Chiamaka Rita Akpuogwu M.A.
I am a lawyer and doctoral researcher whose work examines mobility rights, religion, and migration governance through a socio-legal lens. My research focuses on how African Christian communities in Germany shape migrants' experiences of law, belonging, and mobility.
My professional experience spans migration research, policy engagement, and practice across Africa and Europe. I have held research and coordination roles at the University of Stavanger, Norway, and the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany. I am a Climate Mobility Fellow with the Global Centre for Climate Mobility (GCCM), where I lead an impact project advancing durable solutions for climate-vulnerable communities across Africa, and I serve as an advisor to the International Rescue Committee's Climate Global Practice Area, contributing to work on climate resilience and livelihood innovation.
Over the past decade, I have worked across migration, legal protection, gender justice, and community-based initiatives in both African and European contexts, including at the Justice, Development and Peace Centre (JDPC) in Nigeria and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Czechia. This work has involved sustained engagement with migrant communities through capacity-building, reintegration support, and rights-based advocacy.
My professional engagements converge in a commitment to justice-oriented approaches to mobility that foreground the dignity, rights, and well-being of displaced and mobile populations.
Research Area 9: Between church asylum and social advocacy: Religious communities as agents and advocates of mobility rights
Working Title: Faith in Crisis: Religion, Mobility Rights, and the Socio-Legal Struggles of African Migrants in Germany
My dissertation examines how African Christian communities in Germany function as socio-legal actors shaping migrants' experiences of law, belonging, and mobility. The project investigates how migrants develop a distinct form of legal consciousness through religious practices, including sermons, pastoral counselling, informal legal mediation, and church asylum. It further analyses how these communities operate as migration infrastructures that circulate legal knowledge, facilitate access to resources, and articulate normative claims that reinforce or challenge state authority. In contexts of constrained legal protection, migrants draw on these religious frameworks to navigate legal uncertainty and cultivate strategies of conformity, resistance, and legal contestation. The project ultimately reconceptualises migration governance beyond state-centred frameworks by demonstrating how religious communities participate in the production, interpretation, and negotiation of legality within contemporary migration regimes.
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2026
- Drought and Climate Mobility in Africa: Evidence, Challenges, and Adoption Strategies
Moderator, GCCM Webinar Series - Right to Stay, Right to Move: Turning the ICJ & IACtHR Climate Opinions into Dignified Climate Mobility Pathways
Panel Presentation, GCCM Pavilion, Blue Zone, COP, Belém, Brazil - Decolonising Climate Futures: From Arctic Realities to Global Solidarity
Panel Presentation, Finland Pavilion, Blue Zone, COP, Belém, Brazil - Resilience for Peace: Inclusive Approaches to Amplifying Climate, Peace and Security
Panel Presentation,German Pavilion, Blue Zone, COP, Belém, Brazil - Colonial Legacies, Coastal Precarity, and Climate Justice in Badagry, Lagos
Symposium Presentation, Virtual Climate Migrant Symposium, Western Michigan University, USA - Building the Climate Mobility Ecosystem: Forging Coalitions for Action
Panel Presentation, Berlin Climate Mobility Forum, Germany - Economic Reintegration of Women Return Migrants in Nigeria
Conference Presentation, “Young Africans on the Move” Conference, Entebbe, Uganda
2025
2023