Experts Database

Samuel Agblorti holds PhD in geography from the University of Calgary, Canada. He previously graduated with a master’s and bachelor’s degrees in population studies from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, where he currently holds a faculty position. Samuel’s PhD thesis was on the nexus between refugees’ use of environmental resources, resultant environmental conflicts between refugees and host populations, and the feasibility of local integration of refugees in protracted situations as a durable solution for camp refugees in Ghana. He has been involved in migration research with a concentration on forced migration and the environment in refugee hosting communities for over a decade. Recently, his research interests focus on the analysis of host-refugee environmental conflicts, mainly from the perspective of power and economic considerations and the implications of such conflicts for the local integration of refugees in protracted situations using political ecology as an analytical framework; gender and development within the broader context of development theory and praxis. He has taught a number of courses at both the graduate (Academic Writing for Graduate Students, Population Movement and Qualitative Research Methods) and undergraduate levels (Migration and Development, Gender and Development and Refugee Studies). He has authored a number of publications including one policy paper for the UNHCR titled “Refugee integration in Ghana” in 2011 and recently a paper in Refugee Survey Quarterly titled “Conceptualising obstacles to local integration of refugees in Ghana” in 2019 (with Miriam Grant) and another (with Miriam Grant) "Revisiting the host-refugee environmental conflict debate: perspectives from Ghana's refugee camps', Canadian Journal of African Studies (2020). He has supervised four master’s and one PhD theses to completion and currently supervising three master’s students and four doctoral students.

Postdoctoral researcher in Political Science at Uppsala University. My research interests mainly concern international migration and comparative migration policy. In my dissertation I focus specifically on variations in family immigration policy across countries.

A former journalist, anthropologist and development communications professional, currently researching impact of liberal immigration policies on driving immigration and social inclusion and integration of immigrants in receiving societies. (immigrants forced by conflict and climate change)

Ahmad Wali Ahmad-Yar is a PhD researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), collaborating with the Interface Demography (ID) research group. He works on the Horizon 2020 project Enhanced Migration Measures from a Multidimensional Perspective (HumMingBird). His research focuses on international migration, the integration of migrants, migration data, theoretical and data gaps in migration research, EU policies on migration, and migrant integration policies at the local level. Previously, Ahmad Wali worked for almost three years at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels in the economic policy and GRID units.
Ahmad Wali holds a master’s degree in Political Science from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and a bachelor’s in International Relations from the al-Farabi Kazakh National University. Ahmad Wali has also worked as an interpreter for the UNHCR and as a Public Relations Officer for the Ariana Social Centre in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He is originally from Afghanistan and has a keen personal interest in the history and current affairs of South and Central Asia.

Sohrab Ahmadian is a PhD graduate from the University of Tsukuba, Japan. He completed his doctoral dissertation on the Kurdish diaspora patterns in Japan and their impact on the growth of political issues and identity formation in the context of Japanese society as well as the country of origin. He is currently pursuing his postdoctoral research as a research fellow at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. He is a specialist in Japanese-Kurdish Diaspora Studies and Middle Eastern Political Anthropology

Sahra is a Somali-Dutch Ph.D. Candidate studying Somali Diaspora Humanitarianism in Complex Crises at the University of Copenhagen and at the University of Nairobi. She has an advanced MA degree in Advanced Development Studies from Radboud University in Nijmegen as well as a MA degree in Cultural Anthropology/Development Sociology from Leiden University both in the Netherlands.

Rhoumour Ahmet Tchilouta is an emerging scholar whose expertise lies at the intersection of political geography, sociology, border studies, migration studies and international relations, with a particular focus on EU-Niger cooperation. He is currently pursuing a dual Ph.D. in political geography at the University of Grenoble Alpes in France and the Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey in Niger. His doctoral research is under an international cotutelle agreement, a notable distinction that underscores the transnational relevance of his work.

Ahmet Tchilouta holds two Master's degrees from the University of Grenoble Alpes - one in Social Sciences with a major in Sociology of Innovation and Social Reconfiguration, and another in Geography, Planning, Environment, Development with a major in Innovation and Territory. This multidisciplinary academic background underpins his comprehensive approach to the analysis of geopolitical and socio-political issues.

His research focuses on the intricacies of EU-Niger cooperation on migration and border management, exploring the complex dynamics of migration politics and related border violence, and more widely the question of Niger's sovereignty in the era of globalized migration governance. In addition, Tchilouta has a keen interest in the geospatial analysis of border practices and the socio-political and security dynamics of the Saharan gold rush.

Tchilouta's contributions to scholarship are evidenced by his publications in peer-reviewed journals such as Politique Étrangère, Revue Internationale des Etudes du Developpement (RIED), and Espace Politique. These works reflect his deep understanding and insight into his areas of interest. Beyond academic publications, he has authored and contributed to several major reports, demonstrating his ability to translate complex research into practical, policy-oriented recommendations.

Moreover, Tchilouta's expertise has been recognized beyond academia, as evidenced by his roles as consultant to various international organizations. His work with entities such as the Global Initiative Against Transnational Crime, Transnational Institute, Statewatch, or Border Forensics demonstrates his ability to translate academic insights into real-world challenges in international relations and geopolitics. This blend of academic rigor and practical application positions Ahmet Tchilouta as an emerging scholar in his field, contributing significantly to our understanding of contemporary geopolitical and sociopolitical issues in the Sahara-Sahel region.

Journalist and independent researcher from Bosnia and Herzegovina. since 2015, present at the so-called Balkan Route, from Greece to Slovenia. Since October 2015, until May 2019, coordinator for the Are You Syrious? Info Team, a self-organized group that provided daily information about and for the people on the move in Europe.

Jill Ahrens is a Scientific Project Manager and Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Department for Migration and Globalisation at the University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria. She also is a Research Associate at the Sussex Centre for Migration Research at the University of Sussex, UK. Her research focuses on international student mobilities, onward migration, transnationalism and irregular migration.

In the past she has worked as a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Gender & Diversity Hub at Utrecht University and held a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship in the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning at Utrecht University. Her PhD research at the University of Sussex on the topic of intra-European onward mobilities of Nigerian migrants was supported by a research grant within the Marie-Curie INTEGRIM initial training network (EU FP7), as well as the German Academic Exchange Service and the Research Council of Norway.

Prior to that, she worked as a researcher at the University of Sussex on two projects related to international student mobility (funded by BIS and HEFCE) and the Migrations between Africa and Europe longitudinal survey (MAFE). She has held visiting appointments at Bielefeld University (2011), University of Bonn (2013), University of Oslo (2013-14), University of Lisbon (2014-15) and Zayed University in Dubai (2017-18).