This workshop is a collaboration between MENBELONG (ERC Advanced Grant Project, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Bridging Divides (Toronto Metropolitan University). The project MENBELONG is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe program. The views and opinions expressed in this workshop are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission, the European Research Council or the conference organizers.

In this international workshop, we will discuss  how migration governance regimes shape migrant belonging across Germany, Turkey, Chile, Thailand, and Canada, with a particular focus on gender relations and migrant masculinities. These country contexts are brought into dialogue because all have experienced large and often abrupt migration flows over the past decade, triggered by wars, political instability, and economic crises beyond their national borders. As a result, pressures on migration governance infrastructures intensified, producing contested public and political debates around migrant men, gendered labor, and citizenship.

While the overall share of people migrating across international borders has remained relatively stable in recent years, migration governance has become increasingly gendered. A widening gender gap has emerged: according to IOM data, the proportion of migrant men relative to women increased from 1.2% in 2000 to 3.8% in 2022 (McAuliffe & Oucho, 2024, p. 168). Despite this shift, the specific challenges faced by migrant men remain underexplored. Although migrant men constitute the largest group within global migration flows, they often encounter the strongest barriers to integration and belonging. Within governance frameworks and public discourse, they are frequently constructed as competitors to citizens, deprioritized in welfare and integration policies in favor of families and women, and racialized through stereotypes of criminality or hypersexuality.

Bringing together scholars from migration studies, gender studies, and political sociology, the workshop analyzes how policies, legal frameworks, and public debates regulate migrants’ rights, participation, and everyday experiences of belonging. By centering masculinities, we foreground a critical yet understudied dimension of migration governance, highlighting how gendered norms and cultural expectations mediate political responses to rapid demographic change across diverse migration regimes.

Designed as a hybrid and public-facing event, we aim to foster exchange among researchers, civil society actors, and broader publics. Through cross-country comparative perspectives, we will advance informed dialogue on the shared challenges and governance strategies shaping migration today.

Papers and discussions from the workshop will contribute to an edited special issue planned for submission to the Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies.