Experts Database

I am a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Groningen, currently on a research visit at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. I have previously held visiting research fellowships at the International Migration Institute in Oxford, the University of Amsterdam and the Central European Labour Studies Institute in Bratislava.
My research focuses on several aspects of the migration process, including its relationship with development and socio-spatial inequality, migrant's decision to migrate and destination choice, and the role of local policies in mediating the effects of im/e-migration. I am particularly interested in the policies and practices implemented by local governments in origin countries to minimize the negative effects of emigration and maximize the positive effects.
I have previously worked on projects for several governments and international organizations, including the European Commission, the International Labor Organization, the International Organization for Migration and ESPON, among others.

Ovgu Ulgen is a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Montreal. In her dissertation, which has been funded by FRQSC (Québec research funding) and IRTG Diversity, she sought to understand immigrant belonging at the intersection of language and religion. She examined how societal particularities of Montréal and Toronto embedded in the processes of negotiating the difference and created a complex relation between language and religion. She explored how the lived experiences of immigrants differed from one another and what it said about interculturalism and multiculturalism in Canada. She further looked at how relations between immigrants and the majority groups and inter and intra-ethnic relations formed and transformed in these processes. Her analysis of the relation between language and religion made it possible to make sense of the continuing salience of religion in the “post-secular” age in Canada, specifically, how cultural religion emerged as an important determinant of immigrant boundary making in the communities she interviewed, especially in Québec. She holds an MA degree in Sociology from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris. In her M.A. research, which was awarded a scholarship, she focused on forced migration, collective memory, and urban politics in a neighborhood of Istanbul, Turkey.

Associate Professor of Migration Studies, Geography, Environment and Development. //

Research Cluster Leader: Migration, Diaspora and Globalization //

I am working in the fields of migration and gender, reception, and labor migration policy, employment and care (work). Key questions that matter to me in my work are: how are social inequalities and differences produced in society, what are the underlying mechanisms and functions, what does this mean for participation chances of different groups, and what role can supporting and administrative organizations and institutions play in societal change? Research and theories from sociology, migration studies, intersectionality and gender studies, organizational and labour studies enrich and guide my thinking. I have more than ten years of experience in empirical research, teaching, counseling, project management and coordination. I am passionate about bringing together research- and practice-oriented knowledge to better understand migration policies and their impact on processes of labor market participation and mobility in a global world.

Postdoctoral Fellow at Tallinn University (Estonia) and the Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain). Visiting Scholar at the Universidad Casa Grande (Ecuador). Dual Ph.D. in Humanities (Leiden University, the Netherlands) and in Political Science (Universidad Diego Portales, Chile). Chair of the IMISCOE's Election Committee. Co-Convenor of the Standing Committee of Migration, Citizenship, and Political Participation.

Hakan Ünay is a PhD student Department of International Relations at Kırıkkale University. At the same time, he has been working as a researcher at the Migration Research Foundation since May 2019, film review editor at Borders in Globalization Review, and as a member of the Association for Borderland Studies. His main fields of study are migration and border management and states' border policies. I completed my master's degree in this field in June 2021 with the title "From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to the Construction of New Walls: An Analysis of the Israel-Palestine and Turkey-Syria Walls from a Realist Perspective". As a researcher who wants to specialize in borders, He has many academic publications in Turkish and English.

Christian Ungruhe is a trained anthropologist with a strong interdisciplinary approach and working experience in the fields of human geography, global history, sport sociology and social anthropology. In his research, he focusses on issues of migration and mobility in the realm of youth, gender, work and sport with a regional emphasis on rural and urban West Africa.
His publications feature two monographs, ‘Lasten tragen, Moderne befördern. Wanderarbeit, Jugend, Erwachsenwerden und ihre geschlechtsspezifischen Differenzierungen in Ghana’ (‘Carrying load, transporting modernity. Gendered perspectives on labour migration, youth and social becoming in Ghana’) (Lit Verlag) and ‘African Football Migration. Aspirations, Experiences and Trajectories’ (with Paul Darby and James Esson; Manchester University Press).