GRC - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Associate Research Professor and Head of the Research Department at SESRI
Abdoulaye Diop is Associate Research Professor and Head of the Research Department at SESRI, Qatar University. As the Head of Research, Dr. Diop oversees and coordinates all research activities. His specific areas of interest include survey research methods, social capital, labor markets and migration, evaluation of economic impact of programs and policies on communities. Prior to joining SESRI in 2009, Dr. Diop worked at the University of Virginia Center for Survey Research (CSR), the University of Connecticut Center for Survey Research and Analysis (CSRA) and the University of Connecticut Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. Dr. Diop has authored and co-authored a number publications and survey research reports and has actively participated in a number of international conferences on survey research methods.
Job Titles:
- Researcher
- English Language Editor
Dalal Moosa is a student at Université Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne / Paris School of Economics, currently finishing her Master's degree with a focus on population and labor economics. She will begin her PhD work in September, 2014, as part of the European Doctorate in Economics Erasmus Mundus program (EDEEM). She graduated with a Bachelor's degree from New York University, USA, in 2009 with a double-major in Finance and Journalism. She worked for the following three years in Bahrain, at the Economic Development Board, where she researched issues relating to fiscal policy, employment, innovation and the development of the National Economic Strategy of Bahrain, authoring pieces published in the Bahrain Economic Quarterly and the Annual Report 2010. Her current research interests are in generational, labor and family economics.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Founder
- Member of the GRC Foundation Council
- Founder and Chairman of the Gulf Research Center
Dr. Abdulaziz Sager is the founder and chairman of the Gulf Research Center
Job Titles:
- Director of Urban Development & Engineering Studies.
Job Titles:
- Visiting Professor / Middle East Institute
Job Titles:
- Member of the GRC Foundation Council
- GRCF Founding Member
- Vice President of the Gulf Research Center
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor and Founding Director of the Program for Social Policy
- Non - Resident Fellow
Dr. Anis Ben Brik is an Associate Professor and founding director of the Program for Social Policy and Evaluation Research (PROSPER) at the College of Public Policy at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar. With a diverse background in advancing evidence-based decision-making and social policy, he has made significant contributions to the field. Previously, he served as the Director of the Family Policy Department at the Doha International Family Institute and held senior advisory roles with the UAE Government. Dr. Ben Brik has been a trusted advisor to multiple ministries and has served on national and regional Scientific Committees for Development Strategies.
Dr. Ben Brik's primary research interests lie in the empirical analysis of welfare systems, family and child welfare, social protection, evaluation, and digital transformations. He has published extensively in international peer-reviewed journals and has authored several books on program evaluation, social protection, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public policy in the Middle East and North Africa.
Dr. Ben Brik has experience in applying experimental and non-experimental methods to evaluate policies and has provided valuable insights for government departments, particularly in the areas of family and child welfare, child protection, social security, labor economics, and public economics. He is a strong advocate for strengthening civil society engagement and collaborative partnerships at the United Nations, where he has served as the Middle East Regional Partner at the United Nations NGO Major Group.
In addition to his other accomplishments, Dr. Anis Ben Brik is currently leading several research projects, including "Reducing Populations' Vulnerabilities to Mis-Disinformation Related to Scientific Content" in collaboration with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, "Managing Social Transformation in Qatar: Risks, Trends and Future Trajectories," the "Digital Transformation and Future of Jobs and Skills in the Middle East and North Africa," and the "Risk Assessment of Communicable Diseases among Migrant Workers in Qatar" sponsored by the Ministry of Public Health. He is also leading "the COVID Family Life Study," a global study being conducted in 72 countries and sponsored by the United Nations.
Job Titles:
- Director of Research
- Director of Research, Gulf Research Center
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow / Pembroke College
Job Titles:
- Associate Research Scientist at the Public Policy Research Institute
- Non - Resident Fellow
Dr. George Naufal is an associate research scientist at the Public Policy Research Institute (PPRI) at Texas A&M University, a visiting Scientist at the Center for Health Data Science and Analytics at Houston Methodist Research Institute, a research fellow at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics and the Economic Research Forum (ERF). Previously he was the Technical Director at Timberlake Consultants. He was also an Assistant/Associate Professor of Economics at The American University of Sharjah (2007 to 2014) in the United Arab Emirates. George earned his Ph.D. in Economics in 2007 from Texas A&M University. His area of expertise is applied econometrics with applications to labor economics including criminal justice, education, migration, and public health. He has published extensively on migration and labor market issues in the Gulf region including a book titled "Expats and the labor force: The Story of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries". Dr. Naufal's work has been cited by regional such as Al Arabiyah, GulfNews, National News, and international media outlets such as the New York Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, the Washington Post, and NPR.
Job Titles:
- Program Director - Economic Research, Chief Economist
Job Titles:
- Research Fellow - Environment Research Program
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Director at Zayed University
- Director of the Institute of Social & Economic Research
Dr. Mouawiya Al Awad is currently the director of the Institute of Social & Economic Research (ISER). Previously, the acting director of the Institute for Community Engagement (ICE) and the director of the Confucius Institute at Zayed University in Dubai, an economic advisor at Dubai Economic Council, the director of the Centre for Labor Market Research and Information at the National Human Resource Development & Employment Authority (Tanmia), and a Professor in Economics and International Finance at the American University of Technology (Lebanon) and an associate professor at the UAE University (UAE). Research interests focus on economic development, socioeconomic aspects of developments, macroeconomics, international finance, labour economics, migration, applied econometrics and statistics. Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Entrepreneurship, member of Editorial Board, Journal of World Economic Research and Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research. Member of the International Society for Development & Sustainability, the IFO World Economic Survey expert group and the Arab Council for the Social Sciences. He has a Ph.D. in Economics and an extensive research capability in UAE and Gulf economies on macroeconomic and sectors levels as well as on related issues such as population, education, labour, human development, and competitiveness.
Job Titles:
- Member of the GRC Foundation Council
- Senior Advisor & Director - Security and Defense Research Program
Job Titles:
- Director of Cooperation
- Director, Gulf Research Center Foundation
Job Titles:
- Director of Cultural Program
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Senior Researcher
Dr. Fahad L. Al Ghalib Al Sharif is a Senior Research Fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS). He joined KFCRIS in October 2016. Before joining KFCRIS, he worked as an independent consultant at various public and private agencies. He obtained his Ph.D. in Political Economy from University of Exeter, his MSc in Administration specializing in Management from Lindenwood University, and his BSc in Business Administration from University of San Francisco. Current research interests include International Studies, Public Policy, Labour Migration, Tourism, Education, Empowerment of Women, and the Saudi Labour Force. Between 2017 and 2018, he conducted a research project entitled "Skill Development and Job Creation in Saudi Arabia: An Assessment of King Abdullah Scholarship Program (KASP) in Light of the Saudi National Transformation Program" with Abdul Ghaffar Mughal and Ina Ganguli with a research grant provided by the Saudi Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) and John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (Harvard Kennedy School).
Job Titles:
- Senior Web Developer
- Web Manager
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- Researcher
- Senior Fellow
- Air
Françoise De Bel-Air is a researcher and consultant based in Paris, France. A socio-demographer by training, she specializes in the demography of Arab countries, especially in the Middle East and the Gulf region. Currently a Senior Fellow at the Gulf Labour Markets, Migration, and Population (GLMM) programme of the Gulf Research Center Foundation (GRCF, Geneva) since 2013, she was a Senior Fellow at the French Institute for the Near East (IFPO) in Amman, Jordan for several years, and a part-time Professor at the Migration Policy Centre (MPC), European University Institute (EUI), Florence, Italy. Her research focusses on political demography, as well as on the demographic and socio-political dynamics in the region: youth, family structures, labour and forced migration, migration, and population policies. She published two edited volumes and over fifty book chapters, scientific articles, and research papers on population issues in the Arab region. Her recent publications on migration and Gulf states include "Asian Migrants in the Gulf", in Shah. N. (Ed). Covid-19 Crisis and Asian Migration, Lahore: Lahore School of Economics, 2021; The Socio-Economic Impact of Covid-19 and Low Oil Prices on Migrants and Remittances in the Arab Region (with B. Nilsson), UNDP-RBAS Research Papers, 2021; "Youth Unemployment and Alienation in the Middle East: A Critical View", in: Salvatore, A.; Hanafi, S. and Obuse, K. (Eds). The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle East, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2022; and "The Politics of Migration in the Gulf States", in: AlMezaini, Kh. and Alexander; K. (Eds). Introduction to Gulf Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Françoise De Bel-Air is a researcher and consultant based in Paris, France. A socio-demographer by training, she specializes in the demography of Arab countries, especially in the Middle East and the Gulf region. She has been a research fellow at the French Institute for the Near East (IFPO) in Amman, Jordan for several years and a part-time Professor at the Migration Policy Centre, European University Institute of Florence, Italy. Her research focusses on political demography, as well as on the demographic and socio-political dynamics in the region: youth, intergenerational and gender relationships, family structures, labour and forced migration, migration and population policies. Her recent publications include a special issue of Arabian Humanities (2019) on "Marriage and Family in the Gulf Today" (with B. Destremau and J. Safar); Chapter 7 "Exclusion, Mobility and Migration" in the Arab Human Development Report 2016 on Youth; "Asian Migration to the Gulf States in the 21 st Century", in Chowdhury, M. and Rajan, I. (eds). South Asian Migration to the Gulf: Causes and Consequences", Palgrave, 2018; Mapping ENI SPCs migrants in the Euro-Mediterranean region: An inventory of statistical sources, ICMPD, Vienna, 2020 and "'Blocked Youth': The Politics of Migration from the SEM Countries before and after the Arab Uprisings." The International Spectator (53): 2018.
Froilan T. Malit, Jr. is a Ph.D. Politics candidate at the University of Glasgow and an associate researcher at the Gulf Labour Markets, Migration, and Population (GLMM) programme and a visiting fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies. He specializes in international relations, foreign policy, labor rights, and the political economy of migration in the Gulf region. Over the past decade, Malit has worked as a technical migration policy research consultant to various regional and international organizations, including the Abu Dhabi Dialogue, the International Labor Organization, International Organization for Migration. He has also led and provided a spectrum of migration policy consultancy projects to a number of migrant-sending states, GCC-based universities, and independent research entities linked to GCC migration dynamics and migrant welfare, including the recent MIPEX Index 2020 (for the UAE). He has published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, including Global Studies Quarterly, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, International Migration, Remittance Review, Migration Letters, Arab Humanities.
Malit has also co-edited a book, "Recent Migrations and Refugees in the Middle East" (with Dr. Rania Rafik Khalil, Transnational Press London, 2019) and published numerous book chapters, migration policy articles, reports, and working papers for various regional and global think tanks and other media outlets, including the Migration Policy Institute, GLMM, and Al-Monitor. He regularly provides expert opinions on migration issues in the Asia-Gulf migration corridor in various regional and international media, including the New York Times, Reuters, and The Guardian. He holds MSt International Relations from the University of Cambridge (with distinction), an MSc in Migration Studies from the University of Oxford, and a BSc in Industrial and Labour Relations (with honors) from Cornell University. He also received additional advanced post-graduate training in migration at European University Institute.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Senior Lecturer
- Senior Lecturer in International Relations, University of Glasgow
Gerasimos Tsourapas is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations, University of Glasgow and is currently the Principal Investigator of a five-year European Research Council Starting Grant project on migration diplomacy (2022-27). He is a Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and the incoming Chair of the Ethnicity, Nationalism, & Migration Studies (ENMISA) Section of the International Studies Association (2023-25). He is the author of The Politics of Migration in Modern Egypt - Strategies for Regime Survival in Autocracies (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and Migration Diplomacy in the Middle East and North Africa - Power, Mobility, and the State (Manchester University Press, 2021). He co-edited, with Prof Maria Koinova, a special issue on ‘Diasporas and Sending States in World Politics' for International Political Science Review. His work has also appeared in International Studies Quarterly, European Journal of International Relations, International Migration Review, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and other leading journals.
Dr Tsourapas has received numerous awards. The Politics of Migration in Modern Egypt was awarded the 2020 ENMISA Distinguished Book Award by the International Studies Association and was shortlisted for the British International Studies Association's L.H.M. Ling Outstanding First Book Prize. His work has also been recognised by the American Political Science Association (Best Dissertation on Migration & Citizenship, 2016), the International Studies Association (Martin O. Heisler Award, 2017), and the Middle East Studies Association of North America (Graduate Student Paper Prize, 2015). He also received the inaugural 2021 ENMISA Emerging Scholar Award by the International Studies Association. Dr Tsourapas served as a Fellow at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University (2019-20) and The American University in Cairo (2013-14). He received a BA in Economics and Political Science from Yale University (2006), an MSc in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science (2007), and a PhD in Politics from SOAS, University of London (2016).
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Director of the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies
- Professor of Practice of Global Affairs
Ibrahim Awad is at present Professor of Practice of Global Affairs and Director, Center for Migration and Refugee Studies, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, at the American University in Cairo. He holds a BA degree in political science from Cairo University and a PhD degree in political science from the Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva, Switzerland. He has worked for the League of Arab States, the United Nations and the International Labour Organization, holding positions of Secretary of the Commission, UN-ESCWA, Director, ILO Sub-regional Office for North Africa and Director, ILO International Migration Programme.
He currently is Chair of the Labor Migration Working Group of the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD), hosted by the World Bank, Chair of the Steering Committee of the Euro-Mediterranean Research Network on International Migration (EuroMedMig), member of the Advisory Board of the Center on Forced Displacement, Boston University, and Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Centre (MPC) of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. He also serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals.
His recent publications include: "A Perspective from the Global South on Concepts in Migration Studies", Ethnic and Racial Studies, DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2022.2142477; "On Occasion of the Pandemic: Reflections on Egyptian Labour Migration", International Migration, Volume 59, 2021; "The Return of Refugees and Reconstruction in Syria", in Area Studies: New Realities, New conceptions, edited by Tim Niblock, Yang Guang and Zhou Yan. Beijing, Tsinghua University Press, 2020, pp. 197-224; "The United Nations: Tensions, Progress and Failings", Cairo Review of Global Affairs, No. 39, Fall 2020; "End of War but Not of Conflict", Cairo Review of Global Affairs, No. 34, Summer 2019 (with Amr Adly and Muhammad Alaraby); "Egyptian Labour Migration in the Arab Middle East", in India's Low-skilled Migration to the Middle East. Policies, Politics and Challenges, edited by S. Irudaya Rajan and Prem Saxena. Singapore, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019 (with Lina Lotayef); "International Migration in the Euro-Mediterranean Region", Cairo Papers in Social Science, Volume 35, No.2, 2019 (Guest Editor); "Migration Myths and the Global South", Cairo Review of Global Affairs, No. 30, Summer (With Usha Natarajan); "The Challenge of Global Governance in the Sustainable Development Agenda", in Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 16: Peace and Justice and Strong Institutions, edited by Paloma Durán La Laguna and Cástor Miguel Díaz Barrado. Toronto, Thomson Reuters, 2018; The Multiple Levels of Governance of International Migration: Understanding Disparities and Disorder. AJIL Unbound, 111, 153-158. doi:10. 1017/aju.2017.36; "Egyptian Irregular Migration in the GCC Countries", in Skillful Survivals: Irregular Migration to the Gulf, edited by Philippe Fargues and Nasra M. Shah. Fiesole, European University Institute, 2017 (with Nourhan Abdelaziz)
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Executive Director - Gulf Labor Markets and Migration Program
- Managing Director of the Gulf Labour Markets
Imco Brouwer is Managing Director of the Gulf Labour Markets, Migration, and Population (GLMM) programme, at the Gulf Research Center (GRC).
He is affiliated with the GRC since 2009, initially assisting in the setting up of Gulf Research Meeting (GRM, 2009-2011) and then in establishing and managing the GLMM.
Over the past three decades, Imco Brouwer has worked with universities, research centers, foundations, and non-governmental organizations. His focus has been on international migration, human rights, democratization, higher education, and international cooperation. His responsibilities have included setting up and managing centers and programs; academic and policy research projects; international meetings and networks of scholars and policy makers; and academic and professional training. Fundraising from European, US and Arab grant makers has been an integral part of these activities. Geographically speaking, his professional focus has been the Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean area as well as Europe and the US.
During the last 15 years he has focused on international migration into, through and from the Middle East and North Africa, with particular attention to the Gulf countries. He also continues to follow closely his long-term research interest on political regime change and international democracy assistance.
Imco Brouwer has more than two decades managed international academic programmes focusing on the Middle East and North Africa. He has established and managed networks of researchers and policymakers. He is presently the executive director of the Gulf Labour Markets and Migration (GLMM) Programme, a joint programme of the Gulf Research Center Foundation (GRCF) and the European University Institute (EUI). He has a deep knowledge of a multitude of Arab countries, including all six Gulf countries and, in the framework of GLMM, has established relations with the national data producers and stakeholders of labour and migration as well as the GCC Stat Centre.
Job Titles:
- Publishing Manager, Araa Magazine Editor - in - Chief
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Head of the International Migration Division in the Directorate for Employment
Jean-Christophe Dumont has been the Head of the International Migration Division in the Direction for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD since 2011. He joined the OECD Secretariat in 2000 to work on international migration issues. He oversees the OECD annual flagship publication on migration International Migration Outlook and of numerous publications on the economic impact of international migration as well as on migration management and the labour market integration of immigrants and their children in OECD countries. He has also worked on migration and development issues and on the international mobility of health workers. He holds a PhD in development economics from the University Paris IX-Dauphine and was a research fellow at Laval University, Quebec, Canada.
Jihan Safar having lived fifteen years in Kuwait and conducted her Ph.D. fieldwork in Oman and Kuwait, acquired a deep understanding of the Gulf society and economy. The subject of her Ph.D. in Economical Demography is "Marriage and procreation in Oman and Kuwait: A study of generational change" (2015). During her Ph.D research, she conducted qualitative and quantitative surveys. This provided her with valuable field experiences and research tools, to analyze perceptions and behaviors on marriage, fertility, family and gender role. The comparative study between two gulf countries gave also important insights on the divergent population policies in the Gulf. Rceently, she obtained a grant from Georgetown University (CIRS- Qatar) to conduct research on the soaring brideprice (mahr) in Oman. Her study combines a qualitative approach (40 interviews) with a quantitative survey (800 women, online survey). The aim is to analyse the main socio-economic variables and women characteristics that are affecting the mahr in the country.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Director of the Labour Affairs GCC Executive Bureau
Ph.D. researcher in Modern Slavery and Forced Labour. He is a Manager of Labour affairs in the Executive Bureau of the Council of Ministers of Labour in the GCC States. He wrote, edited, and supervised papers, articles and reports on Forced Labour and Human Trafficking and Labour Markets in the GCC. Che is coordinator and member of the GCC states group in the travaux preparatoires of the ILO Protocol on Forced Labour. Member of the ILO Migration Advisory Group (MAG) and a Senior Consultant with the Humanity Research Center (HRC).
Job Titles:
- Senior Researcher at SESRI
Kien T. Le is Senior Researcher at SESRI, Qatar University. He has personally overseen and coordinated more than a dozen surveys implemented by SESRI. Among these are the two surveys conducted in all GCC countries: the Single Currency Survey and the Labor Camp Survey. Dr. Le also taught one part of the undergraduate course on Research Methodology at Qatar University. Before joining SESRI, Dr. Le was a researcher at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, University of Virginia, USA. At the Universities of Virginia, he has implemented and managed a number of survey projects and studies covering a wide range of topics (socio-economic, health, education, immigration) for state and federal governments and methodologies (sample designs, non-response and coverage errors, cell phone RDD, interview privacy and third party effect) for his personal research interests. Dr. Le has published widely in both economics and survey methodology journals and has served as LPI or co-PI on numerous NPRP-funded projects.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Professor at the Department of Sociology
Dr. Lubna Ahmed Al-Kazi graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, USA with a Ph.D. in Demography and Sociology. She is an Associate Professor at Kuwait University in the Sociology Department. She is the founder and director of the Women's Research and Studies Center (WRSC), which was established in September 2010 in coordination with the Supreme Council for Planning and Development (SCPD), Kuwait and Kuwait University. WRSC has organized leadership training at the regional level and national level as well as numerous workshops to empower women in partnership with UN Women and UNDP. WRSC is presently in charge of implementing the gender component of the Kuwait National Development Plan and the Vision 2035 of New Kuwait. It is also implementing the UN Goal SDG 5 on Gender Equality in partnership with the SCPD and UN Women and UNDP. She has been in the Kuwaiti delegation for CEDAW and UPR sessions in Geneva numerous times to speak on Women's status in Kuwait. She is a member of the Permanent National Committee on Human Rights. She spoke about Kuwait's achievement on SDG5 at the 63rd CSW session at the United Nations, New York in 2019. She spoke about Women's rights at the UPR in January,2020 and also at the first Human Rights Dialogue at the European Union in February 2020. She is presently the deputy head of the Committee "Women and Business Affairs "formed by the to implement Women's Economic Empowerment reviewing the labour law for the private sector and increasing women in leadership. She is also on the Women's Empowerment committee under the Higher Council of Women's Affairs, Kuwait.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Humanities and Social
- Non - Resident Fellow
Magdalena Karolak is Associate Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at Zayed University, UAE. She received her Ph.D. in Linguistics, M.A. in Political Science, M.A. in Latin American Studies, and B.A. in French Language. Prior to working at ZU, Dr. Karolak held Assistant Professor positions in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. In 2014-15, she was an American Political Science Association MENA Fellow. Her research interests include transformations of societies in the MENA region and comparative linguistics. Dr. Karolak has published more than 50 journal articles and book chapters on the shifting gender relations, social media, culture and identity, and political system transformations in the MENA countries. She is the author of three scholarly monographs.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Director of the Scalabrini Migration Center
Maruja M.B. Asis is Director of the Scalabrini Migration Center(SMC), based in Manila, Philippines, and Editor of the Asian and Pacific Migration Journal (APMJ). She is a sociologist (Ph.D.) with more than thirty years of research experience on international migration and social transformation in Asia. Her research and publications explore the themes of gender, family and migration; migration and development; and migration governance. She has served as a member of various expert groups, advisory committees and scientific committees on policy, research and advocacy issues related to international migration.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Is Director of the Scalabrini Migration Center
Maysa Zahra holds a Master's degree in the Theory & Practice of Human Rights from the University Of Essex (Human Rights Centre) in the United Kingdom. She previously studied International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
She worked as a legal researcher with the MATTIN Group, a voluntary human rights-based partnership in Palestine, researching provisions of third state and European Union legislation that create obligations corresponding to those that result from the customary international law on third state responsibility. She also participated in several lobbying interventions with the European Union aimed at promoting greater consistency between its contractual relations with Israel on the one hand, and its human rights obligations on the other.
Job Titles:
- Master
- Non - Resident Intern
Mohammad Javaid is a master's student in Anthropology and Sociology at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Prior to joining the Graduate Institute, he completed an interdisciplinary master's in Society and Culture at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. He holds a Bachelor's in Arabic studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. Hailing from Kashmir, Javaid's research has been inspired by his personal experiences. It includes political conflict, humanitarian aid and anthropology of Islam. Javaid also works on the ‘Quiet Aid' Project - funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation at the Geneva Graduate Institute.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Director of Research at the Middle East Council for Global Affairs
- Senior Fellow and Director of Research With the Middle East Council
Nader S. Kabbani is Senior Fellow and Director of Research with the Middle East Council on Global Affairs (MECGA) and a Research Fellow with the Economic Research Forum (ERF) in Cairo. Previously, Kabbani served as Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution and Director of Research with the Brookings Doha Center (BDC). A development researcher and practitioner with over 20 years' experience, Kabbani served in leadership positions at the Silatech Foundation and the Syria Development Research Center at the Syria Trust for Development. He also served on the faculty of the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the research staff of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the California State Senate. Kabbani regularly serves as a consultant for international organizations and on the advisory boards of social enterprises and non-profit organizations. Kabbani holds a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College and a Ph.D. in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University.
Job Titles:
- Scientific Director
- Professor at the Lahore School of Economics
- Professor of Migration and Development at the Lahore School of Economics
Nasra M. Shah is a Professor of Migration and Development at the Lahore School of Economics, Pakistan. She is the scientific director of GLMM. Prior to returning to her homeland, she was Professor of Demography at the Department of Community Medicine and Behavioral Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University for about 30 years. Prof. Shah received her doctoral degree in Population Dynamics from the Johns Hopkins University, School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA, in 1974. Before joining Kuwait University, she worked in Hawaii, USA at the East-West Population Institute and at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad. Besides international migration, her research has focused on various themes including the role of social factors in infant and child mortality; predictors of fertility and contraceptive use; women's role and status; utilization of health services; and psychosocial and physical health of older persons.
Nasra M. Shah is Professor at the Lahore School of Economics since September 2018. Until then, she was professor of Demography at the Department of Community Medicine and Behavioral Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University. She received her doctoral degree in Population Dynamics from the Johns Hopkins University, School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA. Professor Shah's research has focused on several different demographic issues in the context of health and societal development. She has conducted extensive research on the Asian region, especially Pakistan and the major South Asian countries. Kuwait is another major country on which her work has focused for almost 30 years. She has addressed questions related to the role that social factors play in the reduction of infant and child mortality, and on the predictors of fertility and contraceptive use. She has also analyzed changes in the social, economic and health status of women in several Asian and Pacific countries and edited a major volume on the socioeconomic and demographic profile of Pakistani Women. One of her latest research interests includes the study of psychosocial factors in aging and the role that networks play in the aging process. Labor migration, especially from Asian countries to the oil-rich Gulf countries, has been one of the consistent themes in Dr. Shah's research for more than 35 years. She has published two books and numerous articles on various migration topics. Her research has focused on the perspective of sending as well as receiving countries. It has addressed topics such as socioeconomic profiles of migrant workers, economic progress of migrant workers, domestic worker migration, violence against women migrants, increasingly restrictive policies of receiving countries, irregular migration, the role of social networks in the migration process, and aspirations and plans of 2nd generation non-nationals. Her many publications include books on Asian Labor Migration: Pipeline to the Middle East; Pakistani Women; Basic Needs, Women and Development; Population of Kuwait: Structure and Dynamics and Skilful Survivals: Irregular Migration to the Gulf.
Job Titles:
- Business Development Manager, Knowledge Corporation
Philippe Fargues is a French demographer. His most recent positions were Founding Director of the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute (EUI, Florence) and Co-Founder and Co-Scientific Director of GLMM. He held senior positions at the National Institute for Demographic Studies in Paris and the American University in Cairo. He taught at Sciences Po Paris, Harvard, and various universities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. His research covers population studies, migration, and political demography. His recent publications include: Excluded Generations in Non-Inclusive Nations: The Demographic Roots of Political Unrest in the Arab World (Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle-East, 2021), Migration in West and North Africa and across the Mediterranean (Ed. with M. Rango, E. Borgnäs and I. Schöfberger, International Organization for Migration, 2020), Advancing Knowledge on International Migration: Data and Research Needs (International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, 2018), Migration to the Gulf. Policies in sending and receiving countries (with N. Shah, GRC-Cambridge, 2018).
Philippe Fargues is a French demographer. He is a part-time Professor at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute and an Affiliate at the Middle East Initiative of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School. He was the founding Director of EUI's Migration Policy Centre and held senior positions at the National Institute for Demographic Studies in Paris and the American University in Cairo and taught at Harvard and various universities in France, the Middle East and Africa. His research interests include population, international migration and politics. His recent publications include: Skilful Survivals. Irregular Migration to the Gulf (with Nasra Shah, GRC-Cambridge, 2017); Mass migration and uprisings in the Arab countries: An analytical framework (International Development Policy, 2017); Migration from North Africa and the Middle East: Skilled Migrants, Development and Globalisation (IB Tauris, 2015), Is What We Hear About Migration Really True? Questioning Eight Migration Stereotypes (EUI, 2014); International Migration and the Nation State in Arab Countries (Middle East Law and Governance, 2013); Demography, Migration and Revolt in the South of the Mediterranean (Brookings, 2012); International Migration and the Demographic Transition: a Two-Way Interaction (International Migration Review, 2011).
Job Titles:
- Member of the GRC Foundation Council
- Senior Consultant
- Senior Consultant, GRC Foundation, Geneva
- Trustee and a Founding Member of the Gulf Research Center Foundation Geneva
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Professor at the Hamid Bin Khalifa University
- Professor of Migration Ethics and Human Rights at the Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics
Ray Jureidini is Professor of Migration Ethics and Human Rights at the Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE) in the College of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar (since 2014). After teaching Sociology in several universities in Australia, he served 6 years at the American University of Beirut from 1999-2005. At the American University in Cairo from 2005-2011 he was director of the Migration and Refugee Studies program (2008-2011). In 2012-13 he was research consultant at the Qatar Foundation (QF) and one of the authors of QF's 2013 Mandatory Standards for Migrant Worker Welfare. In 2014, his report, Migrant Labour Recruitment to Qatar was published by Bloomsbury/Qatar Foundation. He has published further on labour recruitment corruption and reform with the International Labour Organization (2016) and the International Organization for Migration (2017); wage protection systems in the GCC (2017) and Qatar (2019). He co-edited a book with Said Hassan (2020) Migration and Islamic Ethics with Brill and is currently engaged in a research project on food security and migrant labour in Qatar. He regularly consults on migration and refugee issues, migrant labour recruitment, labour supply chain evaluations and migrant labour reform advocacy.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Senior Migration Specialist at the International Labour Organisation
Ryszard Cholewinski is Senior Migration Specialist in the International Labour Organization (ILO) Regional Office for Arab States, based in Beirut, Lebanon, having previously worked at ILO Headquarters in Geneva (2010-2017) and with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) (2005-2010).
He oversees ILO's labour migration work in the Arab States region relating to policy and technical assistance, research, and development cooperation, in close collaboration with ILO Geneva, field offices in Africa and Asia, as well as ILO's tripartite constituents comprising governments, employers' and workers' organizations, with a view to advancing ILO's fair migration agenda.
He is a lawyer by training with 13 years of previous experience (1992-2005) in an academic setting in the School of Law at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom where he was a Reader in Law. He is the author of Migrant Workers in International Human Rights Law: Their Protection in Countries of Employment (Oxford University Press, 1997) and has published widely on international labour migration, international law relating to migrant workers, and various aspects of European Union migration law and policy.
Job Titles:
- Assistant General Manager
Job Titles:
- Administration Manager
- Events and Logistics Manager, Gulf Research Center
Job Titles:
- Non - Resident Intern
- Resident Intern
Sharique Umar is a Ph.D. student in the Gulf Studies Program & Center at Qatar University, where he also works as a graduate assistant. He holds two master's degrees: an MA in Islamic Ethics from Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, and an MA in International and Area Studies from Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi, India. Sharique's research interests include South-South migration, migrants' identity, the intersection of religion and migration, and culture and society in the Gulf.
Before joining GLMM as a non-resident intern, Sharique worked on projects with various organizations such as Qatar Foundation, Stimson Center in Washington, and Schumacher Society in New Delhi. He has recently published a chapter in a book titled "Social Change in the Gulf Region: Multidisciplinary Perspectives," among other publications.
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow
- Assistant Professor at Sultan Qaboos University
Usamah Alfarhan is an applied microeconomist and assistant professor at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in Oman. Prior to his full-time academic engagement, he served as economic consultant for the USAID-funded Fiscal Reform Project in Jordan. At SQU, Dr. Alfarhan teaches microeconomic theory, managerial economics, labor economics, mathematical economics and cost-benefit analysis. His current research focuses on applied queries in labor and tourism economics, citable in reputable outlets such as the International Labour Review, the International Journal of Manpower, Applied Economics Letters, Economic Modelling, Gender and Education, the International Journal of Consumer Studies, Tourism Economics and Current Issues in Tourism. In addition, Dr. Alfarhan serves as associate editor at Frontiers in Sustainable Cities.
Job Titles:
- Accounting Manager
- Accounts Manager, Gulf Research Center