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TEMPLATE bios

Irina Isaakyan

Senior Research Associate
EducationPhD, University of Edinburgh

Irina is a qualitative and interpretive sociologist whose research investigates high-skill and elite migrants, gender and identity, and diaspora and post-communist populations.  Her work challenges traditional understandings of integration and agency and currently spans across the topic of ‘Integration and Settlement’, with a particular focus on women and global elite migrants.

Originally from Russia, Irina has studied, taught and conducted academic research in universities in Russia, the United States and Scotland. For the past eight years, she has been working in Florence, Italy, at the European University Institute. For several years, she has been Associate Editor for the Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies and is the Managing Editor of the IMISCOE Springer Book Series.

Recent Publication 

Isaakyan, I. (2024). ‘Global elite migrations’, in L. Oso (Ed). Elgar Encyclopedia of Migration. Edward Elgar Publishing.

With Triandafyllidou, A., and S. Baglioni (2023). ‘The ‘back-stepper’ and the ‘career diplomat’: Turning points in labour market integration’, in Migrants and Refugees in Europe: Work Integration in Comparative Perspective (external link)  (Baglioni, S.,  and Caló, F., Eds.) Bristol, UK: Policy Press / Bristol University Press.

With Triandafyllidou, A., & Baglioni, S. (2022). Immigrant and Asylum Seekers Labour Market Integration upon Arrival: NowHereLand. (external link)  IMISCOE Research Series.

With Triandafyllidou, A. (2019) Transatlantic repatriation: Stigma management of second-generation Italian and Greek American women ‘returning home’, external link (external link) , European Journal of Cultural Studies.