Maykel Verkuyten (one of the founders of the Migration and Societal Change focus area), has very recently retired from Utrecht University/ISW/ERCOMER. As a farewell gift,  Jochem Thijs and Anouk Smeekes have composed a Liber Amicorum which takes the form of an edited volume titled: “Migration and Ethnic Relations: Current directions for theory and research…

Title: Hirsute politics: beards and veils as strategic signals of religiosity?   Abstract: Are religious practices partly signals—observable actions meant to inform on unobservable “qualities”? If so, does the reliability of these signals depend on social and political incentives that favour the pious? We aim to address these questions with two research designs. First, we…

Link to online seminar below Title: Towards a Psychology of Refugee Integration Abstract:  The successful management of refugee immigration, including the inclusion or “integration” of refugees in receiving societies, requires a sound understanding of underlying psychological processes. I will present a model of the Psychological Antecedents of Refugee Integration (PARI), developed in collaboration with colleagues…

Link to online seminar below Title: Welfare Chauvinism in Historical Perspective Abstract:  Welfare chauvinism, defined as the willingness to restrict welfare benefits for immigrants and reserve them for the native population, is often understood as a recent phenomenon associated with recent immigration waves and how they interact with established welfare systems. In this presentation, I…

Unfortunately, this seminar is canceled and we hope to welcome Irena Kogan at another occasion   Title:  Importance of non-native accent for the integration of Germany’s ethnic minority youth   Abstract: Sociological research on the role of language proficiency in immigrant integration has been flourishing in recent decades, but one aspect of language—pronunciation—has thus far…

Link to online seminar below Title: Who deserves to belong amidst the recent unsettling events? Exploring migrants’ perspectives on the debate of deservingness and belonging in the ‘Brexit Britain’ and representations of migrants in the public discourse in the context of Covid-19 pandemic Abstract:  Lithuania’s accession to the EU in 2004 granted the freedom of…

Link to online seminar below Title: The cultural paradox of loneliness … and a possible solution Abstract:  Intuitively, members of more collectivistic (or more socially embedded) cultures are often believed to feel less lonely than members of more individualistic (or less socially embedded) cultures. Quantitative comparisons, however, suggest that collectivism does not protect from loneliness….

Link to online seminar below Title: What shapes migrant housing trajectories over time? Pathways to home ownership among Pakistani immigrants in Oslo from the 1970s till today Abstract:  In this paper we trace pathways to homeownership among Pakistani immigrants and their descendants in Oslo, over half a century. We seek to understand what drives different…

Link to online seminar below Title: Scriptural Legitimation and Support for Religiously-Motivated Violence Survey-Experimental Evidence across Three Religions and Eight Countries Abstract: This presentation addresses a seemingly simple but hotly contested question: what is religious about religiously-motivated violence? Next to calls for compassion and tolerance, the holy texts of the three Abrahamic religions also contain…

Link to online seminar below Title: Narratives in Political Representation: Maiden Speeches of Ethnic Minority Members of Parliament Abstract:  Maiden speeches, the first speech given by a newly elected Member of Parliament (MP), are a longstanding tradition in parliaments throughout the world. As a rite of passage to the corridors of political power, with personal…