Prof. Dr. Melissa Siegel

Melissa Siegel is a Professor of Migration Studies at the United Nations University-MERIT and Maastricht University, where she manages several migration research projects, coordinates the Migration Studies Specialization as part of the Master’s Program in Public Policy and Human Development and formerly headed the Migration Management Diploma Program. She has more than 15 years of management experience and over two decades of experience in the field of migration, public policy and development. She is Co-Director and heads the Migration and Development research theme of the Maastricht Center for Citizenship, Migration and Development (MACIMIDE). She currently holds the Chair of the UNU Migration Network and positions as a Research Associate at the Center on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford. She is also on the advisory board of the Migration Policy Center, EUI, the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam and was formerly on the board of The Hague Process on Refugees and Migration. She has done visiting research fellowships at Harvard University, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the University of Oxford.

She has advised, worked on or headed projects for the Dutch Government, Swiss Development Cooperation, German Development Cooperation, the IOM, UNHCR, ILO, UNDP, ICMPD, World Bank, OECD and others. She is also regularly involved in migration-related trainings for governments and organizations (i.e. UNICEF, UNRWA, EIPA, Dutch Government, Iranian Government, Turkish Government) and teaching at the Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD level as well as teaching in the United States, Kenya, Rwanda, Malaysia, Mozambique, Afghanistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Suriname. She has also given advice at the United Nations and European Commission on migration issues.

Her main research interest lies in the causes and consequences of migration with a strong emphasis on the linkages between migration and development. She has proven experience in writing successful research funding proposals and has several publications in the area of migration studies. She has previous field research experience in several countries as well as knowledge of designing, administering and evaluating surveys. She is also familiar with other techniques of data collection such as interviews and focus groups and analysis using NVIVO and STATA.