Council Members
The members of the Expert Council are appointed for three years
The current Council members:
Prof. Dr Winfried Kluth
Chairperson of the Expert Council
Faculty of Law, Economics and Business at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Winfried Kluth is Professor of Public Law at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). His work and research focuses include migration law, public commercial law, municipal law, health law, parliamentary law and the theory of legislation. He is Head of the University Halle-Wittenberg’s Migration Law Research Group (FoMig) and Executive Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Institute for Cooperative and Collaborative Research (IWE GK).
Prof. Dr Birgit Glorius
Deputy Chairperson of the Expert Council
Institute for European Studies and History (IESG) at Chemnitz University of Technology
Birgit Glorius is Professor of Human Geography with a focus on European Migration Research at Chemnitz University of Technology. Her research focuses on the procedural nature of migration and its consequences for regions of origin and arrival, transnationalism, local constellations of refugee admission, responses in the receiving society and local/regional policy approaches to integration and participation. Regional research focuses include eastern Germany, East-Central Europe and the Western Balkan states. Birgit Glorius is co-editor of Z’Flucht (German Journal of Forced Migration and Refugee Studies) and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Research Centre of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).
Prof. Dr Dr Rauf Ceylan
Member of the Expert Council
Institute for Islamic Theology at Osnabrück University
Rauf Ceylan is Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Osnabrück University. His research activities focus on the sociology of migration and religion and examine the Turkish community in the diaspora. He is a founding member and Chair of the Avicenna-Studienwerk scholarship organisation. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb). Since 2024 he has been Principal Investigator in the “Mosques and the Production of Belonging” project, part of the German Research Foundation’s Collaborative Research Centre 1604 “Production of Migration”.
Prof. Dr Havva Engin
Member of the Expert Council
Heidelberg Centre for Migration Research and Transcultural Pedagogy (Hei-MaT) at Heidelberg University of Education
Havva Engin is Professor of General Pedagogy with a focus on Intercultural Pedagogy at Heidelberg University of Education and Head of the Heidelberg Centre for Migration Research and Transcultural Pedagogy (Hei-MaT). Her work and research focuses include the development of educational institutions in migration societies, interreligious education, religion-based extremism in young people from Muslim families, education for democracy and language acquisition in the context of migration-based multilingualism.
Prof. Dr Marc Helbling
Member of the Expert Council
Department of Sociology and Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) of the University of Mannheim
Marc Helbling is Professor of Sociology at the University of Mannheim, specialising in Migration and Integration. His research focuses on migration and citizenship policy, xenophobia and Islamophobia, populist and extremist attitudes, the root causes of migration, and the integration of migrants. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
Prof. Dr Matthias Koenig
Member of the Expert Council
Max-Weber-Institute of Sociology at the Heidelberg University
Matthias Koenig is Professor of Empirical Macrosociology at the Max-Weber-Institute of Sociology at the University of Heidelberg. His research deals with human rights, migration, religion and sociological theory. One focus of his work is the global and local dynamics when it comes to regulating cultural diversity. He has sat on the boards of various national and international scientific organisations and has been Vice-President of the German Research Foundation (DFG) until the end of 2025.
Prof. Sandra Lavenex, Ph.D.
Member of the Expert Council
Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Geneva
Sandra Lavenex is Professor of European and International Politics at the University of Geneva and part-time Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Natolin, Poland. Her research focuses on regional and international migration policy and its interrelationship with development, trade, humanitarian and security policy, as well as on the external impact on third countries and international organisations of EU integration.
Prof. Dr Annekatrin Niebuhr
Member of the Expert Council
Institute for Environmental, Resource and Spatial Economics at Kiel University
Annekatrin Niebuhr is Professor of Empirical Labour Economics and Spatial Econometrics at Kiel University and a Member of the Regional Research Network (RFN) at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). Her research focuses on the causes and effects of labour migration, regional disparities, segregation and young people’s transition from education and training into the world of work.
Prof. Dr Hannes Schammann
Member of the Expert Council
Institute for Social Sciences at the University Hildesheim
Hannes Schammann is Professor of Political Science with an emphasis on Migration Policy Analysis at the University of Hildesheim, where he is head of the Migration Policy Research Group. His research activities focus on various aspects of migration policy in Germany and Europe, one specific focus being on local communities’ scope for action, especially in the light of flight-related migration. Further research interests include migration policy analyses and discourses at the nation-state level. He regularly cooperates with stakeholders in administration and civil society and is a member of several scientific and advisory bodies. He is currently Board Member of the German Network of Forced Migration Studies and a member of the Advisory Board to the Commissioner for Refugee Issues of the Protestant Church in Germany, for example.
