Fabio Santos is new Tenure-track Assistant Professor at AMIS

Could you share a bit about your academic journey? When did you become interested in studying migration, and specifically histories of migration? How did this interest develop?

I have always been interested in understanding how people move and the forces shaping migration, but I think I first developed an interest in historical ethnography before developing a profile in migration studies. This interest was sparked during my undergraduate years at Humboldt University in Berlin, where I majored in European Ethnology and minored in History and Theory
of Culture. I particularly recall a course on the history of ethnographic knowledge expeditions in Latin America with Liliana Gómez, a seminar on writing techniques in ethnography with Michi Knecht, Maren Klotz and Nurhak Polat, and a hands-on fieldwork project focusing on archival work with Leonore Scholze-Irrlitz and Sabine Imeri at the Landesstelle für BerlinBrandenburgische Volkskunde, an archive located at the Institute for European Ethnology. All of these courses and teachers emphasized a historical perspective in ethnographic research, a perspective that has continued to guide my thinking.

My focus on migration became more systematic during my MA and PhD, both at Freie Universität Berlin. In the MA program “Sociology – European Societies” I chose to focus on processes and spaces of global entanglements. The courses of Sérgio Costa and Manuela Boatcă, who acted as my advisors, radically challenged the unquestioned image of Europe as the region pioneering modernity and progress. I became particularly interested in colonial histories and how they reverberate in the present. This interest carried over into my PhD research within the German-Mexican graduate school “Between Spaces”, where I focused on the little-studied border that Brazil shares with French Guiana, an overseas department of France and an outermost region of the European Union. I took the recent and controversial construction of the first bridge across this complex river border as a starting point to analyze historical mobilities within the region, ranging from cross-border escapes from slavery from Brazil to French Guiana to the reverse flight of Indigenous people due to France’s assimilationist policies. It was during this research that I developed a lasting focus on the experiences of historically marginalized groups—individuals and communities who, despite immense obstacles, have exercised agency and literally shaped their own paths through migration. This perspective remains central to my current research and continues to inform how I approach histories of migration.

Could you tell us a little bit more about your current work? What have you done since finishing your PhD and which project do you bring to AMIS?

After completing my PhD, I initially focused on teaching, offering courses in MA programs such as Latin American Studies (Freie Universität Berlin), International Development (University of Vienna), and Global and Area Studies as well as Global and International History (Aarhus University). Alongside teaching, I published my dissertation as a book and further developed several ideas from it in several papers. I also expanded an aspect I had only briefly addressed in my dissertation—health mobilities—in collaboration with Corinna Di Stefano and Manuela Boatcă, placing this theme within a broader Caribbean context in an exciting volume on mobilities and racism in postcolonial Europe. Read the volume 'Creating Europe from the Margins'. Additionally, Manuela Boatcă and I refined the concept of European Elsewheres and advocated for the creolization of migration studies, an approach that challenges the field’s longstanding neglect of migration patterns and intellectual traditions outside the Global North and especially in regions that complicate North-South divisions, such as the Caribbean. I also critiqued the provincialism of sociology, particularly within the German context, in a volume I co-edited with Clara Ruvituso. See the volume 'Globale Soziologie'. In this work, we join initiatives across the world calling for a global sociology, one that moves beyond Eurocentric frameworks and instead integrates post- and decolonial perspectives.

I was also very fortunate to spend a year-long fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, and the German Historical Institute located there. During this time, I co-organized a workshop on Fugitive Histories and Migrant Knowledge in Latin America and the Caribbean, which my co-convenors and I are currently transforming into an edited volume. It was also in Berkeley that I started research for my second monograph which reconstructs a peculiar episode in the history of Caribbean migration and migrant detention, with global implications. In the early 1980s, the U.S. military base in Puerto Rico, called Fort Allen, was temporarily repurposed as a detention center for Haitian refugees deported from Florida after they had crossed the Caribbean Sea on flimsy boats. In this ongoing project, I explore how the practice of offshoring migrant detention took shape in this forgotten colonial space. I am bringing this project to the University of Copenhagen and hope to receive critical feedback from my colleagues and students.

