The Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, University of Latvia, carries-out research projects on a regular basis. We work together with top researchears from diverse disciplines. Here, we introduce you to the people who contributed to migration research in recent years.
Researchers
- Inta Mieriņa
- Mihails Hazans
- Ieva Reine
- Ilze Koroļeva
- Māris Goldmanis
- Aleksandrs Aleksandrovs
- Andris Saulītis
- Daina Grosa
- Laura Bužinska
- Inese Šūpule
- Mārtiņš Kaprāns
- Evija Kļave
- Rita Kaša
- Daiga Kamerāde
- Laura Sūna
Experts
Researchers
Inta Mieriņa
I. Mierina’s recent research has focused mainly on the integration of migrants: community involvement, participation in social, political and economic life, as well as factors affecting their social integration. She was principal investigator of the ESF research grant «The emigrant communities of Latvia». In 2015, she studied the processes of migration as a Fulbright Research Fellow at the University of Washington, and in 2016 — at Yale University. Contributing her expertise on many large-scale international comparative studies, Mieriņa has developed collaboration with scholars in other countries in Europe and beyond. Dr. Mieriņa’s publications have appeared in Social Science Research, The Sociological Review, European Societies, Europe-Asia Studies, and other journals. As an invited speaker Mieriņa has presented on various methodological topics in Latvia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Georgia, and regularly provides policy recommendations in relation to migration issues to policy-makers in Latvia.
Mihails Hazans
Professor at the Faculty of Business, Management and Economics, University of Latvia, research fellow at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, the Global Labor Organization fellow and an expert at the European Centre of Expertise in the field of labour law, employment and labour market policy.
Projects to which Prof. Hazans has contributed include, among others, «An in-depth analysis of the emigration of skilled labour», «Study of Return Migration to Latvia», «The Emigrant Communities of Latvia», «Coping with Emigration in Baltic and East European Countries». His current research deals with labour market issues in the Baltic as well as other European countries and has an additional focus on migration and ethnic minorities, as well as informal employment and tax evasion.
Currently, Prof. Hazans is a leading researcher in the project «Well-being, integration and liquid migration».
Ieva Reine
Since she obtained a PhD in Social Medicine and Gender Studies at Umeå University in Sweden, Ieva has had her main investigation and research focus on well-being and social insurance for people with severe disabilities. She is also an associated researcher at Uppsala University where she has also been a leading researcher in a major FORTE funded research. Her previous research has been concerned with various aspects of public health in the transition from adolescence to adulthood, disability and well-being, social insurance and security systems, with particular emphasis upon gender interaction with individual, social and structural factors. Most recent professional and research interests include an exploration of European social security systems and legislation.
Currently, Ieva is a leading researcher in the project «Well-being, integration and liquid migration».
Ilze Koroļeva
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Dr.sc.soc., is a leading researcher and deputy director at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology. She has led and contributed to more than 40 local and international comparative surveys, including such longitudinal studies as: Path of the Generation (1992–1999), SHARE, EUROSTUDENT, European Social Survey, FP7 Memory, Youth, Political Legacy and Civic Engagement, FP7 Measuring youth well-being (MYWEB). Her previous research has been concerned on various aspects of youth problems, with particular emphasis upon well-being and health issues, as well as civic and political participation, identity formation.
Most recent research includes an exploration of a sense of belonging, identities, satisfaction with life and integration of migrants. She has more than 50 scientific publications, the most notable of which are two monographs and articles, which have been published in The Sociological Review, European Psychiatry, Religious-philosophical articles. Particularly valuable for implementation of project tasks will be Koroleva’s extensive competence in social research methodology and experience in longitudinal data analysis.
Māris Goldmanis
Māris holds Ph.D. in Economics (University of Chicago, 2010) and a B.A. in Mathematics (University of Chicago, 2003). While his primary research interests lie in mathematical economics (microeconomic theory), he is also interested in the use of mathematical modelling and statistical methods in other social and life sciences. These interests have led to interdisciplinary projects with sociologists (studying migration, gender equality, and education), psychologists (modelling the decision-making biases of delusional individuals), biologists (modelling fish populations), and nutritionists (designing survey studies on nutritional habits). His best work has been published in The Economic Journal, Management Science, Psychological Medicine, and Clinical Psychological Science.
Aleksandrs Aleksandrovs
A. Aleksandrovs has more than a decade of hands-on experience of implementation and coordination of international comparative studies. He specializes in research methodology elaboration and harmonization, data management, as well as research ethics and the specifics of personal data processing.
