September 2026 - SNSF Ambizione grant award

• The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has awarded me an Ambizione grant. Next year, I will join the Department of Sociology at the University of Zurich, where I will start project PARADOX. 

• The project aims to unravel the integration paradox, the finding that highly educated immigrants feel particularly excluded. It seeks to explore the role of unmet migration expectations for the paradox to arise, the dynamics of the seemingly paradoxical patterns, and the broader implications for immigrants and societies alike.

• My project is supported by a small team and collaborators from across Europe, including Merlin Schaeffer (Univeristy of Copenhagen), Giuseppe Pietrantuono (University of Zurich), Nella Geurts (Radboud University), and Philippe Wanner (University of Geneva). UZH Announcement

August 2026 - New publication on "reactive cosmopolitanism"

• In this study, we introduce the concept of reactive cosmopolitanism. Contrary to the prevailing view that cosmopolitan migrants constitute a privileged group among internationally mobile individuals, this concept posits that migrants' cosmopolitan belonging can result from being socially excluded in the country of residence. We test this concept using longidutinal survey data on internationally mobile Germans.

•  I worked on this project together with Nella Geurts (Radboud University). It has been published in Global Networks. Open access | Replication materials

July 2026 - New publication on the subjective well-being of return migrants

• This article studies how return migration affects the subjective well-being of returnees. Based on our null findings, we challenge the typical framing of returning home as either a story of failure or success. Instead, we argue to understand return as a strategic decision to conserve resources and stabilise well-being within the context of broader life-course trajectories.

• The study is joint work with Nico Stawarz (BiB) and Martijn Hendriks (Erasmus University Rotterdam) and has been published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Open access

• This paper complements a previous study in which we examined how subjective well-being changes over the course of emigration. Original article