Dr. Arjen Leerkes
Arjen Leerkes is a Professor of Migration, Security and Social Cohesion at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and senior researcher at the Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security. He conducts interdisciplinary social science research (sociology, political science, law, criminology) on the governance of international migration, with a focus on the social construction and operation of immigration control.
Furthermore, he conducts research on how multi-ethnic societies create and solve problems of social cohesion, focusing on issues of crime and policy responses to crime.
He is the coordinator of the sociology track of the interdisciplinary master Governance of Migration and Diversity, where he also teaches two courses: Sociology of Migration and Diversity and the Migration and Diversity in a (De)globalized World. Additionally, he teaches in the sociology Bachelor 3 programme, and supervises students’ thesis projects at the PhD and Master levels.
Dr. Laura Cleton
Dr. Laura Cleton (lecturer) is an Assistant Professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Together with Prof. Arjen Leerkes she teaches the Sociology of Migration and Diversity and Migration course and the Migration and Diversity in a (De)Globalized World course. Laura specializes in deportation governance in Europe, with a particular focus on street-level implementation practices and the situation of undocumented migrant families and children.
She currently works in the Finding Agreement in Return project, where she investigates how bureaucracies in Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands attempt to establish “cooperation” with Global South countries on identification and (re)documentation procedures for illegalized migrants who the state seeks to deport.
She defended her dissertation Deporting Children. Policy Framing, Legitimation and Intersectional Boundary Work in 2022 at the University of Antwerp. It relied on critical migration and border studies, intersectionality and interpretative policy analysis to question how the Dutch and Belgian authorities legitimize the deportation of undocumented migrant children and their families. In 2026, she will start an NWO-funded project on the role of children’s rights for the implementation and legitimacy of deportation policy in the Netherlands, Belgium and Nigeria. Her research interests include return migration governance, Assisted Voluntary Return and deportation policies and its politics, (international) bureaucracies, gender & feminist approaches to forced migration, and family migration.
Dr. Asya Pisarevskaya
Dr. Asya Pisarevskaya is a postdoctoral researcher in the group 'Dynamics of Migration and Diversity Policies’ lead by Prof. dr. Peter Scholten. She holds a PhD in Sociology and Methodology of Social Science, obtained in 2018 from the University of Milan. In her PhD dissertation she did a comparative analysis of policies relevant for labour market integration of refuges in seven European countries in the period 1990-2008.
Her current research is focused on urban migration-related diversity, labour market integration of refugees and the histories of paradigmatic and thematic developments of the field migration studies.
She is specialised in quantitative methods, survey design and bibliometrics, and applies Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and the related set-methods to the study of policies.
In the Master Programme Governance of Migration and Diversity she is a lecturer and a coordinator of the course 'Governance of Migration and Diversity'. Within the IMISCOE network she is involved in a Standing Committee 'Reflexivities in migration studies' as a member of the board, as well as she is responsible for establishing connections between academia, policy-makers and practice as part of the IMISCOE External Affairs Committee.
Dr. Maria Schiller
Maria Schiller is an Assistant Professor of Public policy, Migration and Diversity at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Before joining EUR in 2019, she was a Senior Research Fellow at the MPI for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen, a Substitute Assistant Professor at the University of Tübingen, a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Kent and a Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow at the University of Vienna. She holds a PhD in Migration Studies from the University of Kent.
Maria is the Managing Coordinator of the Master Governance of Migration and Diversity and the Coordinator of the Public Administration track.
She teaches joint and track-specific courses in the Master and supervises MA theses on a broad range of topics. In the academic year 2021-2022 she will be involved in teaching the courses Politics of Migration and Diversity, Comparative Public Policy, and supervise MA theses.
In her research, Maria has done extensive work on local policy making and policy implementation on migration-related diversity in the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, Germany and France. She has investigated the ideas underlying local diversity policies, the profiles of officials in immigrant affairs offices, and the practices of implementing diversity policies in municipal organizations. Furthermore, Maria has been part of large comparative studies, examining networks of local actors involved in the local governance of diversity and dynamics of cooperation and conflict, as well as the role of national and regional state frames and policies for local immigrant policy making.
Currently, she is involved in several research projects, including the Horizon 2020 project “Whole-COMM”. She is Theme leader on “Inclusive cities and diversity” in the EUR Vital Cities and Citizens initiative and Chair of the IMISCOE Standing Committee “Migration Politics and Governance”.
Dr. Mark van Ostaijen
Mark van Ostaijen is as Assistant Professor affiliated to the Department of Public Administration and Sociology (DPAS/ ESSB) at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He works as Managing Director of the LDE Centre Governance of Migration and Diversity.
His current teaching is related to the GMD Master, where he is a lecturer of the course ‘Politics of Migration and Diversity’, and to the program of the European University of Post-Industrial Cities (UNIC) (see: www.unic.eu).
In his research he is interested in social-political issues of inequality, articulated in domains of (class) migration, populism, mobility, urban development and gender.
Prof. dr. Peter Scholten
Peter Scholten is full professor of Migration and Diversity Policy at the Department of Public Administration and Sociology. His research focuses on amongst others on the governance of migration and migration-related diversity, multi-level governance, comparative public policy, and the relationship between science and politics in the field of migration. Peter is director of IMISCOE, Europe’s largest academic research network on migration, integration and social cohesion.
As of January 2020, Peter is also scientific coordinator of the LDE Research Center on the Governance of Migration and Diversity (a collaboration a cooperation of Leiden University, Delft University, and Erasmus University Rotterdam).
Furthermore, he is editor-in-chief of the journal Comparative Migration Studies (CMS) and associated editor of the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis. As of 2020, Peter Scholten is alliance coordinator of the European University of Post-Industrial Cities (UNIC). Also, he is external collaborator at the Migration Policy Centre in EUI Florence.
At the Erasmus University, Peter Scholten teaches a number of courses for students from the Masters Public Policy & Politics (Beleid & Politiek), International Management and Public Policy (IMP), and for the bachelor programme Public Administration. He also supervises master students for the Research Master Public Administration. Peter Scholten is one of the co-founders and director of the MSc programme Governance of Migration and Diversity where he is also a lecturer in the course ‘Politics of Migration and Diversity’.
Dr. Naia Bouras
Dr. Naria Bouras is Assistant Professor at Leiden University, specialising in the history of migration, diversity and state formation. Her research focuses on how migration and diversity have shaped modern European societies, with particular attention to colonial and postcolonial histories, citizenship and state–society relations. In her teaching, she connects historical perspectives to contemporary debates on migration and diversity.
Dr. Martijn van den Brink
Dr. Martijn van den Brink is Assistant Professor in European Union Law at Leiden University. His research focuses on EU migration law, citizenship and non-discrimination, at the intersection of law and political theory. In this programme, he teaches how legal frameworks shape migration, asylum and diversity, and how law structures rights, opportunities and inequalities. His teaching emphasises practical legal reasoning and the application of legal sources to real-world governance dilemmas.