On April 8, the newly established Research Training Group "Cross-Border Labour Markets: transnational market makers, infrastructures, institutions" RTG 2951 was officially inaugurated with a Launch Event at Bielefeld University. Speaker Ursula Mense-Petermann (Professor of Economic Sociology and Sociology of Work, Bielefeld University) and Co-speaker Karen Shire (Professor of Comparative Sociology and Japanese Society, University Duisburg-Essen) welcomed the 11 Principal Investigators from Bielefeld University, University Duisburg-Essen, and University Osnabrück, as well as the group of 11 newly appointed doctoral researchers, one Postdoc, as well as two associated researchers to the Research Training Group.

The Research Training Group investigates cross-border labour markets and the transnational organizations, infrastructures, and institutions that facilitate and stabilize such labour markets extending beyond national boundaries.

The rector of Bielefeld University, Professor Angelika Epple, congratulated the international  and interdisciplinary team of PIs for their success and praised their commitment and determination in this highly innovative project.

Keynotes were given by sociologist and migration scholar Ludger Pries (Ruhr University Bochum) and by labour market economist Michele Battisti (University of Glasgow), thus representing the interdisciplinary outlook of the RTG.

The doctoral researchers Aamir Ali, Anar Muradov, Ammar Kakisch, Benedikt Heckens, Duaa Kattana, Elisabeth Schmidt, Ezgi Elmas Uluergüven, Kadir Engil, Karim Mousa Ashour, Mariana Gomes, Mark Simon, and the Postdoc Sandhya A.S. as well as associated researchers Jonas Feldmann and Lisa Mansfeld, will conduct innovative research on cross-border labour markets and the transnational organizations, infrastructures, and institutions that facilitate and stabilize such labour markets extending beyond national boundaries.

The RTG is led by Ursula Mense-Petermann (Professor of Economic Sociology and Sociology of Work at Bielefeld University) as Speaker and Karen Shire (Professor of Comparative Sociology and Japanese Society at University Duisburg-Essen) as Co-speaker. This Research Training Group is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for a period of five years with a total budget of up to 6.7 million euros.