Associate Doctoral Candidate Elena Fattorelli
Social Science
Urban border spaces in family reunification to and from children and parents: an international comparative study between Frankfurt am Main and Madrid with a focus on refugees and migrants from East/Sub-Saharan Africa
My doctoral project unfolds within the framework of the DFG research project “The Emergence of Urban Border Spaces in Europe” and investigates family reunification as a field of migration control, with a particular focus on family reunification applications of parents and children of refugees/migrants with roots or family members in East/Sub-Saharan Africa. In my analysis, I explore how the border operates through family reunification. I focus on how and according to which criteria refugee/migrant families are filtered out and stratified, how different ideas and models of families, which are culturally dependent, are addressed at the local level and how family ties can be proven. I do so on the basis of an international comparative study of two cities, Frankfurt am Main and Madrid, understood as urban border spaces, with the aim of showing similarities and differences in the positioning of each city with regard to migration and family reunification.
In order to understand how the urban border regime is negotiated in the context of family reunification, my doctoral project examines two scales: 1. the state, which sets the national legal framework for family reunification; 2. the front-line local actors of migration administration and counselling, who interpret and implement this framework at the local level. Methodologically, I rely on reconstructive qualitative empirical social research according to the coding principles of Grounded Theory Methodology. To explore their subjective-normative perspectives and principles, approximately 10-15 narrative expert interviews will be conducted with local front-line guidance actors in each city.
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Margit Fauser
About Elena Fattorelli
- Since April 2023: PhD candidate in Sociology, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.
- 2021–2023: PhD candidate, HAW Hessen Doctoral Centre of Social Work, Germany
- 2016-2019 Master’s degree in Sociology and European Ethnology, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU), Germany
- 2017-2018: Module and additional studies "Language qualification and Integration coaching for work with refugees", Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU), Germany
- 2013-2016: Bachelor’s double degree in International Sociology, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU), Germany, and University of Trento, Italy
migration, urban border regime, family reunification, transnationalism, qualitative social research
- Co-applicant of the Summer School 2024 on "The Multilayered Significance of Remittances in Transnational Migration", Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
- Since March 2022: Research Fellow & Lecturer, Ruhr University Bochum, Chair of Sociology / Transnationalization, Migration and Work
- 2020-2022: Research Fellow in the DFG research project “The emergence of urban border spaces in Europe”, Hochschule Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Department of Social Work, Germany
- 2017-2019: Lecturer for lecture-accompanying reading class on the topic “Introduction to Sociology”, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU), Department of Sociology / General Sociology and Sociological Theory, Germany
- Fattorelli, E., Administrative control mechanisms in the descent-based family reunification procedure of refugees. Ethnic and Racial Studies. Special Issue "Mapping the internal border" (provisionally accepted)
- Fauser, M., C.A. Di Stefano, E. Fattorelli, 2022, Multiple Facets of Borderwork. Urban Actors Between Migrants’ Struggles and State Control, Journal of Intercultural Studies, DOI: 10.1080/07256868.2022.2159340
- 11/2023: “Ignorance: Disregarding the existence of divergent and “other” culturally dependent family models and conceptions in descent-based family reunification procedures of refugees, Academic Workshop: "Strange(r) Families": Political contestation over family and nation in migration regimes, University of Amsterdam
- 07/2023 (with Prof. Dr. Margit Fauser): “Migrant Employment as Privilege and Duty”, 20th IMISCOE Conference 2023 "Migration and Inequalities. In search of answers and solutions", Warsaw, Poland
- 07/2023: “The normative control of the migrant family through family reunification”, 20th IMISCOE Conference 2023 "Migration and Inequalities. In search of answers and solutions", Warsaw, Poland
- 05/2023: “Administrative control mechanisms in the descent-based family reunification of refugees”, International Workshop “Mapping the internal border”, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
- 09/2022 (with Prof. Dr. Margit Fauser): „Erwerbstätigkeit von Migrant*innen zwischen Privileg und Pflicht“, DGS-Kongress 2022 "Polarisierte Welten", Ad-hoc-Gruppe "Erwerbslosigkeit unter den Bedingungen gesellschaftlicher Transformation. Polarisierung der Erwerbsarbeitsnorm?", Bielefeld, Germany
- 04/2022 (with Prof. Dr. Margit Fauser): „Zivilgesellschaftliche Akteure in Urbanen Grenzräumen zwischen De- und Rebordering“, Offene Frühjahrstagung der Sektion Migration und ethnische Minderheiten der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie, online
- 11/2021: “If you can't prove that, it's a potential lie”: suspicion and other control mechanisms underlying family reunification, Online Workshop „Mapping the internal border” organised as part of the DFG-Project „ The emergence of urban border spaces in Europe“, online
- 06/2021: “Between support and border work: An investigation of local counselling actors in family reunification“, MIGRAKOLLOQ - Interdisciplinary Colloquium for Early Stage Migration Researchers, online
- Since 08/2023: Member of the COST Action ‘Transnational Family Dynamics in Europe’, Working Group 1 ("Kinkeeping within transnational families in a global and digital era"), Working Group 3 (“Social rights and social protection of transnational families”), Working Group 6 (“Practises and policy impact”)
- Since 2022: Member of the German Sociological Association, Migration and Ethnic Minorities Section
- Since 2021: Member of the international network "Social Work (+) in a global world"
- 05/2023: Contribution to the organization of the International Workshop “Mapping the internal border” as part of the DFG-Project „The emergence of urban border spaces in Europe“, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany