Migration Cluster

Skip to: Cluster meetings, Guest speaker events, Workshops, News, Publications, Members, Student Fellowship

Cluster meetings

• TBD (January 14th, 2025)
• Student Fellow-led Cluster meeting (February 11th, 2025)
• Denny Penchevav’s presentation (March 18th, 2025)

Past meetings

• Eréndira León-Salvador’s presentation on “How Do Citizenship Policies Shape Integration? Lessons from Spain’s Dual-Track Naturalization System”’ (December 3rd, 2024)
• Miranda Simon’s presentation on “Mindsets of Returnee Reception” (November 12th, 2024)
• Sascha Riaz's presentation on "Racial Threat in Public Social Spaces" (April 30th, 2024). 
• Stephanie Schwartz's presentation on "Refugee Return without Refoulement: Human Rights Norm Compliance and the Hollowing Out of the Refugee Protection Regime" (February 20th, 2024).
• Julia de Romémont's presentation on "Good moves, bad moves: how does the public evaluate the relative legitimacy of causes of fleeing?" (January 30th, 2024).
• Moritz Marbach's presentation on refugee integration (November 21st, 2023).
• Michal Ovadek's presentation on "Judicial Discretion and Immigration Appeals: Evidence from the UK" (October 17th, 2023).
• Peter Dinesen's presentation on "Persuasion or Polarization? Understanding the Effects of Rhetorical References to Identity Politics" (June 13th, 2023).
• Moritz Marbach's presentation on "Geographic Mobility and Political Behavior in Europe" (May 23rd, 2023).
• Andrea Caflisch's presentation on "Rebuilding your tukul: understanding the drivers of IDP return and reintegration in South Sudan" (February 7th, 2023).
• Zara Goldstone's presentation on "Migration as reparation for colonialism" (January 24th, 2023).
• Gloria Gennaro's presentation on "The political legacy of violent inter-group contact" (December 6th, 2022).
• Sigrid Weber's presentation on "The two-way attitudes between hosts and displaced persons in the Kasai, DRC" (November 22nd, 2022).

If you are interested in our work and think you would like to join our group, please contact us.
 

Guest speaker events

Jonathan Thomas (Social Market Foundation) gave a presentation on "Asylum Seeker Right to Work in the UK: Data, Policy and Campaigning” 

19 January 2024, 1pm-2pm

Larry Bottinick (UNHCR UK) spoke about UNHCR’s work in the UK

8 October 2024, 1pm-2pm

Ms Jacqueline Broadhead gave a presentation on "Understanding Migrant Destitution in the UK", a research project focussed on social services support for those subject to the NRPF condition

28 February 2023, 1pm-2pm

Professor Noam Gidron gave a talk on "Immigration drives affective polarization as a cultural issue and an economic issue: Evidence from a ten-country experiment" with UCL's Comparative, Political Economy and Behaviour cluster. 

17 January 2023, 11am-12pm

Workshops

The second joint academic workshop between the UCL SPP Migration Cluster and the ETH Immigration Policy Lab was hosted by the ETH Immigration Policy Lab in Zurich in July 2023. Several of our members presented and discussed joint as well as individual migration-related research, ranging from early ideas to advanced projects. The collaborative, supportive and stimulating atmosphere made for an engaging and thought-provoking environment and great feedback and discussions. We're already looking forward to the third iteration of the workshop.

In July 2022, the UCL Department of Political Science hosted a joint academic workshop between the UCL SPP Migration Cluster and the ETH Zurich Immigration Policy Lab entitled “The reception of past, current and future refugees - lessons learned and challenges ahead”. The goal was to foster exchange and build a foundation for future research collaborations between the SPP Migration Cluster at UCL and the Immigration Policy Lab (IPL) at ETH Zurich. During our workshop we shared insights from past research and explored their relevance to emerging challenges. We worked to identify knowledge gaps regarding new challenges stemming from the war in Ukraine, and to develop new research projects.

News

Watch the Policy and Practice seminar on Challenges Faced by LGBTIQ+ Migrants and Asylum Seekers.

Filmed on 26 January 2023

Publications

Our members conduct research on a variety of migration-related issues, ranging from immigration sentiments and exclusionary attitudes to inclusivity in post-conflict transitions and the politics of counting people on the move.

