Anna Triandafyllidou – About me

Anna Triandafyllidou is an internationally recognized sociologist and migration policy expert whose interdisciplinary research focuses on the governance of migration and asylum; the management of cultural diversity, nationalism and identity issues; and overall, the contemporary challenges of migration and integration across different world regions.

Prior to her CERC at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), Triandafyllidou was based in Florence, Italy, where she held a Robert Schuman Chair at the European University Institute and directed the Cultural Pluralism Research Area as part of the European University Institute’s Global Governance Programme. Since receiving her PhD from the European University Institute in 1995, she has held teaching and research positions around the world, including the London School of Economics, the College of Europe in Bruges, and the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche in Rome. She has served as a national expert on migration policies for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and has acted as project evaluator for ministries and foundations, such as the European Commission’s Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs and the European Parliament. In 2021, the University of Liège awarded Triandafyllidou an honorary doctorate in recognition of her contribution to migration scholarship.

Over the past 15 years, Triandafyllidou has built an influential body of work, with research that has become the standard reference among both academics and policy-makers. She has conducted stakeholder-engaged research with immigrant and refugee communities, settlement organizations and government, among others. She has coordinated 30 international research projects in these research fields and has published more than 160 articles in refereed journals and chapters in collective volumes, six authored books and 25 edited and co-edited. She has been the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies,, external link since 2013.  Anna also chairs the IMISCOE Editorial Committee, external link, overseeing a large fully peer-reviewed book series, external link, and is also a member of the IMISCOE Board of Directors.

Her recent edited volumes include:  Migration and Pandemics: Spaces of Solidarity and Spaces of Exception, external link. (Springer Nature, 2022); Routledge Handbook on the Governance of Religious Diversity (Ed., with T. Magazzini, Routledge, 2020); Migrants with Irregular Status in Europe, external link (Springer, with S. Spencer, 2020); Handbook of Migration and Globalisation (Ed., Edward Elgar, 2018); The Problem of Religious Diversity: European Challenges, Asian Approaches (Eds. with T. Modood, Edinburgh University Press, 2018); Multicultural Governance in a Mobile World (Ed., Edinburgh University Press, 2017); Global Governance from Regional Perspectives (Ed., Oxford University Press, 2017).

Books that Anna has authored include: Rethinking Migration and Return in Southeastern Europe: Albanian Mobilities to and from Italy and Greece, external link (with E. Gemi, Routledge, 2021); What is Europe? (with R. Gropas, Palgrave, 2015– a second edition is forthcoming in 2022); Migrant Smuggling: Irregular Migration from Asia and Africa to Europe (with T. Maroukis, Palgrave, 2015); and Immigrants and National Identity in Europe (Routledge, 2001).

She has recently edited two Special Issues: Beyond Irregular Migration Governance: Zooming in On Migrants’ Agency, European Journal of Migration and Law, 2017, and Complex and Dynamic Integration Processes in Europe: Intra EU Mobility and International Migration in Times of Recession, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (with Hans-Jörg Trenz, 2017).  She also coordinates two blogging spaces: Pandemic Borders, , external link and Global Extremes, external link.

Recent external funding Anna has received for research projects include: a $2.49 million Partnership Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to investigate migration systems with 28 partner organizations; an Insight Development Grant to lead Skilled Migrant Decision Making Under Uncertainty (DEMA) (SSHRC); an Insight Development Grant (SSHRC) for Pandemic Returns , a collaboration with CERC Migration colleague Richa Shivakoti to study the worsening precarity of temporary migrant workers from Nepal; support for the Fair Farm Work Certification program (WES Mariam Assefa Fund); a Partnership Development Grant (SSHRC) for DEMIKNOW, a collaboration with Mehrunnisa Ali, Toronto Metropolitan University, to build a coalition of decentered migration knowledge through centres located in India, China, Australia and Canada; and an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada grant through the 2021 Service Delivery Improvement Fund to undertake Virtual Bridge: Delivering Settlement Services through Social Media.

A full list of current research projects that Anna is leading at CERC Migration can be found here:  https://www.torontomu.ca/cerc-migration/research/project-brief/.