Migration Observatory

Head of Asylum Issues Division of Migration Service of Armenia. 20-year work experience in the fields of migration and asylum. 10-year experience of Lecturer of International Law.

Graduate of Law Faculty at the Hrachia Acharyan University of Yerevan (1997); Migration Management Diploma, Maastricht University/United Nations University (2014); Acting Associate Professor at his alma mater; 33 publications on human rights, migration and asylum issues.

Head of Department of Human development and demography, Institute of Economics, National Academy of Sciences, Minsk; Researcher in the field of practical and theoretical demography, migration process, social economic research, social and labour policy, including youth; Candidate of Economic Sciences (Demography).

Georg Bolits is a policy advisor and capacity building expert in the areas of employment, labour migration, skills development and reintegration. As a co-founder of Siloe Labour Solutions, he advises international organizations and governments on migration, labour and skills policies, development strategies and employment programmes as well as regulatory reforms in different industries and sectors. Most recently, Georg provided technical advice on labour migration and inclusive skills development policies in Ethiopia, Albania, Afghanistan, Pakistan and South Sudan. Before working as an international consultant on labour and mobility issues, Georg worked as a technology consultant in Belgium, where he managed market analyses and feasibility studies in the domains of disruptive technologies for the European Commission and EU industry associations. He holds two distinctions in postgraduate degrees from UCL London and from Corvinus University Budapest in economics and political science.

Head of External Relations Division since 2010. Actively involved in different projects with various leading international stakeholders, including GTZ, OSCE, EUI and ICMPD. Research interests: return migration and reintagration, labour migration, migration policy, Diaspora and refugee studies, etc. Author of a number of research articles, policy papers, analytical materials.

Graduate of the Yerevan State Pedagogical University, Department of History; PhD candidate at the Faculty of Sociology of the Yerevan State University of Armenia. She has been working for the Migration Service of Armenia since 2000.

President, Macedonian Young Lawyers Association (MYLA). Project coordinator, USAID Refugee and Migrants human rights protection project (till 2017). Field and logistic coordinator, “Rapid Emergency Teams for supporting migrants in the Southern Europe and Western Balkans Region” OXFAM project (till 2016). Asylum and mixed migration lawyer, “Legal aid and representation for asylum seekers in North Republic of Macedonia” UNHCR Skopje, project implemented by MYLA. Master studies of Political Science, University American College, Skopje; Bachelor of Law, University Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Skopje.

Lesia Dubenko is a Ukrainian analyst and journalist. An MSc in European Affairs (Lund University), Ms. Dubenko has worked with a host of Ukrainian NGOs and media outlets, including Internews Ukraine, Europe Without Barriers, Kyiv Post, and others. Her articles and analyses have been published in The Financial Times, New Eastern Europe, Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation and the International Centre for Migration and Policy Development (ICMPD). Her areas of expertise encompass areas of migration, disinformation and electoral behavior.

Andrew Fallone is a researcher at the European University Institute’s School of Transnational Governance, focusing on the impact of migration management policies. His professional background includes time with the German Federal Employment Agency’s Institute for Employment Research and the United Nations. He previously studied International Relations at the American University in Washington, D.C. and served as the Executive Editor of the World Mind journal.

Director and founder of the RUSMPI UG-Institute on Migration Policy. Olga Gulina studied constitutional and migration law in Russia, Germany and France as well as at the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation and European Academy of Diplomacy in Poland.

She held fellowships from the German Chancellor Program of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and from the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. Olga is a member of the advocacy group of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum and author of several books and papers. Her field of expertise is European and Eurasian affairs, migration law and its enforcement.

Project officer at the ICMPD’s Anti-trafficking Programme. Over the past six years Ivanka has worked on the implementation of various projects related to capacity building in the field of combating trafficking in human beings and supporting national anti-trafficking responses. She has contributed to reports on numerous national anti-trafficking documents, ranging from referral mechanisms, to anti-trafficking strategies and action plans. Before joining ICMPD, Ivanka served as a senior expert to the Secretariat of the Bulgarian National Commission for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings. Previously, she worked as clinical social worker and psychologist at the NGO Animus Association/La Strada Bulgaria providing psycho-social support to victims of violence. Ivanka holds a M.A. in Clinical and consultative psychology and in Developmental psychology.

With over twenty years’ experience in communications, public affairs and lobbying, Glen is the founder of the think tank Free Trade Europa, which focuses on promoting free trade, openness and the rule of law within the European Union and internationally. He worked for the European institutions, governments, blue-chip international companies, start-ups and NGOs as a lobbyist, strategist and communications advisor. Glen is a respected commentator on European affairs and a frequent presenter at European policy events.

