Council Members
The members of the Expert Council are appointed for three years
The current Council members:
Prof. Dr. Hans Vorländer
Chairperson of the Expert Council
Institute of Political Science at the Dresden University of Technology
Hans Vorländer is Director of the Mercator Forum on Migration and Democracy (MIDEM), founded in 2017, and of the Centre for the Study of Constitutionalism and Democracy at the Dresden University of Technology (TUD). From 1993 until 2020 he held the Chair of Political Theory and the History of Political Thought at Technische Universität Dresden. Hans Vorländer is an advisor in various expert commissions and is co-editor of the Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft. His work focuses on political theory, constitutionalism and constitution, democracy, populism, and migration and integration.
Prof. Dr Birgit Leyendecker
Deputy Chairperson of the Expert Council
Interdisciplinary Centre for Family Research at the Ruhr University Bochum
Birgit Leyendecker was appointed Head of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Family Research (ICFR), part of the Faculty of Psychology at the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), in 2010. Her research focuses include the educational integration of (new) immigrant children and refugee children and families; families and gender diversity; the positive development of immigrant children and their families; and multilingualism. She is a member of the Advisory Board to the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.
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, intercultural and interreligious education, religion-based extremism in young people from Muslim families and language acquisition in the context of migration-based multilingualism.
Prof. Dr Birgit Glorius
Member 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 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 International Migration Review and of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
Prof. Dr Winfried Kluth
Member 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, environmental 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 Steffen Mau
Member of the Expert Council
Department of Social Sciences at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Steffen Mau is Professor of Macrosociology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, specialising in Social Change and Social Inequality. His work deals with the processes of transnationalisation, Europeanisation and globalisation. Steffen Mau currently heads international comparative projects on changes to border regimes and the debates around the inclusion and exclusion of migrants and refugees. He is a Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW).
Prof. Panu Poutvaara, PhD
Member of the Expert Council
ifo Center for International Institutional Comparisons and Migration Research
Panu Poutvaara is Professor of Economics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich) and Director of the ifo Center for International Institutional Comparisons and Migration Research, ifo Institute. His research focuses include the impact of migration opportunities on human capital formation, family migration, populism, and the welfare effects of immigration.
Prof. Dr. Sieglinde Rosenberger
Member of the Expert Council
Professor of Political Science at the University of Vienna, Austria
Sieglinde Rosenberger is Professor of Political Science at the University of Vienna, Austria. Her research interests include integration, migration and asylum policy, policy at the intersection of religion and gender, the politicisation of migration, and protests against asylum and deportation policies.