Laura Cleton MSc
| Researcher Research group(s): 6. Migration and Development Laura Cleton is a researcher in return migration, diaspora and development at UNU-MERIT/Maastricht University and currently finishing her PhD in Political Science at the University of Antwerp. Her dissertation entitled Deporting Children. Policy Framing, Legitimation and Intersectional Boundary Work relies on critical migration and border studies, intersectionality and interpretative policy analysis to question how the Dutch and Belgian authorities legitimize the deportation of undocumented migrant children. It finds that they do so through a conscious attempt to (re)frame the policy problem at hand, by deliberately drawing attention away from the underlying moral-political conflict and the hardships deportation poses for children. Instead, they on the one had emphasize the diligence of their procedures and their compassionate way of working, while on the other also directing attention to the potential danger that children and their family pose to the citizenry. The dissertation complicates our current understanding of the workings of securitization and humanitarianism as means to legitimate migration control, and points to the crucial importance of intersectionality and interpretative policy analysis to deportation studies. At UNU-Merit, Laura works on the Connecting Diaspora for Development (CD4D) evaluation project. This project seeks to understand if temporary return programs for ‘skilled’ diaspora members supported by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) enable the transfer of skills and knowledge to diaspora members’ countries of nationality. It not only questions what this process looks like and what (enduring) effects it has, but also challenges the underlying assumptions and discourses embedded in diaspora engagement for development. Find Laura on Twitter, LinkedIn and Research Gate.
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