Aleksandrs holds a Master’s degree in sociology from the University of Latvia. He contributed to a number of large-scale projects, including: Generations and Gender Programme , EUROSTUDENT (rounds V and VI), European Social Survey (rounds 3 and 4), «Cultural Heritage and Identities of Europe’s Future» (CHIEF).
Professional interests: methodology of comparative surveys, data and process management, sociology of higher education, data vizualization.
Andris Saulītis
Andris is a Ph.D. candidate in Social and Political Sciences at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Currently, he is a Juris Padegs Research Fellow at Yale University’s Baltic Studies Programme, New Haven, USA.
Rita Kaša
Rita a research fellow at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Education from the State University of New York in Buffalo, USA. Her research interests concern educational policy, equity in higher education access and the finance and governance of higher education. Her articles have appeared in the Peabody Journal of Education, the Baltic Journal of Economics and European Education.
Daina Grosa
Daina Grosa is a research assistant at IPSUL. Her research areas include language maintenance of the mother tongue in the diaspora, in particular — parents’ motivation behind enrolling their children at heritage language schools, attitudes to heritage language school attendance by former pupils, remigration and state policy and practice regarding the integration of children into the state school system with particular focus on the psychological well-being of return migrant children. Her research has been published in national research reports and presented at national conferences. A Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics was awarded in 2017 at Monash University, Melbourne. Currently a PhD candidate at the University of Sussex, UK.
Inese Šūpule
Inese is a sociologist and researcher at IPSUL. Her academic interests include migration and ethnic studies, society integration, education, language use and knowledge, and ethnic politics. She has participated in several international research projects, including the ESF project «The emigrant communities of Latvia: National identity, transnational relations, and diaspora politics» (2013-2015). Currently she is working on the project «Migration of highly qualified specialists: emigration and return migration in Latvia» (2017-2020).
Mārtiņš Kaprāns
Mārtiņš a researcher at IPSUL, and an associated expert at the Washington-based Centre for European Policy Analysis. He received PhD in communication science from University of Latvia in 2012. His current research interests entail Baltic labor migrants in the UK, the ideological polarization of Baltic societies, and Russian-speakers in post-Soviet area. His most recent articles are published in Journal of Baltic Studies, Memory Studies, Euro-Asia Studies as well as in numerous international collections.
Evija Kļave
Evija is a senior researcher at the Baltic Institute of Social Sciences, one of the leading research and policy analysis centres in Latvia, and a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Latvia. Since 1998, she has worked as sociologist and has participated in a wide range of national and international sociological studies and policy analysis projects. She specialises in the field of qualitative research, policy analysis and discourse analysis. Her research interests are ethnic studies, language use and knowledge, general education policy, social integration policy and migration issues.
Daiga Kamerāde
Daiga is a senior lecturer in Quantitative Research Methods at the University of Salford in the UK. She holds a Ph.D. in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge, UK. Her research interests focus on civic partici- pation, work, employment and well-being. Her research has been published in vari- ous outlets, including Human Relations, Work, Employment and Society, the European Sociological Review, and Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.
Laura Sūna
Laura is a postdoctoral researcher at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, working on a project exploring Transcultural Emotional Repertoires in and by Reality TV at the Collaborative Research Centre Affective Societies. Before that, she was a part-time lecturer at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies at Freie Universität Berlin and a scientific assistant at the University of Bremen, Germany, and the University of Latvia, Latvia. Her research interests include reality TV, youth culture, migration studies, cultural studies and qualitative research methods.
Experts
In our projects, we invite to collaborate experts with rich experience from varios disciplines.
Ieva Skubiņa (Kārkliņa)
Ieva served as a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Latvia. Skubiņa has led and coordinated multiple national and international research projects. She also has worked in projects aimed at developing recommendations to policymakers for addressing social policy issues. Her main research interests are in the sociology of youth and education, the analysis of migration and asylum policies and research into social exclusion and poverty.
Jānis Buholcs
Jānis is an assistant professor at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences and a researcher at the Institute of Social, Economic and Humanities Research. He received his Ph.D. in Communication Science from the University of Latvia in 2013. His research interests concern contemporary developments in journalism, social aspects of computer-mediated communication and social media.
Iveta Jurkāne-Hobein
Iveta is an independent researcher. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Uppsala University in Sweden. Her research interests include perceptions of time, family sociology, migration experiences and Russian-speaking Latvians. Her research has been published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Qualitative Sociology, Studies in Communication and Culture and other peer-reviewed journals.