Building CrisisMigRef: Mapping Migration and Mobility Research in an Age of Crisis

What counts as a crisis, and who gets to decide? And how do you build a database around a concept that researchers themselves cannot agree on? These were some of the questions behind the development of CrisisMigRef, a database developed during the final phase of nccr – on the move that brought together thousands of publications on crises, migration and mobility.

In recent years, events ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to migrant arrivals at Europe’s borders were increasingly described as “crises.” Across Europe and beyond, the language of crisis became a powerful way of talking about migration and mobility. It influenced political debates, informed policies and affected how migration was experienced and understood.

As more events came to be labelled as crises, researchers from sociology, political science, geography, anthropology, law, economics, and other disciplines started asking new questions: What counts as a crisis? Who defines a crisis? And how do crisis narratives shape migration governance, mobility regimes, and everyday practices?

To help researchers navigate this growing body of work, the nccr – on the move created CrisisMigRef, a publicly accessible database on the Zotero platform. It brought together nearly 3,000 publications on crises, migration and (im)mobility, ranging from broader conceptual debates to research on specific crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, migration-related crises, economic crises, and the war in Ukraine. Some areas, such as environmental crises, were already covered by existing resources like the Climig database and therefore fell outside of its scope.

Building and Organizing the Database

Creating CrisisMigRef involved much more than simply collecting references (see also this video). Building a database around a concept as contested as crisis required a series of practical and conceptual choices. The first task was collecting relevant material, a process led by the librarians at the Documentation Center of the Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies at the University of Neuchâtel through systematic searches and monitoring tools.

Several choices had to be made from the beginning to define the scope of the database. The project focused mainly on academic literature such as journal articles and books, intended for an international academic audience. The database concentrated mostly on English-language literature, while also including some selected publications in French and German in recognition of the Swiss context of the nccr – on the move. To keep the focus on contemporary crises and migration governance, most references dated from after 2000.

The search and monitoring began at the end of 2022 and continued until December 31, 2025. References were organized around different categories of crises, including public health crises, political crises, economic crises, and broader theoretical literature on crisis and migration.

Once references had been identified, they were first stored in a “working” Zotero library. Lucas Oesch, Scientific Officer during the third phase of the nccr – on the move, and later Sargam Goundar, initially a Visiting Fellow and subsequently in a dedicated role on CrisisMigRef, were responsible for filtering, cleaning, and classifying the references.

The organization of the collections reflected the thematic priorities of the nccr – on the move itself. Publications were classified according to how researchers understand crises, whether as measurable events, socially constructed phenomena, or ongoing conditions. They were also classified by their focus, such as governance, perceptions, or practices, as well as geographic scales and types of crisis.

The Challenges of Filtering and Classification

While the technical aspects of building a database took time, the biggest challenges were often conceptual. One question kept coming up throughout the process: what makes a publication relevant to “crisis” research in migration and mobility studies?

The answer wasn’t always straightforward. The notion of crisis itself is deeply debated. Some authors treat crises as objective events or measurable disruptions, while others emphasize how crises are socially and politically constructed through public discourse, politics, and media narratives.

This ambiguity frequently complicated the classification process. Research on COVID-19 was a good example. Many publications treated the pandemic itself as an “objective” crisis while also examining how governments and societies framed and responded to it politically. In these cases, classification often required interpretation rather than a simple technical decision. We chose to prioritize the more socially constructed dimension and classified these references accordingly.

Human judgment therefore remained essential throughout the process. Although detailed guidelines helped ensure consistency, no automated system could fully capture the complexity of the literature. References often overlapped across multiple categories, scales, and analytical perspectives.

Another challenge concerned interdisciplinarity. CrisisMigRef brought together research from diverse academic traditions, each with its own vocabulary and theoretical assumptions. Ensuring coherence across such varied scholarship required constant reflection and discussion.

What Did We Learn?

Working on CrisisMigRef highlighted just how central the idea of crisis has become within migration and mobility research. But it also showed that “crisis” is far from a neutral label. Crises are not only events. They are also narratives, political tools, and ways of framing how migration and mobility are understood and governed.

The database also revealed how increasingly interdisciplinary the field has become. Researchers from sociology, political science, geography, law, and other disciplines are often engaging with similar questions, even if they use different concepts and approaches. Building CrisisMigRef therefore became more than an exercise in documentation. It also became a way of mapping an evolving field of research.

Finally, CrisisMigRef showed the continued importance of human judgment in an age of automated search tools. Databases do not simply collect knowledge neutrally. They reflect choices about what matters, what belongs, and how ideas are organized.

As the nccr – on the move reaches the end of its final phase, CrisisMigRef remains publicly available on Zotero as a resource for future research. While no new references will be added, it remains both a record of a rapidly evolving field and a reminder of something we learned throughout the project: even organizing knowledge requires interpretation, particularly when the concept at its center remains open to debate.

Sargam Goundar is a Doctoral Researcher in Geography at the University of Otago and a former nccr – on the move Visiting Fellow under the project “Crisis Influence on Discourses and Policies of Migration.” Her expertise lies in climate- and disaster-related mobility research and policy in Oceania and beyond.

Lucas Oesch is the Scientific Officer at the nccr – on the move, University of Neuchâtel.