditions) is a H2020 project financed by the European Commission to investigate and support the integration processes of young migrants from non-EU-countries living in vulnerable conditions in 9 countries in Europe, including Luxembourg.

Geography & Spatial Planning

FRANET National Focal Point in Luxembourg

The Department of Geography and Spatial Planning is hosting the FRANET National Focal Point in Luxembourg for the European Union Agency of Fundamental Rights (FRA) since 2018. The Agency is an independent centre of reference and excellence for promoting and protecting human rights in the EU.

Migration

MIMY: EMpowerment through liquid Integration of Migrant Youth in vulnerable conditions

The project MIMY has set out to improve the situation of young migrants in Europe through a multi-level analysis of the related integration processes.

Geography & Spatial Planning

The IMISCOE 2021 Conference

This year’s IMISCOE-Conference was hosted by the FHSE, where migration-related research, is organized in the Key Research Area Migration and Inclusive Societies (MIS). From July 7 to 9, 2021, the conference offered a deeper focus into people’s migration experiences by foregrounding how migration is connected to culture and language.

Migration

Governing the mobility of asylum seekers in the European Union

The CONDISOBS (Contain, Distribute, Obstruct) research project explores the three key measures that were undertaken after the so-called “refugee crisis” to govern asylum seekers’ mobility in the EU: hotspots, relocation schemes and border controls. The main objective of the study is to understand the effectiveness of these measures to control and discourage “secondary movements” in the European context.

Geography & Spatial Planning

RELOCAL – Resituating the Local in Cohesion and Territorial Development

To make the world a fairer place, public policies tend to give responsibility to local entities.
The RELOCAL project of the University of Luxembourg aims to identify factors that condition local accessibility to European policies, local ability to articulate needs and claims for equality and local capacity for exploiting European opportunity structures in a more just way.

Migration

The Governance of Reception Facilities for Refugees in Luxembourg: Local and Global Perspectives (REFUGOV)

REFUGOV deals with the governance of reception facilities for refugees (reception centres, refugee camps), with a particular focus on the role of local and municipal actors. The project looks at institutional settings, governance processes and their effect on the inclusion or exclusion of refugees, and on the subjectivities of refugees. Extending beyond the categories of global south and north, the case studies are Luxembourg and Jordan.

Migration

Evaluation of the Common European Asylum System under Pressure and Recommendations for Further Development (CEASEVAL)

Since 2015, migration to and within Europe has challenged the adequacy of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). This has affected the implementation of both the CEAS and national asylum systems and called into question further harmonisation.

Migration

The European Migration Network

Since 2009 the University of Luxembourg has been the designated National Contact Point (NCP) for the European Migration Network (EMN) in Luxembourg. The EMN consists of the European Commission and National Contact Points (NCP) in each Member State and Norway. It was established by the Council Decision 2008/381/EC of 14 May 2008. The Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs coordinates the EMN.

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