Dr. Nicola Piper

Nicola Piper, born in 1966, studied Political Science and Japanese Studies at Trier University, University of Vienna, Sophia University in Tokyo and University of Sheffield/UK. Since obtaining her PhD in Sociology in 1997 from the University of Sheffield/UK, she has worked for several international research institutes as a full-time Research Fellow/Senior Research Fellow (Nordic Institute of Asian Studies in Copenhagen, the Regulatory Institutions Network at the Australian National University, the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore) before joining Swansea University, first as Senior Lecturer, then as Reader as well as in the role of Associate Director of the Centre for Migration Policy Research. In January 2011, she joined the Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institute in Freiburg as Senior Research Fellow. Since 2012 Ms. Piper is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Policy of the University of Sydney.

She has held several visiting research appointments in Japan, Sweden and Australia. In 2010 she was invited to join the editorial board of the international peer-reviewed journal Refugee Survey Quarterly and is also member of the international advisory board of the collaborative research programme between Lund and Stockholm University (Sweden) on Democracy Beyond the Nation State? Transnational Actors and Global Governance. Since 2004 she has been external advisor on migration research with the UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) in Geneva. Other international organisations have also drawn on her expertise on (gendered) migration and migrant rights issues by commissioning background papers or by requesting an advisory opinion. These organisations include the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Bangkok, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Global Commission for International Migration (GCIM). She has given expert/advisory opinions on various aspects of migration to international NGOs and migrant rights networks (Amnesty International, Migrant Forum in Asia, Plan International, War on Want) and carried out projects on migrant rights related issues for UNESCO and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (Manila Office). Her work on gendered migration has been cited by UNFPA in its 2006 report on A Passage to Hope – Women and International Migration, by UNDP in its report entitled Human Development on the Move from 2009 and in the ILO’s report on Gender equality at the heart of decent work from 2009. More recently she has carried out a small mapping study on migrant workers in the construction sector for the global union BWI (Building and Wood Worker International), Geneva.

Her evolving expertise on a rights-based approach to migration is manifested in her academic publication record, a recent example being her latest book co-authored with Jean Grugel entitled Critical Perspectives on Global Governance: Rights and Regulation in Governing Regimes,  her edited book (2007) New Perspectives on Gender and Migration – Livelihoods, Rights and Entitlements and the co-edited book South-South Migration: Implications for Social Policy and Development (with Katja Hujo, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). She has (co-)guest-edited five special journal issues and published numerous articles in international peer-reviewed journals including International Sociology, Policy and Society, International Migration, Ethnic and Racial Studies, European Journal of Asian Studies, Global Social Policy, Third World Quarterly, Journal of Human Rights, Political Geography, Global Networks, and The American Academy of Political and Social Science.

Her research interests emerge from political sociology with international migration as empirical subject and revolve around social movements and political mobilization, transnational advocacy networks, nodal governance, migrant rights and political development with area expertise in mostly East and Southeast Asia, but also Latin America and Europe.