Masterclass with Prof. Hiroshi Motomura

Hiroshi Motomura is a leading migration law scholar in the United States. He is the Susan Westerberg Prager Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles. Motomura is the author of Americans in Waiting (Oxford 2006), Immigration Outside the Law (Oxford 2014), and many influential articles on immigration and citizenship. His most recent book Borders and Belonging: Toward a Fair Immigration Policy (Oxford 2025) covers a wide range of topics that he considers to be at the heart of migration law and policy. Drawing on his firsthand experience with the situation in the US and his global expertise in migration issues, Motomura offers suggestions for what “fair borders” might look like.

Motomura will be a guest speaker at the #MeDiMiConference2026 on May 7 and 8, 2026, in Giessen. He has also agreed to hold a pre-conference masterclass on May 6, 2026, for doctoral students in the fields of migration law, politics, and ethics. The discussions will focus on selected chapters from the 2025 book. Potential topics include

• international protection (chapter 2),

• irregular migration and regularization policies (chapters 3 and 6),

• family reunification, labor migration, and integration policies (chapters 4 and 5), and

• border policing, detention, and return policies (chapter 7).

The selection will be based on suggestions made by participants. Participants are expected to read the introduction, chapter 1 (conceptual foundations), and the selected chapters in advance and actively contribute to the discussion. The book is available online in the JLU library. Accepted participants who do not have access to it can request an electronic copy if needed.

PhD students and other junior researchers are invited to submit an expression of interest via medimi@recht.uni-giessen.de by April 19, 2026, at the latest. Please provide a brief description of your academic background, your current research project, and your preferred chapter(s) of the book. The Masterclass can be attended independently of the MeDiMiConference2026 (separate registration required via www.medimi.de/conference).