PhD candidate in the field of Migration Studies and International Relations

Functieomschrijving

The RIGHTS project, part of the programme group ‘Transnational Configurations, Conflict and Governance’ of the Department of Political Sciences is looking for a PhD candidate in the field of Migration Studies and International Relations.

The rights of low skilled migrant workers are usually analysed from the destination country perspective, ignoring the role of origin countries in protecting the rights or their citizens abroad. The RIGHTS project examines how the rights of low skilled migrant workers are shaped by origin and destination states, interstate dialogues, and the involvement of civil society and international organisations. It looks at the factors that determine why and how origin states intervene and how destination countries respond. The project’s core is a systematic comparative case study of six origin countries with partly overlapping destination countries and three of these destination countries. The tentative case selection includes the Philippines, Morocco, Senegal, India, Ecuador, and Vietnam on the origin country side and South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Italy on the destination country side.

RIGHTS (2018-2023) is funded by a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) and is led by Dr Evelyn Ersanilli.

Working closely together with the PI and Dr Liberty Chee, the PhD candidate will be responsible for fieldwork (interviews and archival research) in three of the country cases. Data collected will be used to write a PhD dissertation. The candidate will receive training at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research and can attend additional courses relevant to the project. Teaching is optional, but encouraged.

Tasks

• Fully participate in RIGHTS project activities in collaboration with other team members;
• contribute to writing joint publications with a focus to be defined in collaboration with the RIGHTS team;
• contribute to the drafting of RIGHTS project reports, project updates, research briefings and policy briefs;
• conduct archival research and interviews with policy-makers, staff of (i)NGOs, embassy staff and other stakeholders for three of the country cases;
• regularly present intermediate research results at the UvA and at international workshops and conferences;
• conduct qualitative analysis and submit 1 or 2 (single and/or co-authored) papers to peer reviewed journals;
• write a PhD dissertation (monograph or by articles, in consultation);
• contribute to the research culture of the wider research environment and the Transnational Configurations research group.

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