Natalie Welfens
Biographic Data
| ID | 196909 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Natalie Welfens |
| GIVEN NAMES | Natalie |
| FAMILY NAME | Welfens |
| SIGNATURE | WELFENS N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Amsterdam |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9025-4167 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 119 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Collective Discussion
The fields of International Political Sociology (IPS) and Critical Security Studies (CSS) have examined the various ways in which people and objects are interpreted and perceived as security threats. This scholarship has recently gained new momentum due to the increasing use of sensor technologies, which are changing how security is understood and practiced. This collective discussion piece brings together five scholars who share a concern with t…
Complementary Pathways
Amid ongoing displacement crises and shrinking protection space, complementary pathways have emerged as promising avenues for refugees to find safety and solutions through work, study, and sponsorship programmes. Framed as “complementary to” more traditional solutions, such as resettlement, they engage a wider range of actors and aim to benefit both refugees and host States. However, this article argues that linking complementary pathways too clo…
Feminist Foreign Policy Without Migration? Examining Exclusions in Germany’s FFP Guidelines
Germany’s 2023 Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) Guidelines commit to a transformative, intersectional agenda across diplomacy, security, and climate policy, but omit migration. This article examines how and why migration was excluded, despite its centrality to foreign policy and the involvement of civil society in the drafting process. Drawing on practice theory, Black feminist and postcolonial scholarship, we analyze state–civil society consultatio…
Same, same but different? A Discourse Network Analysis of the EU's framings of refugee arrivals in 2015 and 2022
The European Union (EU) experienced two major instances of refugee influx: in 2015, refugees, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq fled civil war, persecution, and dire conditions in neighbouring countries and in 2022, Ukrainians fled from Russia's full-scale invasion. Fusing theoretical insights on framing and crisification of migration, we ask: How do EU actors frame situations of refugee mass influx? Employing a Discourse Network Analysis, …
"Unpacking "expectation management
UNHCR–state relations
In over 50 states, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) conducts refugee status determination (RSD) but engages in various ‘capacity building’ initiatives to ultimately transfer or ‘hand over’ authority over RSD to states. In this article, we examine the recently concluded RSD-handover process in Turkey as a case study to analyse the power dynamics between UNHCR and states. Drawing on constructionist theories of international org…
The EU’s normative justifications of refugee resettlement
The UNHCR promotes resettlement as an important protection tool to express solidarity with vulnerable refugees and countries of refuge. Yet, as resettlement is discretionary, its guiding principles and objectives are not binding and can be reinterpreted by states and supranational organizations. Against the background of UNHCR’s resettlement guidelines, this article examines the EU’s justifications of resettlement. Advancing theories of pragmatic…
Why Has Migration Research So Little Impact? Examining Knowledge Practices in Migration Policy Making and Migration Studies
Scientific and expert knowledge on migration is often disregarded in policy making and plays only a minor role in public debates - despite the massive growth and institutionalization of migration research in recent years. This article interrogates the limited impact of migration research(ers) by examining knowledge practices in both policy making and academia. We first look “outwards” at migration policy making. Revisiting and integrating the hit…
Capitalizing on a crisis
How do foreign policies and transnational projects become resistant to critique? This article seeks to better understand the legitimation of policies by studying the work involved in justifying public funding of migration and development initiatives. Government expenditures on migration and development have been increasing in recent years, despite widely shared concerns regarding the merits of such initiatives. In this article, we focus our atten…
(Not) Accessing the Castle
This article discusses how to deal with secrecy and limited access in ethnographically inspired research of security fields. Drawing inspiration from recent debates about secrecy in Critical Security Research and from Franz Kafka’s The Castle, we propose to treat access limitations and the secrecy we encounter as methodological tools that provide insights into social relations and power structures of security fields. We develop the argument in tw…
Seeking Legitimacy Through Knowledge Production
Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is a form of expert knowledge that is central to migration governance. This article analyses M&E of the EU Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), created in 2015 to ‘fight the root causes of migration’. Combining institutionalist accounts with practice theory, we examine whether M&E knowledge production served the instrumental purpose of assessing policy impact or mainly legitimated particular policy actors and positions. W…
Promising victimhood
In today's migration and refugee governance, refugees are increasingly required to demonstrate both vulnerability and assimilability to be considered deserving of protection and territorial access. This article advances the notion of 'promising victimhood' [Chauvin, Sébastien, and Blanca Garcés-Mascareñas. 2018. The Myth of Humanitarianism: Migrant Deservingness, Promising Victimhood, and Neoliberal Reason. Barcelona] as a fruitful concept to cap…
