About

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and the Institute of Public Administration at Leiden University focusing on the comparative political economy of advanced capitalist democracies. My research examines how occupational change and immigration shape ethnic and gender inequalities in Europe and the consequences of these changes for the policies and politics of the welfare state.

My dissertation book project, Ethnic Inequality in the Welfare State, aims to reconcile the persistence of ethnic inequalities in expansive welfare state regimes. I argue that, in response to changes in labor demand and patterns of job polarization that have followed the transition to a knowledge economy, social investment policies have been reoriented to promote immigrant and minority employment rather than expand equality of opportunity. I draw on panel surveys, administrative data, interviews, and archival documents to show how policy interventions in Finland, Germany, and the UK invest in sector-specific and linguistic skills at the cost of expanding minority access to the socio-cultural resources that are critical for upward mobility in the knowledge economy, including valuable social networks and strong interactive skills. Finally, I argue that while this approach to policy design is in part a response to job polarization and service labor shortages, it is also the product of a political context wherein policymakers are incentivized to prioritize majority voters’ concerns about avoiding downward mobility and addressing immigrant unemployment over the access immigrant minorities might have to better opportunities and job prospects.