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Portrait of Andreas Pott

Andreas Pott

Professor of Social Geography, Osnabrück University
EducationHabilitation (Geography), Goethe University of Frankfurt
Website  (external link) 

Visiting Toronto Metropolitan University

Fall 2025

Research focus while a CERC Scholar 

While at CERC Migration, Andreas will further explore the potential of spatial reflexivity in migration research. Building and exchanging on a variety of case studies, the conceptual task is to carve out the forms and functions of space as a central medium of the societal production of migration. Particular attention will be paid to the interrelation of spaces, figures, and infrastructures. Working towards such an analytical framework also allows to shed new light on the role of space for migration research: In order to develop new and more nuanced knowledge on migration not only the spatializations in and of academic knowledge production need to be reflected, but also the spatialities of research. The workshop Becoming A Migration Researcher (Nov 13, 2025) will help to elaborate the implications of the uneven geographies of migration-related knowledge production and circulation.

Career achievements

Andreas Pott is Professor of Social Geography and head of the Institute of Geography at Osnabrück University, Germany. He has served as director of the interdisciplinary Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) for more than 10 years and has been deputy director since 2021. He is co-director of the IMISCOE Standing Committee on Reflexivities in Migration Studies and founding member of the German Centre for Integration and Migration (DeZIM). Andreas is initiator of the European Master Exchange Programme in Migration Studies (EuMIGS) and editorial board member of Comparative Migration Studies and the bilingual Journal of Migration Studies/Zeitschrift für Migrationsforschung. 

Since completing his studies and academic qualifications at the universities of Bonn, London (UCL), Osnabrück and Frankfurt/Main, Andreas’ academic work has been dedicated to the study of geographies of migration, increasingly building on spatial theory and reflexive perspectives. After conducting and leading numerous third-party funded research projects a recent key endeavour has been to prepare and establish the Collaborate Research Centre Production of Migration (external link)  (SFB 1604) at Osnabrück University. The SFB started its work in 2024 and aims to develop a reflexive theory of the societal production of migration. Andreas chairs this first Sonderforschungsbereich on migration, comprising 60 researchers and funded for up to 12 years by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Relevant publications

Dahinden, J., & Pott, A. (eds.) (forthcoming). Reflexivities and Knowledge Production in Migration Studies. Pitfalls and Alternatives). IMISCOE Research Series. Cham: Springer.

Oltmer, J., Berlinghoff, M., Düvell, F., Lang, C., & Pott, A. (eds.) (2025): Report Globale Flucht 2025. Frankfurt a.M.: S. Fischer.

Pott, A., Crul, M., & Schneider, J. (2022). Producing Pathways to Success. New Perspectives on Social Mobility. In: Schneider, J., et al. (eds.). New Social Mobility. Second Generation Pioneers in Europe. IMISCOE Research Series. Cham: Springer. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05566-9 (external link) 

Schmiz, A., …, Pott, A., …. (2022). Cities and Migration – Bibliometric Evidence from a Spatially Biased Field of Knowledge Production. Geographical Review 112 (2). 267–285. doi: 10.1080/00167428.2020.1812070 (external link) 

Lang, C., Schneider, J., & Pott, A. (2022). Context Matters: The Varying Roles of Social Ties for Professional Careers of Immigrants’ Descendants. In: Keskiner, E., et al. (eds.). Revisiting Migrant Networks. Migrants and their Descendants in Labour Markets. IMISCOE Research Series. Cham: Springer. 61-81. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-94972-3#toc (external link) 

Lang, C., Pott, A., & Shinozaki, K. (2021). Organisations and the production of migration and in/exclusion. Comparative Migration Studies 9 (60). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-021-00274-w (external link) 

Konyali, A., Haddad, & Pott, A. (2019). Pacifying Muslims in Germany’s ‘City of Peace’: interreligious dialogue as a tool of governance in Osnabrück. Religion, State and Society 47 (4-5), 440–455. https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2019.1678976 (external link) 

Pott, A. (2018). Migrationsregime und ihre Räume. In: Pott, A., Rass, C., & Wolff, F. (eds.). Was ist ein Migrationsregime? What Is a Migration Regime? Wiesbaden: Springer VS. 107–135. 

Hinger, S., Schäfer, P., & Pott, A. (2016). The Local Production of Asylum. Journal of Refugee Studies 29 (4): 440–463. doi: 10.1093/jrs/few029 (external link)