PhD, Assistant Professor of the Department of Human Geography and Regional Studies (V. N. Karazin National University, Faculty of Geology, Geography, Recreation and Tourism). Previously Head of the Teaching and Research Laboratory. Engineer.

Graduate (Master of Geography) of Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National Pedagogical University where she was also Senior Lecturer till 2014.

Historian and sociologist; Research fellow, Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences. CEU graduate (Society and Politics, Prague 1992/1993 and Sociology, Warsaw 2000-2004); Enrolled in the external Graduate course in International Development (University of London/London School of Economics).

Conducting a range of long-term national surveys with representative samples (e.g. UKRAINIAN SOCIETY and OMNIBUS) to trace social development trends in Ukraine. Previously worked as Social Policy Advisor in UNDP (Ukraine). Extensive experience in cross-cultural mobility and migration studies; Former Ukrainian team leader and country expert within a number of international research schemes including Horizon 2020. Her recent publications include articles on societal change since the conflict in Ukraine.

Professor of political sciences, doctor honoris causa of University Lille 3, France, founder and director of CERMES (Centre for Refugees, Migration and Ethnic Studies) at the New Bulgarian University, Department of Political Sciences. Anna Krasteva has authored and edited 29 books and published numerous articles in about twenty countries. Her main fields of research and teaching are migration policies and politics; far-right populism; civic mobilisations and citizenship. Last year she led the project “Securitization and its impact on human rights and human security”, this year she leads a project on labor migration in the Western Balkans. She takes part in two Horizon 2020 projects: “Representations of the crisis and crisis of representation” and “Evaluation of the common European asylum system under pressure and recommendations for further development”. She contributed to the World Forum for Democracy (2017) with “Facts will not save from fake. Citizenship will”. She has been guest professor and lectured at numerous European universities. She is editor-in-chief of Southeastern Europe (Brill), member of the editorial boards of Nationalism and ethnic politics (Routledge), and Europeana (Shangai and Paris). She is president of the Board of ESFAM and Maison des sciences de l’homme in Dijon, member of the Board of the Diplomatic Institute and of numerous international scientific boards.

Migration and border management expert at Europe without Barriers think tank based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Since 2016 as a part of EWB team explores policies regulating migration and cross-border mobility in Ukraine, the EU, and EaP countries, as well as relevant practices. Is particularly interested in methods of verifying official data, and proper informing in media on migration-related topics. 

Before EWB worked for a number of Ukrainian online media and studied Theory and History of Culture at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Migration researcher and analyst with a focus on Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He holds an MSc in Migration Studies from the University of Oxford and is currently a PhD student in anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. For two years, Yan worked as a Research officer and an Associate Policy Analyst at ICMPD. He has also worked as a Migration Governance Researcher at the Economist Intelligence Unit. Currently he continues his research in an independent capacity on a variety of migration-related topics, particularly on the issue of migrant rights. 

Researcher at ICMPD ENIGMMA-2 Analytical Unit at the SCMI Secretariat in Georgia.  PhD in Psychology from Tbilisi State University. She holds a M.Sc. in Social Research from the University of Edinburgh (UK) and an M.A. in Global Development and Social Justice from St. John’s University (US).  Before joining ICMPD/SCMI in 2016, held Senior Researcher's position at CRRC Georgia.  Teaches several courses in research design and data analysis at Tbilisi State University, Ilia State University and Caucasus University.

Policy analyst and expert at Europe Without Barriers think tank. He applies qualitative and quantitative research methods to study migration processes and border management, writes media articles and stories. He is the author of Living Near Border: The Cases of Shehyni and Uhryniv Communities  and Lviv Region (Ukraine)-Poland: Mobile Border In Between studies. His research interests cover also the European integration and international relations.

Project on Migration and Security in the Post-Soviet Space (Central European University); Member of the Scientific Council for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences;, graduate of the Moscow State University (social geography department) and the European University Center for Peace Studies (Austria); expert of the Research Council of CIS countries and Baltic States on forced migration;  former director of the Migration study program RESET, Open Society Institute (2003-2007); former supervisor of the Caucasus Initiative of Open Society Institute (Budapest); author and editor of numerous books, articles and reports.

Professor at the Faculty of International Relations, Political and Administrative Sciences, Moldova State University and at the St. Cyril & Methodius University in Trnava. Research interest: International migration, Migration in Moldova; Transitional societies and political modernism. Numerous awards, grants and publications.

Doctor Habilitat (Dr.Sc.), Political Science; Ph.D. Philosophy, Moscow State University; M.A. Cum Laude, Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, Moscow State University.

