RTG 2987: Mobility Rights in
the Global Context of Multiple Crises

Luise Freitag M.A.

As a research fellow in the RTG 2987, I am interested in examining how social law functions as a tool of migration control in Germany. My work critically explores the tensions between constitutional ideals of human dignity and the realities of structural exclusion within the German welfare state. I studied law at Humboldt-Universität Berlin and have been engaged with issues of migration, anti-discrimination, constitutional as well as human rights law for the last years. Prior to joining the RTG, I worked at the University of Bern and the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and have been an active member of the Refugee Law Clinic Berlin for several years.


Research Project

My dissertation project explores how social welfare instruments in Germany systematically exclude different groups of migrants from full social rights and protections. Focusing on the intersection of social law and migration policy, the project critically examines how legal frameworks, political narratives, and institutional practices work together to construct migrants as “undeserving” in order to justify restrictive welfare policies. Drawing on international as well as constitutional law, socio-legal analysis, and discourse theory, the research scrutinizes how migration is framed as a crisis, thereby legitimizing measures that potentially undermine the principle of human dignity and the right to a dignified existence. The project investigates how the welfare state, despite its inclusive ideals, functions as a mechanism of social and spatial control. Ultimately, it exposes the normative contradictions of a welfare state that claims inclusion while reinforcing exclusion, particularly for asylum seekers and those without secure residence status.


Biographical Data


    Academic Experience
  • Since 10/2025: Research assistant in the DFG Research Training Group »Mobility Rights in the Global Context of Multiple Crises« (RTG 2987), University of Göttingen
  • Since 07/2025: Research assistant at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, research group »Law and Governance in the Context of Social Inequalities« (Prof. Dr. Michael Wrase)
  • 01/2025–08/2025: Research assistant at the University of Bern, Chair of Sociology of Law (Prof. Dr. Tobias Eule)
  • 08/2023–12/2024: Student / research assistant at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, research group of Prof. Dr. Michael Wrase

    • Education
  • Since 10/2025: PhD candidate in law
  • 10/2019–09/2024: Study of law at Humboldt University of Berlin and Free University of Berlin; study visits at the National Law School of India University and Princeton University; internship in Istanbul
  • 10/2018–09/2019: Study of social sciences at Humboldt University of Berlin