This is a network collaboration project between Norwegian Social Research (NOVA), Department of Ethnography at the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, and Department of Social Anthropology, NTNU. The collaboration is based on a mutual interest in and a critical concern with the current state of migration studies within the discipline of social anthropology.

The network is supported by NRC, and is a response to one of the conclusions in the evaluation of Norwegian anthropological research (NRC 2011), namely that Norwegian anthropology has a strong legacy in solid ethnographical work and analysis, but lacks ambitions and commitment to international developments of anthropological theory and methods. The network meets this challenge by linking up with a growing trend in anthropology, as well as in the social sciences in general, to place a stronger analytical and theoretical emphasis on ‘mobility'. This development is in particularly pronounced within the field of migration studies.

At the Department at NTNU, there are currently several ongoing research projects on migration and mobility, such as globalization of Norwegian industry and capital, circular labour migration between Poland and Norway, remittance and circular migration between Nicaragua and USA, transnational Tamil families, identity and belonging among migrants to Canada, transstatal Mennonite communities, descendants of Syrian and Lebanese immigrants in Argentina, immigration and formation of post-colonial Mozambican elites, and rural – urban migration and mobility in Zambia. At graduate level, there are several projects focusing on issues of mobility and mobilities, such as high-skilled labour migrants in Trondheim, Chines small-scale entrepreneurs in Zambia, and hypermobile, neo-nomadic "artisanos" in India and Thailand.