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Franzisca Zanker is the Deputy Director of the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute (ABI) in Freiburg, Germany, where she also heads the research cluster on “Patterns of (Forced) Migration. She currently leads an ERC-funded project on “The Political Lives of Migrants: perspectives from Africa”.
Franzisca Zanker
Key expertise
- refugee protection
- migration governance
- migrant agency
- focus on Africa
Current affiliation
- Arnold-Bergstraesser Institute
Regional expertise
- Sub-Saharan Africa
Professional career
Franzisca Zanker is the Deputy Director of the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute (ABI) in Freiburg, Germany, where she also heads the research cluster on “Patterns of (Forced) Migration. Franzisca Zanker has a PhD in political science from the University of Tübingen. Before coming to the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute (ABI) in Freiburg she worked at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies Institute in Hamburg. Her research interests include migration and refugee governance, peacebuilding and civil society and she has carried out research in Liberia, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and The Gambia.She has led several research projects on refugee protection and migration in Africa, funded by the Mercator Stiftung, German Peace Foundation and most recently the European Research Council. She is book reviews editor for the Journal of Refugee Studies and on the editorial board for the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
Profile according to FFVT taxonomy
Scientific topics
- Integration And Social Participation
- International Protection
- Borders
- Civil Society Engagement
- Local And Municipal Refugee Policies
- National Refugee And Asylum Policies
- Refugee Camp
- Return And Deportation
- Self-Organization
- Transnational Networks
- Infrastructure Of Flight / Forced Migration
Research fields
- Migration Research
- Governance Research
- Peace And Conflict Studies
Relevant publications
- Arhin-Sam, K., Bisong, A., Jegen, L., Mounkaila, H., Zanker, F. (2022). The (in)formality of mobility in the ECOWAS region: The paradoxes of free movement. South African Journal of International Affairs, 29(2), 187–205.
- Zanker, F. (2022). Beyond the Eurocentric Gaze – Refugee and Migration Governance in Africa. In Akinola, A. O., Bjarnesen, J. (eds.): Worlds Apart? Perspectives on Africa-EU Migration, Johannesburg: Fanele Publishers, 2022.
- Zanker, F. (2025). A typology of resistance: The ‘hot potato’ of European return in West Africa. Territory, Politics, Governance, 13(3), 241–260.
- Zanker, F. & Altrogge, J. (2019). The Political Influence of Return: From Diaspora to Libyan Transit Returnees. International Migration, 57(4), 167–180.
- Zanker, F. & Altrogge, J. (2022). Protective Exclusion as a Postcolonial Strategy: Rethinking Deportations and Sovereignty in The Gambia. Security Dialogue, 53(5), 475–493.