AØKK08444U Seminar: The Economics of Migration

Volume 2025/2026
Education

MSc programme in Economics

The seminar is primarily for students at the MSc of Economics.

Content

The purpose of the seminar is for students to get experience in working independently on a project within the Economics of Migration. The seminar will go into depth with important research broadly related to immigration and integration from the perspective of the host countries.

 

Topics include but are not limited to:

  • Migration decisions, e.g. dual-earner location decisions, models of immigrant selection and sorting across countries
  • Immigrant integration, e.g. theoretical concepts such as rate of convergence and empirical approaches
  • Labor market effects of immigration, theory and empirical approaches
  • Immigration, production and productivity
  • Social and cultural aspects of immigration
  • Country-specific, portable human capital, and down-grading
  • Evaluations of policies related to immigration and integration
  • Intergenerational perspectives and children of immigrants
Learning Outcome

After completing the seminar the student is expected to be able to fulfill the learning outcome specified in the Master curriculum and to be able to:

 

Knowledge:

  • provide real-world examples to motivate the topic
  • discuss the key theories and methods that are relevant for the chosen topic
  • discuss the main findings and gaps in the literature related to the chosen topic

 

Skills:

  • find and synthesize existing knowledge
  • define a clear research question
  • critically reflect on theory, methods and findings
  • present a research paper to peers
  • give constructive feedback to peers

 

Competences:

  • independently plan and carry out an academic paper

The students are expected to think about a possible topic prior to the seminar starts and start searching for relevant academic articles and data.

 

Note that many economic journals demand authors to provide data sets used for the empirical analysis.

 

Students will receive guidance on literature, methods and data after the kick-off meeting.

BSc in Economics.
Students receive individual guidance from the instructor.
Students prepare a draft assignment, which they present to the teacher and the other students. The students take turns acting as opponents during each other’s presentations. The feedback should especially focus on the written presentation in the draft assignment, with particular emphasis on the introduction.
Exact dates will be available in the seminar’s course room no later than 14 days before the start of the semester

• Kick-off meeting: Week 6 / 36. See exact date in Absalon.

• Additional meetings/introductory teaching/guidance: Optional. See Absalon.

• Deadline for submission of commitment paper/project description:
No later than February 28 / September 30.

• Deadline for uploading seminar paper draft in Absalon: No later than one week before the presentations. See exact date in Absalon.

• Presentations: In the period November 20 – December 11 for the autumn semester and May 1 – 23 for the spring semester.
See exact dates in Absalon.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Project work
  • 186
  • Seminar
  • 20
  • Total
  • 206
Oral
Individual
Collective
Peer feedback (Students give each other feedback)

 

Brief written feedback given on commitment papers by supervisor.

Peer written feedback given to early paper drafts half-way through the course.

Collective feedback is given as projects are being presented.

Each student receives oral feedback on the presentation from peers and supervisor.

The supervisor gives the students individual guidance during the seminar.

Credit
7.5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Home assignment
Type of assessment details
Individual or in groups of up to 3.
A seminar paper of 15 standard pages for one person, 22.5 standard pages for 2 and 30 standard pages for 3 students.
See further exam information in the Masters Programme Curriculum.
Examination prerequisites

Attendance in all seminar activities as stated in the Master curriculum.

Reexam: Hand in and have approved a synopsis.

Aid
All aids allowed

Use of AI tools is permitted. You must explain how you have used the tools. When text is solely or mainly generated by an AI tool, the tool used must be quoted as a source.

Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Exam period

The seminar paper must be uploaded in Digital Exam.

Common submission date for all seminars: June 1 at 10:00 for the spring semester.

For enrolled students more information about examination, rules, aids etc. is available at the intranet for  Master (UK) and  Master (DK ).

Re-exam

Individual seminar paper of 15 standard pages. See further exam information in the Masters Programme Curriculum.

Deadline and more information is available at  MSc in Economics - KUnet

More information about reexam etc. is available at  Master(UK) and  Master(DK).

Criteria for exam assesment

Students are assessed on the extent to which they master the learning outcome for the seminar and can make use of the knowledge, skills and competencies listed in the learning outcomes in the Curriculum of the Master programme.