Ungleicher Zugang. Kategorisierungspraktiken in deutschen humanitären Aufnahmeprogrammen für syrische Geflüchtete
Dieser Beitrag beleuchtet die Frage, wie politische und soziale Kategorisierungen den Zugang zu Aufnahmeprogrammen regulieren und wie entstehende Ungleichheiten gerechtfertigt werden. Über humanitäre Aufnahmeprogramme nehmen europäische und andere sichere Länder eine begrenzte Zahl Schutzsuchender aus Erstzufluchtsländern auf. Auf Basis von Herkunft, Geschlecht, Alter und anderen Kategorien wird entschieden, wer ›am schutzbedürftigsten‹ ist und e…
Stierl, Maurice. 2019. Migrant Resistance in Contemporary Europe. Routledge
The Politics of Vulnerability in Refugee Admissions Under the EU-Turkey Statement
Resettlement and humanitarian admission programs claim to target ‘particularly vulnerable’, or ‘the most vulnerable’ refugees. If the limited spots of such programs are indeed foreseen for particularly vulnerable groups and individuals, as resettlement actors claim, how is vulnerability defined in policies and put into practice at the frontline? Taking European states’ recent admission programs under the EU-Turkey statement as an example, and foc…
Whose (in)security counts in crisis? Selection categories in Germany’s humanitarian admission programmes before and after 2015
Families First? The Mobilization of Family Norms in Refugee Resettlement
European resettlement programs prioritize the admission of refugee families. While this is seen as the 'natural' thing to do, we argue that the mobilization of family norms is crucially political: in everyday bordering practices, interpretations of family norms are decisive for who is admitted to Europe. We study the selection of Syrian refugees in Turkey for humanitarian admission to Germany, which involves national governments, UNHCR, and NGOs.…
Slipping Off or Turning the Tide? Gender Equality in European Union’s External Relations in Times of Crisis
The European Union has faced several crises in the past decades, including the economic and financial crisis, Brexit, a migration, climate change and security crisis, and the latest COVID-19 crisis. In this context, feminist scholars have shown how the causes and effects of the economic and financial crisis are strongly gendered. Generally, this literature suggests that crises can open a window of opportunity for gender considerations but may als…
Protecting Refugees Inside, Protecting Borders Abroad? Gender in the EU’s Responses to the ‘Refugee Crisis
Migration tends to be denoted as a crisis which needs a solution. The European Union has developed policies for dealing with this crisis internally, within its borders, and externally. Both the experiences of migrants and European Union policy responses are gendered and have gendered effects. This article analyses how the European Union refers to gender in its definitions of and responses to the crisis. Grounded in feminist policy analysis, I scr…
Promising victimhood
In today's migration and refugee governance, refugees are increasingly required to demonstrate both vulnerability and assimilability to be considered deserving of protection and territorial access. This article advances the notion of 'promising victimhood' [Chauvin, Sébastien, and Blanca Garcés-Mascareñas. 2018. The Myth of Humanitarianism: Migrant Deservingness, Promising Victimhood, and Neoliberal Reason. Barcelona] as a fruitful concept to cap…
Families First? The Mobilization of Family Norms in Refugee Resettlement
European resettlement programs prioritize the admission of refugee families. While this is seen as the 'natural' thing to do, we argue that the mobilization of family norms is crucially political: in everyday bordering practices, interpretations of family norms are decisive for who is admitted to Europe. We study the selection of Syrian refugees in Turkey for humanitarian admission to Germany, which involves national governments, UNHCR, and NGOs.…
Seeking Legitimacy Through Knowledge Production
Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is a form of expert knowledge that is central to migration governance. This article analyses M&E of the EU Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), created in 2015 to ‘fight the root causes of migration’. Combining institutionalist accounts with practice theory, we examine whether M&E knowledge production served the instrumental purpose of assessing policy impact or mainly legitimated particular policy actors and positions. W…
Protecting Refugees Inside, Protecting Borders Abroad? Gender in the EU’s Responses to the ‘Refugee Crisis
Migration tends to be denoted as a crisis which needs a solution. The European Union has developed policies for dealing with this crisis internally, within its borders, and externally. Both the experiences of migrants and European Union policy responses are gendered and have gendered effects. This article analyses how the European Union refers to gender in its definitions of and responses to the crisis. Grounded in feminist policy analysis, I scr…
Why Has Migration Research So Little Impact? Examining Knowledge Practices in Migration Policy Making and Migration Studies
Scientific and expert knowledge on migration is often disregarded in policy making and plays only a minor role in public debates - despite the massive growth and institutionalization of migration research in recent years. This article interrogates the limited impact of migration research(ers) by examining knowledge practices in both policy making and academia. We first look “outwards” at migration policy making. Revisiting and integrating the hit…
The Politics of Vulnerability in Refugee Admissions Under the EU-Turkey Statement