Selected Publications

• ​​​​​​Hangartner, D. and Spirig, J. (2024) Immigration and inequality: the role of politics and policies, Oxford Open Economics, Volume 3, Issue Supplement_1, i480–i486, https://doi.org/10.1093/ooec/odad042
• Spirig, J. (2024). Politicians, Newspapers, and Immigration Referendums: Exploring the Boundaries of Media Effects. Political Communication, 41(5), 786–807. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2024.2321539
• Spirig, J. (2023), When Issue Salience Affects Adjudication: Evidence from Swiss Asylum Appeal Decisions. American Journal of Political Science, 67: 55-70. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12612
• Christensen, D., Hartman A. C. and Samii C., et al. (2021). Citizen monitoring promotes informed and inclusive forest governance in Liberia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(29), 1–6.
• Dinesen, P. T., Dahl, M., and Schiøler, M. (2021). "When are Legislators Responsive to Ethnic Minorities? Testing the Role of Electoral Incentives and Candidate Selection for Mitigating Ethnocentric Responsiveness." American Political Science Review, 115(2), 450-466.
• Gennaro, G. & Ash, El. (2022). Emotion and reason in political language. The Economic Journal.
• Hangartner, D., Dinas E., Marbach, M., Matakos, K. and Xefteris, D. (2019). Does Exposure to the Refugee Crisis Make Natives More Hostile? Cambridge University Press, 113(2), pp. 442–455.
• Hangartner, D., Ferwerda, J. and Marbach, M. (2022). Do Immigrants Move to Welfare? Evidence from Switzerland. American Journal of Political Science.
• Hangartner, D. and Gennaro, G., et. al. (2021). Empathy-based counterspeech can reduce racist hate speech in a social media field experiment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(50), 1-3.
• Hangartner, D., Sarvimäki, M. and Spirig, J. (2021). Managing Refugee Protection Crises: Policy Lessons from Economics and Political Science. Journal of the Finnish Economic Association, 2(1), 2-24.
• Hartman, A. C., Morse, B. S. and Weber, S. (2021). Violence, Displacement, and Support for Internally Displaced Persons: Evidence from Syria. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 65(10), 1791–1819. 
• Hartman, A. and Morse, B. S. (2020). Violence, Empathy and Altruism: Evidence from the Ivorian Refugee Crisis in Liberia. Cambridge University Press, 50(2), 731–755.
• Pencheva, D. (2021). Detoxifying European migration (again). Renewal, 29(4), 75-83
• Sønderskov, K. M., Dinesen, P. T., Hansen, B. T., Østergaard, S. D., and Danckert, B. (2021). “Terrorism in the Country of Origin is Linked to Deterioration in the Mental Health of Refugees.” Nature Human Behaviour, 5, 1555-1561.
• Spirig, J. (2021). When Issue Salience Affects Adjudication: Evidence from Swiss Asylum Appeal Decisions. American Journal of Political Science, 1-16
• Oswald, C., Sauter, M., Weber, S. and Williams, R. (2020). Under the Roof of Rebels: Civilian Targeting After Territorial Takeover in Sierra Leone. International Studies Quarterly, 64 (2): 295–305. 

People

Our team consists of the Political Science Department's members of staff and PhD students interested in topics around migration.

Visitors and External Members

• Peter Dinesen, Professor of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen
• Miranda Simon, Associate Professor in Political Science at the University of Essex
• Eréndira León-Salvador (Visiting PhD student from the European University Institute, Term 1, 24/25)
• Martha Stolze (Visiting PhD student from the Weizenbaum Institute, Term 1, 24/25)

Former members

• Zara Goldstone, PhD graduate in Political Theory. Zara is interested in the ethics of migration, in particular whether migration rights should be used as a form of reparations for historical injustices
• Maria Patouna, Previous Research Assistant for the SPP Migration Cluster. Maria is a MSc Data Science and Public Policy student
• Niu Nelson, MSc Applied Social Data Science Graduate
• Sigrid Weber, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Immigration Policy Lab at Stanford University. Sigrid is particularly interested in forced migration, statelessness and civilian resilience in fragile settings.