Dr. Nora Ratzmann has joined the German Center for Integration and Migration Research in 2020, first as a Research Fellow in the Department Conflict and Consensus; since July 2022, she is leading several research projects on integration and settlement experiences in Germany, Department Integration, recently of protection-seekers from Ukraine. Her work takes dynamics of external and internal migration control and interactions between newcomers and state institutions into focus. Between 2022-2024 she also convened and coordinated the international research network "Forced Migrants from Ukraine in Transnational Europe".
After studying social sciences (with a focus on European studies, social policy and international relations) at the universities of Osnabrück, Montréal, Oxford and the London School of Economics, Nora Ratzmann initially worked on migration and social policy issues at the policy research institute RAND Europe, the UNESCO-affiliated International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) and the German development cooperation GIZ. From 2015 to 2019, her doctoral research at the LSE's International Institute for Inequality investigated barriers to accessing German basic social security for EU citizens. Further research included projects on the role of civil society in social service provision for migrants, University of Tübingen, on the role of the diaspora in shaping EU-Africa relations, for the Expert Council of German Foundations on Migration and Integration, and on administrative innovation and participatory research methods, at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, IASS Potsdam.
Research focus
- Migration, Welfare State and Social Rights
- Discrimination, Social Inequality and Inclusion
- Governance, Policy Implementation and the Street-level
- Qualitative Methods