I am an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Department of Public Administration and Sociology and a Full Professor of Migration, Securitization, and Social Cohesion at the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance. I am also affiliated with the Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security.
Most of my teaching is at Erasmus University Rotterdam (Master program Governance of Migration and Diversity, Sociology bachelor program, Erasmus University College). In Maastricht, I teach in the Master Programme Public Policy and Human Development and supervise Ph.D. students. **
My work has been published in migration journals, and in various sociological, criminological, socio-legal, urban studies, and social policy journals. In 2009, Amsterdam University Press published my dissertation Illegal Residence and Public Safety in the Netherlands.
In my research, I aim to understand how states impact patterns of international migration in intended and unintended ways. This has led to various publications on the social operation, effectiveness, and legitimacy of immigration regimes, with a focus on migration control (migration policing, immigration detention, deportation and assisted return, admission policies for family remigration, and asylum recognition rates).
A second main research interest is to better understand the implications of the selective securitization of migration for social cohesion in multi-ethnic societies. I have conducted various studies into how the 'context of reception' - the economic, legal, and social conditions in destination societies that structure immigrants’ life chances and impact their incorporation trajectories - shapes patterns of immigrant crime. More recently, I have begun to also study - and help to reduce - ethnic and socio-economic differences in trust in the police and formal punishment.
