Experts Database

Paolo Ruspini (MA Pol. Sci., PhD, Milan) has been researching international and European migration and integration since 1997 with a comparative approach and by drawing on mixed methods. He is currently Associate Researcher at the Institute of Sociological Research (IRS), Geneva School of Social Science, University of Geneva, and Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Roehampton. Recent publications include Migrants Unbound (2019, Transnational Press London, author) Migration and Transnationalism Between Switzerland and Bulgaria (2017, Springer, co-editor) and A Decade of EU Enlargement: A Changing Framework and Patterns of Migration, (2014, Central and Eastern European Migration Review, Vol. 3, No. 2, co-editor).

Negin is a Sociology instructor at the department of Sociology and Anthropology of Langara College in Vancouver, BC. She has a MA in Sociology from the University of Calgary where she worked on a qualitative research project on the resettlement of Yazidi refugees in Calgary, AB. Her MA thesis explored the agency and resilience of Yazidi women as well as the role of women as service provider staff in the resettlement of the Yazidi community. She is passionate about gender equality and is interested in the experiences of displacement, family conflict, and domestic violence in refugee and immigrant families. As an immigrant herself, Negin is invested in exploring identity crises and the meaning of “home” through the immigration/settlement journey. Negin also works as the Donations Coordinator at AMSSA, Affiliation of Multicultural Societies and Service Agencies of BC.

Zeynep Sahin Mencutek’s research examines the governance of migration, migration narratives, foreign policy-migration nexus, comparative policies and politics in the Global South, and diaspora politics. Her work is mainly based on long-term, qualitative and comparative analysis. Her book, Refugee Governance, State and Politics in the Middle East (Routledge, 2018) explores how refugee governance differs across countries and why they diverge, looking in particular at Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, three of the world's top refugee hosting countries. She published several articles in internationally refereed journals, chapters in international collected volumes, encyclopaedia entries, book reviews and policy reports.

Zeynep received her PhD in Politics and International Relations from the University of Southern California in 2011. Previously, she served as an assistant professor at the Department of International Relations at Gediz University in Turkey and achieved the rank of Docent in 2018. She held an international fellowship at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg from March 2019 to February 2020 to conduct research on polycentric governance, emerging transnationalism and grassroots community organizations of Syrian refugees.

Since November 2017, she serves as the Senior Research Fellow for the Horizon2020 project titled RESPOND: Multilevel Governance of Mass Migration in Europe and Beyond. She prepares co-authored research reports on the legal and institutional framework of refugee governance, border controls, and international protection in Turkey as well as comparative reports of asylum regimes and integration. She is a visiting fellow at the Institute for Peace and Development, University of Duisburg-Essen and is gained Humboldt Research Fellowship Programme for Experienced Researchers to conduct a comparative research on the governance of refugee returns.

Dr. Nurul Huda Sakib is a PhD from the Department of Government and International Relations, The University of Sydney, Australia in 2018. He teaches Public Policy Analysis, Global Politics, Fundamentals of International Politics, Governance Issues and Problems, Political Theories for Developing Countries and Public Sector Ethics and Corruption over twelve years at the Department of Government and Politics, Jahangirnagar University. Dr. Sakib also taught Public Sector Ethics and Corruption at the Department of Government and International Relations, the University of Sydney a lecturer and guest faculty from the period of 2016 to 2017. He is also an adjunct faculty of Bangladesh University of Professionals. Additionally, Dr. Sakib also acts as a research supervisor at the Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre. He is an associate member of the Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement of Cambridge University, UK. Dr. Sakib published over 16 articles that appeared in Routledge, Springer and Oxford Publishers. He is also one of the contributing authors of the Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance, edited by Professor Ali Farazmand. Dr. Sakib has presented numerous research papers at Sydney, Melbourne, Monash, Griffith (Australia), Fudan (China), The Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and Bangladesh. His research interest includes South Asia in Global Politics, Corruption and Anti-Corruption, Migration and Refugee Governance and Political Communication.

Tolga Sakman started his studies on Diaspora (especially Turkish Diaspora) during his Master's Degree and made several publications on the subject. He has also studies and published on migration and the security of migration. Having worked at a think tank and university, Sakman continues his doctoral studies.

Sanna Saksela-Bergholm Ph.D. (Sociology, University of Helsinki) explores in her current study the inclusion of migrants into working life. The objectives are two-folded: firstly, the aim is to analyse integration education programs’ “best practices” aimed at worklife inclusion of adult migrants into the Finnish and Canadian labor markets. Secondly, the aim is to develop a worklife integration model based on these best practices which will be pilot tested within the partner education programs. For students integrating in a country’s minority language, this integration into institutions of the national minority is of additional importance as the dominant environment is generally constructed around the majority language.
In her previous study she explored Filipino labour migrants’ inclusion to the Finnish labour market and their transnational ties back home. She analysed the role of social resources and networks in the lives of the migrants and their family members still living in the Philippines. Her study was part of the Academy Finland project ‘Transnationalism as a Social Resource among Diaspora Communities’. Saksela-Bergholm has planned and taught BA- and MA-level courses in migration studies.
She has studied migrants’ participation and inclusion to the receiving society by focusing on the following topics: the role of migrant associations; local and transnational practices; migrants’ access to informal and formal social protection; migrants’ access to labour market. In addition, she has acted as an expert for UNHCR, NGOs, national and local advisory boards.