Resettlement and humanitarian admission programs claim to target ‘particularly vulnerable’, or ‘the most vulnerable’ refugees. If the limited spots of such programs are indeed foreseen for particularly vulnerable groups and individuals, as resettlement actors claim, how is vulnerability defined in policies and put into practice at the frontline? Taking European states’ recent admission programs under the EU-Turkey statement as an example, and foc…
Slipping Off or Turning the Tide? Gender Equality in European Union’s External Relations in Times of Crisis
The European Union has faced several crises in the past decades, including the economic and financial crisis, Brexit, a migration, climate change and security crisis, and the latest COVID-19 crisis. In this context, feminist scholars have shown how the causes and effects of the economic and financial crisis are strongly gendered. Generally, this literature suggests that crises can open a window of opportunity for gender considerations but may als…
Whose (in)security counts in crisis? Selection categories in Germany’s humanitarian admission programmes before and after 2015
Feminist Foreign Policy Without Migration? Examining Exclusions in Germany’s FFP Guidelines
Germany’s 2023 Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) Guidelines commit to a transformative, intersectional agenda across diplomacy, security, and climate policy, but omit migration. This article examines how and why migration was excluded, despite its centrality to foreign policy and the involvement of civil society in the drafting process. Drawing on practice theory, Black feminist and postcolonial scholarship, we analyze state–civil society consultatio…
Same, same but different? A Discourse Network Analysis of the EU's framings of refugee arrivals in 2015 and 2022
The European Union (EU) experienced two major instances of refugee influx: in 2015, refugees, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq fled civil war, persecution, and dire conditions in neighbouring countries and in 2022, Ukrainians fled from Russia's full-scale invasion. Fusing theoretical insights on framing and crisification of migration, we ask: How do EU actors frame situations of refugee mass influx? Employing a Discourse Network Analysis, …
"Unpacking "expectation management
UNHCR–state relations
In over 50 states, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) conducts refugee status determination (RSD) but engages in various ‘capacity building’ initiatives to ultimately transfer or ‘hand over’ authority over RSD to states. In this article, we examine the recently concluded RSD-handover process in Turkey as a case study to analyse the power dynamics between UNHCR and states. Drawing on constructionist theories of international org…
The EU’s normative justifications of refugee resettlement
The UNHCR promotes resettlement as an important protection tool to express solidarity with vulnerable refugees and countries of refuge. Yet, as resettlement is discretionary, its guiding principles and objectives are not binding and can be reinterpreted by states and supranational organizations. Against the background of UNHCR’s resettlement guidelines, this article examines the EU’s justifications of resettlement. Advancing theories of pragmatic…
Protecting Refugees Inside, Protecting Borders Abroad? Gender in the EU’s Responses to the ‘Refugee Crisis
Migration tends to be denoted as a crisis which needs a solution. The European Union has developed policies for dealing with this crisis internally, within its borders, and externally. Both the experiences of migrants and European Union policy responses are gendered and have gendered effects. This article analyses how the European Union refers to gender in its definitions of and responses to the crisis. Grounded in feminist policy analysis, I scr…
Slipping Off or Turning the Tide? Gender Equality in European Union’s External Relations in Times of Crisis
The European Union has faced several crises in the past decades, including the economic and financial crisis, Brexit, a migration, climate change and security crisis, and the latest COVID-19 crisis. In this context, feminist scholars have shown how the causes and effects of the economic and financial crisis are strongly gendered. Generally, this literature suggests that crises can open a window of opportunity for gender considerations but may als…
Stierl, Maurice. 2019. Migrant Resistance in Contemporary Europe. Routledge
The Politics of Vulnerability in Refugee Admissions Under the EU-Turkey Statement
Resettlement and humanitarian admission programs claim to target ‘particularly vulnerable’, or ‘the most vulnerable’ refugees. If the limited spots of such programs are indeed foreseen for particularly vulnerable groups and individuals, as resettlement actors claim, how is vulnerability defined in policies and put into practice at the frontline? Taking European states’ recent admission programs under the EU-Turkey statement as an example, and foc…
Whose (in)security counts in crisis? Selection categories in Germany’s humanitarian admission programmes before and after 2015
Families First? The Mobilization of Family Norms in Refugee Resettlement
European resettlement programs prioritize the admission of refugee families. While this is seen as the 'natural' thing to do, we argue that the mobilization of family norms is crucially political: in everyday bordering practices, interpretations of family norms are decisive for who is admitted to Europe. We study the selection of Syrian refugees in Turkey for humanitarian admission to Germany, which involves national governments, UNHCR, and NGOs.…
Ungleicher Zugang. Kategorisierungspraktiken in deutschen humanitären Aufnahmeprogrammen für syrische Geflüchtete
Dieser Beitrag beleuchtet die Frage, wie politische und soziale Kategorisierungen den Zugang zu Aufnahmeprogrammen regulieren und wie entstehende Ungleichheiten gerechtfertigt werden. Über humanitäre Aufnahmeprogramme nehmen europäische und andere sichere Länder eine begrenzte Zahl Schutzsuchender aus Erstzufluchtsländern auf. Auf Basis von Herkunft, Geschlecht, Alter und anderen Kategorien wird entschieden, wer ›am schutzbedürftigsten‹ ist und e…