Perhaps related to, but also moving beyond, this specific project, how do you envision the research profile of your assistant professorship in Histories of Migration at the Saxo Institute and AMIS? How do you envision the development of this field?

In relation to my current and future research, I envision the research profile linked to my position in Histories of Migration as an interdisciplinary and dynamic space that bridges historical and contemporary migration processes. My goal is to advance migration studies by engaging with globally entangled histories and the enduring legacies of migration and colonialism, or what Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodriguez has called the coloniality of migration. In future projects, I plan to link this focus more systematically with underexplored themes, such as queer migration histories and the intersection of migration with multispecies entanglements.

While I will continue to draw on my regional expertise in Latin America, the Caribbean, the U.S., and European Elsewheres, I also see this position as an opportunity to broaden my geographical focus. The intellectual environment at the Saxo Institute and AMIS offers an ideal setting for this, given the existing breadth of regional and thematic expertise. I look forward to collaborating with my new colleagues and students who share an interest in global and transnational histories, fostering a research profile that moves beyond traditional paradigms, including the methodological nationalism and presentism that often characterize migration studies.

Speaking of methodological presentism: Why should students in our MA in Advanced Migration Studies study histories of migration? Why do you think this is important?

Studying histories of migration is crucial because it enables us to recognize both continuities and ruptures. Not everything we witness today is unprecedented, and examining the past offers valuable insights and opportunities to rethink perspectives on mobility.

In terms of continuities, debates surrounding migration and so-called “crises” have surfaced time and again. While the tone and specific political demands may differ, historical examples such as the hysteria over Chinese immigration to the United States at the end of the 19th century or the isolation of Haitian refugees diagnosed with HIV at Guantánamo a century later reveal striking parallels to contemporary discussions. These cases demonstrate how recurring patterns of fear and exclusion have historically shaped migration policies and continue to influence them today.

Equally important is the need to shift perspectives of directionality. I believe that by looking beyond the dominant South-North migration lens and considering North-South or South-South migration patterns, students gain a more comprehensive understanding of migration patterns and processes globally. For instance, up until the end of World War II, it was primarily Europeans who fled poverty, famine, and conflict to settle in colonial territories and former colonies. This North-South migration, unlike its reverse, has rarely been problematized or subject to the same level of public and academic scrutiny. In terms of South-South migration, the forced transcontinental migration of millions of Africans to the Americas as part of the transatlantic trade in enslaved people is one of the most significant yet frequently overlooked forms of migration in global history. Though seldom framed as migration in conventional studies, these histories are essential for understanding the entanglements of mobility, power, violence, and resistance.

Incorporating historical perspectives into migration studies also allows me to encourage students to expand their methodological toolkit. I see historical research – in archives or through an oral history approach – as an invaluable way for students to engage directly with primary sources which possibly uncover overlooked voices and trace the institutional frameworks that have shaped mobility over time.

By integrating historical perspectives and methodologies into the curriculum, I hope to inspire students to think critically about the long-term dynamics of migration. I want them to move beyond simplistic narratives of novelty or crisis, examining how histories not only shape the present but also offer points of departure for reimagining it. Most importantly, I hope this perspective helps them become the kinds of socially engaged agents of social change we so urgently need. Whether in the professional world, as activists, or as critical and self-reflexive observers, I would be happy to see them contributing to migration debates in meaningful and informed ways. For me, this is about much more than intellectual growth—it’s about preparing and encouraging students to thoughtfully and compassionately address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

How would you describe your teaching style and what can students expect from your upcoming courses at the University of Copenhagen?

My teaching style emphasizes active, participatory learning. I aim to foster an inclusive and respectful classroom environment where students feel comfortable expressing their reflections and engaging with diverse perspectives. My courses are designed to foster critical thinking, pushing students to explore complex concepts and various methods. Whenever possible, I try to integrate group and field work to deepen their understanding of migration histories and appropriate theories and methods via collaborative and applied learning. In my first two years, I will be teaching the theory and methods modules within the MA in Advanced Migration Studies, providing students with the foundational tools they need for their MA thesis and future work. Finally, my students can expect a teacher who sees the classroom as a space of mutual exchange, where I learn from them just as much as they learn from me.

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