I am an Associate Professor in the Policy, Politics and Society team at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam. My research examines how individual resources interact with national and local institutional contexts to shape labour-market inequalities in Europe, with a particular focus on immigrants and refugees.
My current work develops three related lines of research. The first examines how refugee policies and local contexts shape refugees' language skills and labour-market outcomes. The second examines how labour-market inequality is shaped by frontline decision-making in allocating active labour-market measures, and by employer responses to immigrant participation in these programmes. The third examines how national policy frameworks interact with individual resources to shape ethnic and gender disparities across European labour markets.
My research is quantitative and comparative, drawing on longitudinal analysis, survey experiments, and quasi-experimental designs to identify causal effects. My work has been published in journals including Social Forces, European Sociological Review, Governance, Sociological Science, the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and International Migration Review.
Research Projects
Re-integration: Skilfully Back to Work - Is Low Literacy a Barrier to Participation?
Co-PI and co-supervisor with Fenger, The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Innovation
Investigates whether low literacy is a barrier to labour-market (re-)participation.
PhD candidate: Leone Verweij (2022–)
Integration Activities for Improving Refugees' Position in the Labor Market
PI and supervisor, SSH Open Competition M
Examines how employers and caseworkers shape refugees' access to, and outcomes from, labour-market integration activities.
Postdoctoral researchers: Sheeling Neo (2023–2024), Ids Baalbergen (2024-)
Settle-First and Work-First: Policy and Refugees' Labor Matrket Outcomes
Co-supervisor with Dagevos (EUR/SCP), Maliepaard (WODC)
Examines labor market outcomes of recent Syrian and Ukrainian refugees in the Netherlands and Germany
PhD candidate: Ben van Enk (2023–)
Family Networks and Childcare Choices
Co-supervisor with Tom Emery
A new approach to studying family support and childcare choices with whole population data.
PhD candidate: Nicolás Soler (2023–)
Dilemmas of Street-Level Policymaking: Working in the Context of Superdiverse Neighborhoods
Co-PI and co-supervisor with Van Ostaijen and Scholten, ESSB Starter Grant
Studies how frontline policy workers navigate decision-making dilemmas in superdiverse urban neighbourhoods.
PhD candidate: Manou Gomlich (2024-)
Contesting Implementation: Citizen Perceptions of Government Responses to Supranational Policies
Co-PI and co-supervisor with Zhelyazkova, ESSB Starter Grant
Investigates how citizens perceive and evaluate government responses to the implementation of contested EU policies.
Postdoctoral researcher: Thijs Lindner (2024-)