Online Doctoral Symposium Strengthens Ethiopian-Canadian-German Collaboration in Migration Research

On September 18, 2026, researchers and doctoral candidates from Jimma University (Ethiopia), researchers from Soli*City at Toronto Metropolitan University (Canada) and the German Center for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM) came together for an online phd symposium. The event took place as part of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ethiopian Ministry of Education, Soli*City, and DeZIM, which aims to establish an Ethiopian-Canadian-German research collaboration on migration.

The online phd symposium brought together research on migration across different regions, geographic areas, and social contexts. The goal was to foster a global dialogue—not only among researchers from three continents, but also between different epistemological perspectives and forms of empirical knowledge regarding migration and its societal consequences.

The presentations and discussions focused on how migration is experienced, managed, negotiated, and becomes a source of conflict in various local and transnational contexts. Questions regarding mobility, flight, housing, legal status, care work, solidarity, urban transformation, and the agency of migrants linked very different research contexts. Bringing these perspectives together provided an opportunity to examine how global migration processes interact with concrete social, political, and geographic realities.

About 30 participants joined online, and six doctoral candidates presented their ongoing research. Each presentation was followed by a discussion in which the presenters received feedback on the conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and empirical dimensions of their research.

In her opening remarks, Prof. Muluemebet Abera from Jimma University welcomed the participants and emphasized the importance of fair and equitable academic partnerships. She highlighted how crucial long-term collaboration across institutions and regions is for creating more balanced conditions for knowledge production. Such partnerships could enable researchers and students from different academic contexts to participate on a more equal footing in global scholarly debates and to learn from one another through continuous exchange.

The symposium brought together doctoral projects at various stages of development. Some were still in the conceptual phase or in the process of developing their research proposals, while others were already based on empirical data that had been collected. This diversity created a productive space for exchange across the entire research process—from the development of research questions and theoretical frameworks to the interpretation of results and the refinement of arguments.

Geographically and thematically, the six presentations also covered a broad spectrum: Mengistu Melaku examined substance use among people fleeing their homes and those involved in migration flows in Ethiopia. Bridget Collrin addressed solidarity infrastructures and housing support for migrants in precarious living situations in Toronto. Tamirat Mengistu examined social capital, “everyday bordering,” and the agency of refugees in the urban space of Addis Ababa. In her presentation “Cairo’s Spaces of Refuge: Global City-Making and Everyday Navigation After 2023,” Rasha Arous addressed displacement, flight, and everyday navigation in the context of global urban development. Tizazu Gezahegne presented research on the lived realities of Ethiopian migrant domestic workers in the Middle East and their transnational family relationships. Nick Dreher, in turn, spoke about the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and urban migration governance in Johannesburg.
Migration served as the common point of reference for these presentations, yet it manifested itself in very different regimes and everyday realities: legality and illegality, housing and solidarity, transnational care work and gender relations, the agency of refugees, global urban development, and urban migration governance.

Many discussions were also linked by a common analytical question: How do states, intergovernmental institutions, and broader governance structures organize and regulate migration—and how does the agency of people fleeing and participating in migration movements unfold within these regimes, through them, and sometimes even against them? In this sense, the symposium combined global perspectives with a close examination of local particularities and concrete life experiences.

In his closing remarks, Prof. Harald Bauder emphasized that the Soli*City initiative at Toronto Metropolitan University aims to strengthen global academic collaboration and to more fully incorporate the perspectives of researchers from different parts of the world into processes of knowledge production. He highlighted the importance of such collaborations for more inclusive migration research and for strengthening global solidarity.

At the same time, he pointed to a concrete next step in the collaboration: Two master’s students from Jimma University and two from Toronto Metropolitan University are to be hosted at DeZIM. This is intended to create opportunities for academic exchange, insights into research, and international experiences.

Dr. Nega Jibat also underscored the importance of such collaboration for doctoral students at Jimma University. The exchange could open up opportunities for in-depth professional feedback, joint publications, higher-quality research, and international academic experiences. Furthermore, he emphasized the institutional value of such collaborations: they enable universities like Jimma University to participate more actively in international knowledge production and scholarly debates.

In her concluding remarks, Dr. Noa Ha highlighted the diversity of the symposium and pointed to the different stages of research, locations, and perspectives that came together over the course of the day. The presentations spanned from Toronto to Johannesburg, Cairo, and Addis Ababa, as well as other locations in Ethiopia and transnational spaces. They were linked by common questions regarding migration, governance, legal status, housing, gender, solidarity, and agency.

At the same time, her reflections highlighted how the symposium brought together two dimensions that are often considered separately: a global perspective on migration and a close examination of local particularities. The discussions revealed that migration is shaped not only by political measures and institutions but also by everyday strategies, relationships, and forms of agency through which people involved in migration processes navigate and respond to these structures.

The closing discussion made it clear that the symposium was not conceived as a one-time event, but rather as part of a long-term collaboration. Further exchange programs, student mobility, and joint academic activities are intended to further strengthen the partnership between Jimma University, Soli*City at Toronto Metropolitan University, and DeZIM.

The day thus concluded not only with a reflection on the insights gained but also with a clear commitment to continue and deepen the collaboration.

We look forward to continuing the Ethiopian-Canadian-German research collaboration on migration and to create additional opportunities for students and researchers from the three participating institutions to learn from one another, contribute to a more inclusive and equitable production of knowledge, and strengthen international collaboration in migration research.