New holder of the Torsten Söderberg Research Chair is studying the consequences of aging populations

Gregor Noll, Professor of International Law, has been chosen to hold the Torsten Söderberg Research Chair at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He is researching the effects that aging populations in Europe are having on migration lawmaking.

Europe faces a major shift as populations age while birth rates stand at historical lows. European nations with an aging population may therefore need to adapt their migration legislation in order to attract more people of working age. However, research shows that appropriate reform measures, such as greater immigration, can be hard to achieve, despite the negative implications that an aging population has for growth.

“At the same time, countries such as China are heading for their own demographic crisis in the foreseeable future, which makes it likely that China and Europe will be competing for the categories of migrants who are most productive,” says Gregor Noll, Professor of International Law and the new holder of the Torsten Söderberg Research Chair.

In the project ‘Democracy and Demographics in Migration Lawmaking’, Gregor Noll is studying how Europe’s aging populations are going to influence the legislation governing immigration to the EU.

“Today’s migration-limiting model of regulation in Europe is not fit for the purpose of meeting the considerable demographic changes that we are facing. The idea behind the project is to integrate knowledge from a number of different disciplines into a jurisprudence model.

The results will then be useful in policy discussions on the consequences of aging for our society and its long-term economic, social and political development.

“This project is tackling a critical issue for Europe’s future through legal studies with an interdisciplinary approach. I am incredibly grateful to have been entrusted with the Torsten Söderberg Research Professorship. It gives me an opportunity to work more extensively on the links between democracy, demographics and lawmaking,” states Gregor Noll.

About Gregor Noll
Gregor Noll is Professor of International Law in the Department of Law at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The subjects of his research include questions concerning international migration and asylum law, and how technological advances such as AI are affecting the law more widely. He has held the Torsten Söderberg Research Chair since 2020.

About the Torsten Söderberg Research Chair at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg
The Chair was established at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg in 2001, through generous donations from the Torsten Söderberg Foundation and the Ragnar Söderberg Foundation. The research professorship may be held by full-time professors at the School, and rotates between the subject areas of Economics, Law and Business Administration. The post is normally held for a period of three years. The previous holder was Mikael Lindahl, Professor of Economics.

Contact:
Gregor Noll
email: gregor.noll@law.gu.se

Per Cramér, Dean, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg
email: per.cramer@handels.gu.se

Maria Norrström

Director of Communications
School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg
E-mail: maria.norrstrom@handels.gu.se

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