Professor Rainer Münz was Adviser on Migration and Demography at the European Strategy Policy Centre (EPSC), the in-house think tank advising European Commission President J.C. Juncker during his time in office (2014-2019). 

Prior to joining the European Commission, Rainer Münz was – between 2005 and 2015 – Head of Research and Development at Erste Group, a Central European retail bank headquartered in Vienna. He was Senior Fellow at the European think tank Bruegel (Brussels), the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI) and at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI, Washington DC). He also worked as a consultant for the European Council, the OECD and the World Bank.

Until 2004, Rainer Münz had an academic career as a researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, 1980-1992, and at the Department of Mathematics of Finance/TU Vienna, 2002-2004, as well as a tenured university professor at Humboldt University, Berlin, 1993-2003.

He also was visiting professor at the Universities of Bamberg, UC Berkeley, the American University in Cairo (AUC), Frankfurt/M., HU Jerusalem, Klagenfurt, St. Gallen (HSG), Vienna and Zurich. He currently teaches at the Austrian Diplomatic Academy in Vienna and the Central European University (CEU).

Mr Ulan Nogoibaev is the Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the Migration Council under the Speaker of the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic. From 2013 to 2019, he worked as an external communications expert in the Secretariat of the National Council for Sustainable Development of the Kyrgyz Republic of the Office of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic. He has experience as a consultant in development projects for UNDP, OSCE, USAID, World Bank and ICMPD. In 2013-2019, he conducted a socio-economic research in Osh, Jalal-Abad and Batken regions, funded by UN agencies, USAID and ICMPD.  The results of this study helped the UNDP Osh office to raise additional funds from the UN Trust Fund for the implementation of development projects in the Osh region, including in remote mountainous areas. Mr Nogoibaev studied international economics and international relations at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic and the American University in Kyrgyzstan (now AUCA). He is fluent in Kyrgyz, Russian, English and Turkish.

Head of the program “Human Rights at the Pre-Trial Stage of Criminal Proceedings" of the NGO “Expert Center for Human Rights” since 2017. Andriy holds a Master degree, PhD and Doctors Degree in Law. Since 2000, he has worked as an expert in various projects dealing with human trafficking that were organized by IOM, OSCE, ILO, American Bar Association or La Strada – Ukraine. Within these projects, he analyzed the compliance of the Ukrainian human trafficking legislation to the international one; drafted laws on counteraction to human trafficking; designed recommendations on investigation of human trafficking as well as procedural control over investigation and prosecution of human trafficking cases; designed and conducted trainings and tutorials on human trafficking. His research interests further include human rights and criminal justice, public prosecution and approximation of Ukrainian legislation to EU law. He is an author of several publications, scientific monographs and manuals

Director, Centre for Development Evaluation and Social Science Research. Senior Research Fellow at Impaq International (till 2016). Assistant Professor at the International University of Sarajevo (till 2015).

MSc and PhD in Economics, Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent. PhD thesis: Economic consequences of Ethnic Cleansing: Evidence from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Specific Expertise: Econometrics, Industrial Organization, Personnel Economics, Financial Reporting.

Volodymyr Panchenko, Doctor of Economic Sciences, has held high positions in public administration in investments, innovations and industrial policy. He has successful experience in scientific research and programs, preparation of legislation: national and regional strategies of socio-economic development, international economic relations, economic history, instruments and mechanisms for stimulating investments and innovations, trade protection.

Bernhard Perchinig is a political scientist with more than 30 years of research and consultancy experience in the field of migration, integration and citizenship studies. He is Senior Researcher at ICMPD and a Faculty Member of the Department of Law and International Relations of the Danube University Krems. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Sciences from the University Vienna.

Director of Regional Public Organization “Migration Research Center”. Laboratory of Migration, Institute of Economic Forecasting of Russian Academy of Sciences.

Ph.D., Cand. Sci.  (Econ). Graduated from the Moscow State Institute of Economics and Statistic (МESI).  Migration expert. Author of over 100 publications in the field of migration. Initiator of creation of the Museum of the history of migration in Moscow.

Ms. Nataliia Reznikova, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor at the Institute of International Relations Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, has extensive experience in research and practical work in the field of international economic policy; sustainable development, and inclusive growth; resilience, and rebalancing in global value chains and supply chains;  green and digital transitions; internal and external dynamics of migration processes. Author of more than 400 research works, individual and co-authored monographs. She prepared legislation for the Parliament of Ukraine and the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine.

Mădălina Rogoz is a Researcher at ICMPD with more than a decade of experience in conducting research in the field of migration policies. She has been involved in several collaborative projects in the area of migrant integration, migration data collection, anti-trafficking policies, care work mobility and  migration and security. 

