RESEARCH

TEAM

Eva Østergaard-Nielsen

Principal Investigator

Eva Østergaard-Nielsen is professor of political science at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona since 2010. Her main research interests center on the politics of migration in both receiving and origin countries, migrants’ transnational networks and, for the next 5 years, processes of migration led democratic diffusion in countries of origin. She is a member of the advisory board of two leading journals of migration studies and the IMISCOE Research Book Series. She has been the lead researcher and participated in a range of projects funded at the national and international level. Her most recent publications have appeared in Party Politics, West European Politics and European Political Science Review.  

Vladimir Bortun

Research collaborator

Vladimir Bortun completed his PhD in 2019 at the University of Portsmouth with a project on the transnational networking and cooperation among the left-wing parties in Southern Europe. His main research interests include transnational party politics, transnational diffusion of political ideas and practices, contemporary radical left in Europe and challenges to European integration. He also has teaching experience in the fields of European studies, comparative politics and international relations. His most recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Common Market Studies, Capital & Class, and European Political Science.  

Deniz Pelek

Postdoctoral Researcher

Deniz Pelek is a postdoctoral researcher in the MIGRADEMO Project at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She obtained her Ph.D. from Bogazici University and the University of Paris-8 (cotutelle). She is an affiliated researcher at Institut Francais d’Etudes Anatoliennes (Istanbul) since January 2017. She was a visiting researcher at Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (Paris) in 2017-2018. Her research interests include political sociology, migration and refugee studies, democratization, and rural studies. Her recent academic works appeared in the Journal of Peasant Studies, Journal of Refugee Studies and Migrations Société.

Ahmed Kadiri

Predoc Researcher

Ahmed Kadiri is a PhD student in the Politics, Policies and International Relations (PPIR) programme at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). He obtained his master’s degree in Migration Studies at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona (2018-2019) and obtained his bachelor’s degree in International Relations with a minor in Communication at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco (2014-2018). Currently, he collaborates in the MIGRADEMO project as a predoc research assistant. His main research interests are migration, political discourse analysis, and diasporas.

Nicolas Fliess

Research collaborator

Nicolas Fliess is a PhD candidate in Migration Studies at the University of Sussex, and a research affiliate of the ERC-funded MIGRADEMO project. His research interests are in political parties, and political behaviour, particularly in relation to migrants and migration dynamics. In his thesis, he focuses on the political cross-border activities of Latin American political parties in Spain, investigating how and why emigrants become involved in homeland party politics. His work intersects with the wider themes of citizenship and democratic governance. Previously, he was a visiting research fellow at the Institute of Governance and Public Policy, and the Department of Political Science and Public Law at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). He holds a Master’s degree from the UAB, and a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Mannheim.

Stefano Camatarri

External collaborator

Stefano Camatarri is a Ramón y Cajal Fellow at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), where he is also member of the research group in Transnational Relations, Democratization and Migration (TransDeM) and collaborator of MIGRADEMO. Previously, he was JSPS Fellow at Waseda University (Japan) and FSR post-doctoral researcher at the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium). His research interests regard the comparative study of political behaviour and electoral competition, migrant political participation and engagement ‘across borders’. His work has appeared in international peer-reviewed journals such as European Union Politics, the Swiss Political Science Review and the International Journal of Public Opinion Research. 

Catarina Mota

Research Assistant

Catarina Mota is a graduate student from the Master’s in Political Science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, holding a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations from the Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal. Her main academic interests are theories of democracy and political identities.

Oscar Ruíz

Project Manager

Oscar Ruiz is the MIGRADEMO Project Manager since March 2020 and he is in charge of the financial management of this ERC-funded project. He joined Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) in October 1997 as administrative staff and has been promoting through several positions. Currently, he is part of the International Projects Office staff at UAB.  

Mar Colomina Hernández

Research Assistant

  Mar Colomina Hernández is an International Relations Bachelor’s degree graduate at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). She is a press officer and content writer at The New Global Order (TNGO), and an intern at Global Business Alliance Korea (GBNAK). Her main research interests are Migration, Human Rights, Communications and Gender-related policies. 


Anatolie Cosciug

Research collaborator

Anatolie Coșciug is a member of the Sociology Department at the University of Sibiu (ULBS) and executive director of the Centre for Comparative Migration Studies at University of Cluj (UBB). He holds an PhD in sociology and has a long-standing interest in researching migration to and from Romania and other related phenomena, such as entrepreneurship, transnationalism, social change, integration, labour market, or civic/political involvement. Anatolie was part of/lead several research projects undertaken in Romania or abroad (Germany, Norway, etc.) and has extensive experience in conducting fieldwork in Romania and abroad (Spain, the UK, Italy, Germany, Moldova, Norway, etc.). His most recent publications include a collective volume on immigration in Romania (Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2021), a coordinated journal special issue on immigration and integration in Romania (Social Change Review, 2020), and various articles and book chapters on migration-related topics in renowned international outlets (Migration Studies Journal, Journal of Ethnic and Migration studies, Anthem Press, etc.) 

Georgii Zherebilov

Research assistant

Georgii Zherebilov is a PhD student in Economics at Pompeu Fabra University. His research focuses on the intersection of political economy, information economics, and development. In his work he explores how the traits commonly found in autocratic regimes impact the political preferences and socio-economic outcomes of citizens. Georgii holds two Master’s degrees in Economics from LUISS & EIEF (2021) and BSE (2022), as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Moscow State University (2019).

Laurence Go

Research collaborator

Laurence Go is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. His research interests center on economic development, and lie in the intersection of political economy and labor economics. His current research studies political dynasties in the Philippines and the impact of enfranchising migrant workers on local policies and development. Laurence completed his PhD in Applied Economics at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and his MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics at the London School of Economics. He also served as a consultant at the World Bank.

Irina Ciornei

Research collaborator

Irina Ciornei holds a PhD in Political Science from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Previously she was Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bern. In her previous work she dealt with the transnationalisation of party politics, emigrant political participation and governance of morality policies. She published her work in the Journal of Common Market Studies, West European Politics and Party Politics. Irina is a Marie-Sklodowska Curie Research Fellow at IBEI with the project “The missing pillar. European social policy and Eurosceptic challenges” (SOCIALEU) and also collaborates with MIGRADEMO as a researcher.

Hiba Saadi

Research assistant

Hiba Saadi is a graduate student of the Bachelor’s degree of International Relations at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB). She is an intern at the Consulate of Burkina Faso in Barcelona and is working as a Research Assistant at MIGRADEMO. Her main research interests are cultural exchange dynamics, migration and politics in the Middle East and North Africa region.


Former collaborators in the MIGRADEMO project

Björn Komander

Research Assistant 2022

Alexander Málaga

Research Assistant 2022

Camila Cowley Méndez

Intern between 2021 and 2022

Chaimae Essousi

Predoc researcher between 2019 and 2021

Ali Kiani 

Research Assistant in 2019

Marie H Andersen

Research Assistant in 2019