Research

In the following you find an overview of the key themes of my research, including some suggestions for further reading, viewing & listening. My (early) publications on poverty and long-term unemployment are mainly in Dutch and may require an offline visit to a library. Some other publications are relatively unknown but have been relevant to my work.

Poverty & long-term unemployment
The unknown city: the social embeddedness of irregular migrants
Transnationalism
Social and urban inequality
Unintended consequences of social policy and knowledge
Publications
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Research fundings
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Contact
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1. Poverty & long-term unemployment

In the eighties and nineties of the twentieth century my work focused on poverty and the social consequences of long-term unemployment. During that period, I worked and lived for two years in a poor Rotterdam neighbourhood and did ethnographic fieldwork for my dissertation Publieke Bijstandsgeheimen. Het ontstaan van een onderklasse in Nederland [Public welfare secrets. The Making of a Dutch Underclass 1990].

This research contributed to the political recognition of poverty in the Netherlands. In the period 1996-2000 I was the editor (with Cok Vrooman & Erik Snel) of the year books on poverty and social exclusion Arm Nederland. Jaarboek armoede en sociale uitsluiting [Poor Holland. Yearbook on Poverty and Social Exclusion].

Recently, I chaired the independent Social Minimum Commission, which issued a two-volume report Een zeker bestaan I & II [A Secure Livelihood I & II] on the income level and structure of the Dutch social assistance system.
Here you will find report I and report II.

Graphics: Frans Masereel

Further reading, viewing & listening:

Academic work

Online video’s, lectures & podcast

Journalistic work

2. The unknown city: the social embeddedness of irregular migrants

Through my ethnographic fieldwork in the poorest neighbourhoods of the Netherlands in the late 1980s and the 1990s, I encountered the issue of irregular migration and the importance of ‘bastard institutions’ (Everett C. Hughes) or ‘foggy social structures’ (Michael Bommes) in advanced societies.

This led to the research project ‘The Unknown City’ on the social embeddedness of irregular migrants in Dutch cities (with Jack Burgers). This long-term project generated and inspired various dissertations of young researchers who are now established scholars, among which Joanne van der Leun (Leiden University), Richard Staring (Erasmus University), Arjen Leerkes (Erasmus University), Dennis Broeders (Leiden University) & Masja van Meeteren (Radboud University Nijmegen).

This research project also resulted in an ongoing interest in the interrelationships between migration policies, social inequality and crime.

Graphics: Frans Masereel

Further reading:

Academic work

3. Transnationalism

Influenced by the research project ‘The Unknown City’ my
interest became focused on specific aspects of international migration, in particular migrant transnationalism and intra-EU mobility. The IMISCOE research committee on ‘Migrant Transnationalism’ offered and offers a stimulating academic environment for this (see here ).

Initially, I examined the relationship between transnationalism and integration (with Erik Snel), later my attention shifted to the role of social media (with Rianne Dekker) and social networks in facilitating and undermining migration and to the dynamic and fluid nature of labour migration within the European Union.

The introduction of the sensitizing concept of ‘liquid migration’ was an attempt to conceptualise the fluidity of intra-EU mobility.

Graphics: Frans Masereel

Further reading & viewing:

Academic work

Online video’s, lectures & podcast

Journalistic work

4. Social and urban inequality

In the aftermath of the financial crisis and the coronavirus pandemic, I developed a renewed interest in issues of social and urban inequality, especially in labour market and neighbourhood transformations and changing urban class structures (with Gijs Custers).

The city of Rotterdam provides a crucial strategic research site for this work. Also, the WRR offered me the possibility to study the changing position of the middle classes and changes in occupational structures.

The issue of social and urban inequality is central to my current research on the protective role of ‘public capital’ for vulnerable citizens in poor neighbourhoods in times of pandemics and natural disasters (see also the website impact corona).

Graphics: Frans Masereel

Further reading & viewing:

Academic work

Online video’s, lectures & podcast

Journalistic work

5. Unintended consequences of social policy and knowledge

Throughout my career I always had a fascination for the unintended consequences of social policy and knowledge and for the gap between law in the books and law in action.
The study Fatale Remedies [Fatal Remedies 2009] summarizes my Dutch work on this classical topic of the social sciences. The welfare state and international migration provide valuable research sites for all kinds of unintended effects of social policies. The intellectual challenge is to uncover ‘mechanisms of the middle range’ (Charles Tilly) that explain these unintended consequences.

Graphic: Frans Masereel

Further reading & viewing:

Academic work

Online video’s, lectures & podcast

Journalistic work

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