Experts Database

I am a sociologist of migration with a particular expertise in ethnography, refugee studies and the Horn of Africa. Over the past 10 years, my primary concerns of investigation have been the drivers and the dynamics of forced and high risk-migrants; migrant smuggling; gender and migration; secondary movements of asylum seekers and refugees within Europe; Dublin Regulations and its implications; home and housing studies; transnational families. Most of my empirical work has been based on qualitative methods such as life-stories collection, qualitative interviews and, most notably, multi-sited ethnography. I have done fieldwork in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands from 2012 onwards. My research settings included refugee camps, asylum centers, and urban diverse neighbourhoods.

https://solidarities.net/

2020 - PhD Research Fellow in Theology and Religious Studies (VID Specialized University)
2017 - 19 Master's in Human Geography (University of Oslo)

Currently conducting my doctoral project, with the provisional title of: "Negotiating belonging in contested spaces: Queer and religious migrants in Oslo and London".
Graduated from the University of Oslo with a thesis exploring the connection between political participation and sense of belonging among migrants in the city of Brescia (Italy).

Research themes: Migration; Sociology of religion; Queer studies; Citizenship; Political participation; Qualitative methods

Barbara Beznec graduated in Political Science of International Relations at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, where she later earned her Ph.D. on the subject of European Citizenship. As a researcher and expert in migration, she has collaborated with various institutes and universities in Slovenia and abroad. Fields of work: European integrations, European border regime, Balkan migration route, migration policies and practices, inclusiveness, autonomy of migration.

AGNIESZKA BIELEWSKA received her PhD in Sociology from Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom in 2010 and since then works at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Poland. Her primary academic interests include the challenges met by modern societies such as international migration, ageing and climate change. She was member of Warsaw research team in the international project RESTATE “Restructuring Large – scale Housing Estates in European Cities: Good Practices and New Visions for Sustainable Neighbourhoods and Cities” within the 5th Framework Programme EU. She published with Peter Lang, Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power and Ethnicities, International Migration.

Dr. Özge Bilgili is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences of Utrecht University. She has been awarded as a Thomas J. Alexander fellow at the Education and Skills Department of the OECD and is currently working as an associated researcher for the Strength through Diversity Project. Her expertise is on immigrant integration, social cohesion, transnationalism and education research and policy analysis in relevant areas. She has also worked extensively on migration and development issues, forced migration and return and reintegration research. Please see “Research Projects and Teaching” section for more information on her previous research experience.

Since 2016, Dr. Özge Bilgili is the chair of Dutch Association for Migration Research (DAMR) and highly involved in other academic networks. She is the co-coordinator of IMISCOE Standing Committee on Interactions of Migrant Integration and Transnationalism in Europe (IMITE) and an affiliated researcher of United Nations University – Merit. As an assistant professor at Utrecht University, she is also part of European Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations (ERCOMER) and the Inter-university Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology (ICS).

Dr. Özge Bilgili is also regularly involved in commissioned research for country governments and international organizations (IOM, UNHCR, MPI, MPG, and SDC), participates in capacity building activities and presents research findings to practitioners, policy makers and academics.

Jenna Blower is a Ph.D. candidate at York University in the Department of Social Anthropology. Jenna has an MA in Immigration and Settlement Studies from the Toronto Metropolitan University. Jenna currently works as a Migration Research Officer for the Migration Research Unit at the International Organization for Migration supporting the Word Migration Report series.