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 is senior professor at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Family Research (ICFR), part of the Faculty of Psychology at the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB). 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 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 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 is currently Vice-President of the German Research Foundation (DFG).

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, where she heads the Department of Political Science and International Relations. 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. 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.

Former members of the Expert Council:

Prof. Dr Petra Bendel
Member (2016–2022) and Chairwoman (2019–2022), Head of Research on Migration, Displacement and Integration (MFI), Institute for Political Science at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)
Prof. Dr Thomas K. Bauer
Member (2011–2019) and Chairman (2016–2019), Faculty of Management and Economics at the University of Bochum, RWI – Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Essen
Prof. Dr Christine Langenfeld

Member (2008–2016) and Chairwoman (2012–2016), Department of Public Law at the University of Göttingen, Justice of Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court
Prof. Dr Klaus. J. Bade
Member and Chairman (2008–2012), Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) at the University of Osnabrück

Prof. Dr Michael Bommes (†)
Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) at the University of Osnabrück
Prof. Dr Wilfried Bos
Center for Research on Education and School Development at the TU Dortmund
Prof. Dr Gianni D’Amato
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Prof. Dr Claudia Diehl
Faculty of Sociology at the University of Konstanz
Prof. Dr. Heinz Faßmann
Department of Geography and Regional Research at the University of Vienna
Prof. Dr Viola Georgi
Center for Diversity, Democracy and Inclusion in Education at the University of Hildesheim
Prof. Dr Christian Joppke
Institute of Sociology at the University of Bern
Prof. Dr Yasemin Karakaşoğlu
Faculty of Pedagogy and Educational Sciences at the University of Bremen
Prof. Dr Steffen Mau
Department of Social Sciences at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Prof. Dr Ursula Neumann
Faculty of Education at the University of Hamburg
Prof. Dr Ludger Pries
Faculty of Social Science at the University of Bochum
Prof. Dr Sieglinde Rosenberger
Institute of Political Science at the University of Vienna, Austria
Prof. Dr Werner Schiffauer
Faculty of Social and Cultural Sciences at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder)
Prof. Dr Thomas Straubhaar
Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Hamburg
Prof. Dr Daniel Thym
Chair of Public, European and International Law at the University of Konstanz
Prof. Dr Hacı Halil Uslucan
Zentrum für Türkeistudien und Integrationsforschung at the University of Duisburg-Essen
Prof. Dr Steven Vertovec
Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology and The Ethnographic Collection at the University of Göttingen, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen