THE MIGRATION OBSERVATORY - Key Persons
Ben Brindle is a Researcher at the Migration Observatory. His research interests include net migration, the economic impacts of migration, work visas, and how migration patterns respond to changes in visa policy.
He is part of the Hong Kong BNO panel survey project team, which analyses the integration of BNOs into the UK economy and society. It is the first longitudinal social science study to track a major migrant group from the time of their arrival in the UK.
Previously, Ben worked in the Migration Research Division at the International Organisation for Migration, where he supported the preparation of research papers and reports for publication on various migration topics, including the 2022 World Migration Report. Ben completed his PhD at the University of Brighton, which explored how the UK labour market and UK firms responded to immigration in the decade following the financial crisis.
Job Titles:
- Senior Researcher
- Senior Researcher at COMPAS
Denis Kierans is a Senior Researcher at COMPAS, working with the Global Exchange on Migration and Diversity and the Migration Observatory. His research interests include integration, the mainstreaming of migration into development plans, public attitudes towards migration and the use of data on migration in policy making.
From 2014 to 2019, he held various positions at the International Organization for Migration (IOM). As Data and Research Officer with IOM's Global Migration Data Analysis Centre, he wrote about international migration trends and designed and facilitated capacity-building workshops for governments and other stakeholders.
Dr Nuni Jorgensen is a researcher at the Migration Observatory. She focuses on the governance of forced migration and the dynamics of migrant and transnational families. She is particularly interested in how migration policies affect people differently according to gender and age and how these policies impact family life. Her PhD investigated how temporary protection mechanisms shape transnational families' reunification plans.
Before moving to the UK in 2020, Nuni worked as a Population Data and Research advisor at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), where she specialised in monitoring and evaluating projects focused on human mobility in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Her work at MSF involved applying a mixed-methods approach to understand migration dynamics among vulnerable populations, combining qualitative fieldwork with quantitative data analysis to provide comprehensive insights. Nuni holds a PhD in Geography from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and an MA in Demography from the Centre for Development and Regional Planning (Cedeplar, Brazil).
Throughout her career, Nuni has published papers in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Migration Letters, and Global Health Action.
Job Titles:
- Senior Researcher
- Observatory 's Spokesperson
Dr Peter William Walsh is Senior Researcher at The Migration Observatory, and Departmental Lecturer in Migration Studies, University of Oxford.
He has authored over forty reports and articles on UK immigration policy, including on family migration, student migration, settlement, irregular migration, detention, deportation, asylum, Afghan refugee resettlement, Ukrainian refugee migration, small boat arrivals, and the Hong Kong route to citizenship.
Peter is the Observatory's spokesperson on several of these areas, and regularly gives expert interviews to major newspapers, and for national and international radio and television.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Migration Advisory Committee
Madeleine Sumption is the Director of the Migration Observatory. She is a policy specialist focusing on the impacts of migration policies and the role of migrants in the labour market.
Madeleine's research interests include the design of immigration policies and their economic and social impacts, labour migration, and the interaction between the economics and politics of migration policies. Recent focus areas include government policies towards immigrant investors, the impacts of Brexit on the UK's immigration system, and the implementation of the EU Settlement Scheme.
Madeleine is a member of the Migration Advisory Committee, an independent panel that advises the UK Government on migration issues. From 2017 to 2022, she was Chair of the Migration Statistics User Forum, which brings together producers and users of migration data. Before joining Oxford, Madeleine was Director of Research for the international program at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) in Washington, DC. She remains a Non-resident Fellow with Migration Policy Institute Europe. Madeleine holds a PhD in Public Policy from the University of Maastricht. In 2017, she received an MBE for services to social science.
Madeleine is available to collaborate with early-career researchers working on immigration policy and its impacts on the UK and overseas.
Mariña Fernández-Reino (PhD, Universitat Pompeu Fabra) is a Ramon y Cajal Research Fellow at the Spanish Research Council (Madrid, Spain). Between 2018 and 2024, she was a Senior Researcher at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society and the Migration Observatory. She was the Principal Investigator of a research project investigating migrants' lived experiences of the UK immigration system. She also leads two work packages within the EqualStrength project (‘Cumulative discrimination and prejudice against marginalised groups in Europe'), funded by the Horizon Europe Framework Programme. Throughout her academic career, she has investigated a variety of research topics related to migration and ethnic inequalities, including the discrimination of Latinos and Muslim minorities, public opinion towards migration, educational inequalities in Spain and the UK, relationships in migrant families, the selectivity of migration inflows, and the labour market integration of migrant workers. She has published in high-impact journals such as the European Sociological Review, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and Oxford Review of Economic Policy, among others. While working at the Migration Observatory, she authored over twenty briefings and reports on migrants' integration, immigration policy, and public attitudes towards migration.
Mihnea Cuibus is a Researcher at The Migration Observatory and a DPhil Candidate in Politics at Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
Before joining The Migration Observatory, Mihnea worked as a Lecturer at Regent's Park College, University of Oxford, and held several research and teaching assistant positions at the University. He previously completed a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and an MPhil in European Politics at the same institution.
Mihnea is a quantitative researcher whose primary interests lie at the intersection of migration, politics, and policy. His doctoral thesis focuses on the political effects of migration on democracies in Central and Eastern Europe. He examines the transmission of political values across borders and the impact of population outflows on the region's political dynamics and welfare states. Some of his other work tackles questions of political economy, such as co-authoring an innovative dataset on the evolution of human capital at a local level in post-industrial societies. Mihnea's work at The Observatory covers a wide range of topics, and he has contributed to pieces covering issues ranging from EU migration to small boat crossings and migrant destitution.
Nathan provides administrative support for The Migration Observatory and research projects at the Centre on Migration, Policy & Society (COMPAS), including the Global Exchange on Migration and Diversity. Nathan assists with event organisation and also administrates the COMPAS Visiting Academics programme.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director
- Head of Media
- Deputy Director and Head of Media and Communications
Rob McNeil is the Deputy Director and Head of Media and Communications at the Migration Observatory. He is responsible for public relations strategy, parliamentary and community outreach and the news and commentary work at the Migration Observatory.
Rob was part of the team who launched the Migration Observatory in 2011 and, since then, has been working to embed Migration Observatory analysis in public debates.
Rob also participates in Oxford University and COMPAS research projects, examining the social environments from which news stories and narratives about migration and migrants emerge, how media debate affects migration policy decisions (and vice versa), and how information gaps affect how these issues are discussed. He lectures on migration and the media for the MSc in Migration Studies.
Rob is a former journalist and joined COMPAS in November 2010 after two years as the Media Director for the US environmental organisation Conservation International. Previously he worked as PR manager for Oxfam GB, as Senior Press Officer for WWF-UK and as a journalist for various publications, including the Evening Standard, The Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror, Red, Time Out and BBC Wildlife.