International consultant on migration and migration policies in Kazakhstan and Central Asia based in Almaty. Expert of the Research Council on CIS Migration Studies under the Center for Migration Studies of the Institute for Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow). Her research interests include labor, irregular, Chinese migration; mobility and labor market; remittances and development; migrant workers’ rights, migration governance; civil society, early warning and conflict prevention, etc. 

Produced analytical reports for IOM, ILO, UNFPA, World Bank, European Commission, OSCE, MacArthur Foundation, British Council, Eurasian Foundation, and other international organizations and governmental bodies in Kazakhstan. Fulbright Scholar, RSEP scholar, MacArthur fellow; Winner of EU-USA 1998 "Democracy and Civil Society" Award (1998).

Assistant Professor at the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Geography. Strong interests in migration topics. Her research projects have focused on the Balkan migration route and migration flows in and from Serbia. She is one of the founders of Migration, Inter-Connectivity and Regional Development (MICaRD)  network, member of the Executive board of WB MIGNET, Regional Studies Association (RSA) territorial representative, World Social Science Fellow and Fellow of European Center for International Affairs (ECIA).

Ronald Skeldon is an Honorary Professor at Maastricht University and an Emeritus Professor at the University of Sussex. He was trained at the Universities of Glasgow, Scotland (BSc Hons) and Toronto, Canada (MA; PhD). He joined the University of Sussex in 2000 and was a core member of the Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalization and Poverty and, from June 2009 to March 2011, was seconded to the Department for International Development (DFID) in London as a Senior Research Fellow. He continued teaching at the University of Sussex until 2017, when he became Emeritus Professor. He joined Maastricht University in 2013 as Professor in Human Geography, becoming Honorary Professor in 2018. He has published widely on issues of migration and development, most recently, the Routledge Handbook of Migration and Development (2020) with Tanja Bastia of the University of Manchester, and a forthcoming Advanced Introduction to Migration Studies for Elgar is due out in 2021. He continues to act as a consultant for many international organizations. He lives in Nairn, Scotland.

In her function with ICMPD’s Mobility Partnership Facility, Diana has accompanied the implementation of the EU-funded pilot projects on legal migration in close cooperation with DG HOME. A political scientist by training, she previously worked for the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, and in the private and non-profit sectors in the Netherlands, France, Germany, and the US.

Executive Director of “Europe without Barriers”, a Ukrainian think tank based in Kyiv that aims to realize human right for freedom of movement and to support socially important reforms in the fields of rule of law, migration and border management, protection of personal data, public order and combating discrimination.
Iryna is a Member of the interagency working group on coordinating integrated border management, Coordinator of Working Group 1 in Ukrainian Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, Member of Coalition “Reanimation Package of Reforms in Ukraine”, Member of the EU-Ukraine Civil Society Platform and Member of Expert Council on Migration policy to National Institute for strategic studies. 

Glen Swan is an independent Advisor on Return and Reintegration. He has extensive experience with return and reintegration programs, having worked on national programs, policy development, and capacity building initiatives. His strengths are sourcing reintegration solutions in third countries, developing operational capacity with service partners, and building customized programs for host governments.

Director  of the Migration Studies Delegation based in Stockholm. Since early 2014, this independent Commission focuses on policy research, analysis and advice in the area of migration, labour markets, integration and development. In 2012-2013, Kristof was a Senior Policy Adviser at the Secretariat for the Swedish Chairmanship of the Global Forum on Migration and Development, based at the Swedish Government Offices. He was a Seconded National Expert for Sweden in the European Commission, Directorates-General for Justice, Freedom and Security and Home Affairs, based in Brussels (2007-2011). From 2003 to 2007, he worked as an independent research consultant based at the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm, with consultancies for inter alia the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the European Commission, IOM and the World Bank. Between 1997 and 2003, he was a Special Adviser and then Deputy Director in the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Kristof Tamas has more than 20 years of expertise and work concerning migration policy development; migration and development; labour migration, circular migration, new forms of mobility and labour markets; the enlargements and external relations of the European Union, bilateral and multilateral cooperation; and regional and global governance of migration.

Senior Researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna. More than 10 years of professional experience in coordinating and conducting applied and basic research projects in the fields of education and training systems and its links to employment. Among others, he published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior, European Sociological Review and Research in Social Stratification and Mobility. Co-Editor of the National Education Report Austria (2015, 2018). Current studies focus on institutional determinants of education job linkages, employment among foreign workers and refugees, inequality in education and life outcomes and causal analysis of school effectiveness.