I am a doctoral researcher at the Department of Sociology, University of Essex. I also work as Senior Research Officer at the Essex Centre for Migration Studies and as Graduate Teaching Assistant at the department. My main field of interest is international migration, in particular forced migration. In my research, I focus on how the boundary-making process takes place in multiple forms from perspectives of host population towards refugees and asylum-seekers in the informal market economy.
More specifically, my study is based on empirical case study, applying a qualitative method approach, with its specific focus on Turkish employers and employees in manual labour sectors in the informal market economy, to examine the narratives and practices employed by them to legitimise and regenerate the ‘insider-outsider’ boundary relationship. My host for the YERUN Mobility Program was Prof. Claudia Diehl who is a chair of Microsociology at the University of Konstanz, in Germany. I was put in contact with Prof. Diehl and her team by Dr. Renee Luthra, who is one of my supervisors from the University of Essex as research interests of the chair of Microsociology are in line with mine. I was a Visiting Research Fellow there from May 14th till June 1st 2019.
Selin Sivis is currently a doctoral researcher at the Department of Sociology, the University of Essex. In her research, she focuses on how the boundary-making process takes place in multiple forms from perspectives of host population towards refugees and asylum-seekers in the informal market economy. She also works as Senior Research Officer at the Essex Center for Migration Studies and as Junior Researcher for the EU funded project, entitled “Integrating Syrians into Turkish Higher Education through Recognition of Qualifications (REFREC-TR)” which is coordinated by UNESCO Chair on International Migration,Yasar University (Izmir, Turkey). She holds a M.A. degree in Immigration Management from University Pompeu Fabra and B.A degree in History from Middle East Technical University. She held visiting research fellow positions at Yasar University in Izmir and Çukurova University in Adana, Turkey. Before starting to pursue Ph.D. degree, she was working as a Research Assistant at Migration Research Center at Koç University in Istanbul. In the center, she was responsible for three EU funded projects: INTEGRIM, Transnational Migration in Transition: Transformative Characteristics of Temporary Mobility of People (EURA-NET), and MobileWelfare: European Welfare Systems in Times of Mobility. She was also the Coordinator of the MiReKoc International Summer School of 2016, entitled Old Phenomena, New Challenges: Forced Migration which provides research-oriented, interdisciplinary, and innovative academic courses on migration, as well as workshops on related policy issue for professional development. Also, she is teaching SC233- Race, Class And Gender in the 2018-2019 academic year.
Selin’s recent (co-authored) publication: Selin SIVIS and Ayselin YILDIZ “Syrian Refugees’ Engagement in the Local Labour Market in Izmir, Turkey: Perspectives of Employers and Evidence-Based Policy Recommendations”
