Prof. dr. Arjen Leerkes joins UNU-MERIT

Prof. Dr. Arjen Leerkes joined the Migration Group at UNU-MERIT as a professorial fellow. There has been a selective securitisation of migration since the 1990s, and it is against this backdrop that Prof. Leerkes studies how states impact patterns of international migration in (un)intended ways, and at what human costs. That interest has led to various publications on the effectiveness and legitimacy of different aspects of immigration regimes (migration policing, immigration detention, deportation and assisted return, admission policies for family reunification, asylum recognition rates). His second main research interest is to better understand how receiving societies influence patterns of immigrant crime and immigrants’ trust in the police. Prof. Leerkes obtained a PhD in Sociology and Political Science from the University of Amsterdam in 2007 for his dissertation “Illegal Residence and Public Safety in the Netherlands”. He is also an Associate Professor of Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and a research fellow of the Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security.