Nijmegen School of Management, Department of Geography, Planning and Environment
Iris joined RUNOMI as a postdoctoral researcher in 2023 to fill a Sector Plan funded position titled “Digital pathways to good migranthood in Western Europe”.
What is your research about?
From a bird’s eye view, my research line studies the lived impact of migration and integration governance on the wellbeing of people in a displacement context. Under this umbrella, I have examined how people in particular navigate specific asylum-, reception-, spatial dispersal- and integration policies. With the empirical case of Syrian and Eritrean women in the Netherlands, my work countered stereotypes of traditional gender norms that would explain women’s low participation in economic and social spheres in their settlement contexts, and instead showed how the Dutch state confines women’s social and economic opportunities. Diving deeper into political debates and policy texts, I showed how current stereotypes of ‘migrant women’ and methods to foster their integration reflect past patterns and could be understood as neocolonial policies.
What are some related themes that interest you going forward?
Because migration and integration governance is increasingly digitalised, I now study the digital elements of the revised Dutch civic integration programme. Dutch civic integration knows digital monitoring, online language classes, digital exams and digital contact between integrators and municipal case managers. The full scope and consequences of digital civic integration programmes have not been subject to scrutiny so far. Based on an analysis of policy documents and in-depth interviews with municipal officers and ‘integrators’ in different Dutch municipalities, I am now working to understand how digital technologies in civic integration shape the opportunities of ‘migrants’ and to what extent they may produce or exacerbate inequalities.
Selected outputs:
Poelen, Iris. 2024. “A Gendered ‘Politics of Discomfort’: The Effects of Immigration- and Integration Policies on Syrian and Eritrean Women’s Homemaking Processes in the Netherlands.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, August, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2024.2381702