Meta van der Linden is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science and a member of the European Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations (ERCOMER). My research broadly deals with immigrant integration and intergroup relations in multi-ethnic societies.
Meta has a background in social psychology (research master's at the University of Groningen, cum laude) and completed a Ph.D. in the social sciences at the KU Leuven Centre for Political Research in collaboration with the KU Leuven Center for Social and Cultural Psychology. In her Ph.D. research, she focused on immigrant exclusion from the dominant destination country perspective. Using experimental paradigms, content analysis, and (comparative) survey data, she studied the contextual and intergroup determinants of prejudice toward immigrants in multi-ethnic societies.
Subsequently, Meta worked as a postdoctoral researcher and a research manager for the EUR Bridge project in the Department of Public Administration and Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam. In her postdoctoral research, she examined immigrant inclusion from the immigrant perspective. Using a quasi-experimental design, a 3-wave panel survey, and qualitative methods, she examined the structural and socio-cultural integration of recently arrived refugees and the effects of local integration policy.
In addition to her strong commitment to interdisciplinary research, she has focused on bridging theory and practice. She has actively sought out opportunities to present her research findings to a wide audience of community groups, policymakers, and practitioners by giving lectures and (co-)authoring publicly available reports on integration policy effects and the dynamics of early refugee resettlement. Moreover, Meta has been a guest researcher at the Sociaal and Cultureel Planbureau and worked with stakeholders (i.e. non-profit organization Foundation De Verre Bergen and the municipality of Rotterdam) during her postdoctoral research project. As an Assistant Professor, Meta will continue her engagement in science outreach activities aimed at valorizing academic research and connecting with a wider audience to enrich public debate, inform policy, and contribute to social change.