(Not) Accessing the Castle
This article discusses how to deal with secrecy and limited access in ethnographically inspired research of security fields. Drawing inspiration from recent debates about secrecy in Critical Security Research and from Franz Kafka’s The Castle, we propose to treat access limitations and the secrecy we encounter as methodological tools that provide insights into social relations and power structures of security fields. We develop the argument in tw…
Seeking Legitimacy Through Knowledge Production
Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is a form of expert knowledge that is central to migration governance. This article analyses M&E of the EU Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), created in 2015 to ‘fight the root causes of migration’. Combining institutionalist accounts with practice theory, we examine whether M&E knowledge production served the instrumental purpose of assessing policy impact or mainly legitimated particular policy actors and positions. W…
Promising victimhood
In today's migration and refugee governance, refugees are increasingly required to demonstrate both vulnerability and assimilability to be considered deserving of protection and territorial access. This article advances the notion of 'promising victimhood' [Chauvin, Sébastien, and Blanca Garcés-Mascareñas. 2018. The Myth of Humanitarianism: Migrant Deservingness, Promising Victimhood, and Neoliberal Reason. Barcelona] as a fruitful concept to cap…
UNHCR–state relations
In over 50 states, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) conducts refugee status determination (RSD) but engages in various ‘capacity building’ initiatives to ultimately transfer or ‘hand over’ authority over RSD to states. In this article, we examine the recently concluded RSD-handover process in Turkey as a case study to analyse the power dynamics between UNHCR and states. Drawing on constructionist theories of international org…
The EU’s normative justifications of refugee resettlement
The UNHCR promotes resettlement as an important protection tool to express solidarity with vulnerable refugees and countries of refuge. Yet, as resettlement is discretionary, its guiding principles and objectives are not binding and can be reinterpreted by states and supranational organizations. Against the background of UNHCR’s resettlement guidelines, this article examines the EU’s justifications of resettlement. Advancing theories of pragmatic…
Why Has Migration Research So Little Impact? Examining Knowledge Practices in Migration Policy Making and Migration Studies
Scientific and expert knowledge on migration is often disregarded in policy making and plays only a minor role in public debates - despite the massive growth and institutionalization of migration research in recent years. This article interrogates the limited impact of migration research(ers) by examining knowledge practices in both policy making and academia. We first look “outwards” at migration policy making. Revisiting and integrating the hit…
Capitalizing on a crisis
How do foreign policies and transnational projects become resistant to critique? This article seeks to better understand the legitimation of policies by studying the work involved in justifying public funding of migration and development initiatives. Government expenditures on migration and development have been increasing in recent years, despite widely shared concerns regarding the merits of such initiatives. In this article, we focus our atten…
Complementary Pathways
Amid ongoing displacement crises and shrinking protection space, complementary pathways have emerged as promising avenues for refugees to find safety and solutions through work, study, and sponsorship programmes. Framed as “complementary to” more traditional solutions, such as resettlement, they engage a wider range of actors and aim to benefit both refugees and host States. However, this article argues that linking complementary pathways too clo…
Feminist Foreign Policy Without Migration? Examining Exclusions in Germany’s FFP Guidelines
Germany’s 2023 Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) Guidelines commit to a transformative, intersectional agenda across diplomacy, security, and climate policy, but omit migration. This article examines how and why migration was excluded, despite its centrality to foreign policy and the involvement of civil society in the drafting process. Drawing on practice theory, Black feminist and postcolonial scholarship, we analyze state–civil society consultatio…
Same, same but different? A Discourse Network Analysis of the EU's framings of refugee arrivals in 2015 and 2022
The European Union (EU) experienced two major instances of refugee influx: in 2015, refugees, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq fled civil war, persecution, and dire conditions in neighbouring countries and in 2022, Ukrainians fled from Russia's full-scale invasion. Fusing theoretical insights on framing and crisification of migration, we ask: How do EU actors frame situations of refugee mass influx? Employing a Discourse Network Analysis, …
"Unpacking "expectation management
Collective Discussion
The fields of International Political Sociology (IPS) and Critical Security Studies (CSS) have examined the various ways in which people and objects are interpreted and perceived as security threats. This scholarship has recently gained new momentum due to the increasing use of sensor technologies, which are changing how security is understood and practiced. This collective discussion piece brings together five scholars who share a concern with t…
Political science (15 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (14 works) · Law (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Refugee (10 works) · Economics (8 works) · Migration, Health and Trauma (8 works) · Politics (7 works) · Gender Studies (4 works)