Congratulations to our Dr Gerasimos Tsourapas, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, who has been awarded a research award by the Society for Libyan Studies for his new project on 'The Libyan Migration State.' The interdisciplinary, 18-month long project will draw on migration and refugee studies, political science, sociology, and international relations in order to understand the central role that labour immigration played in Libya between 1951 and 2011.
 
The project seeks to move beyond standard interpretations of labour immigrants’ developmental contribution to the contemporary Libyan state in order to identify the domestic, political, and foreign policy importance that cross-border mobility enjoyed under both King Idris and Colonel Gaddafi. It will involve a range of data collection methods, including multi-sited archival work, in order to situate the Libyan state within processes of regional migration governance in North Africa and the wider Mediterranean region. It seeks to pave the way for novel interpretations of the continuing interplay between migration, politics, and power in contemporary Libya.
 
Gerasimos has written extensively on the Libyan migration politics before and after the 2011 Arab Uprisings, as well as on North African immigration policymaking.

First published: 23 August 2021

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