Laura Cleton is a postdoctoral researcher in return migration governance at UNU-MERIT. Her current research at UNU-MERIT investigates the involvement of diaspora in capacity building and development through temporary return programs, facilitated by the International Organization for Migration. She investigates whether and how such programs 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.

Her dissertation entitled Deporting Children. Policy Framing, Legitimation and Intersectional Boundary Work (2022, Department of Political Science at the University of Antwerp) relied 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 argued 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 hand emphasized 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 scholarly 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. Her dissertation co-won the 2022 American Political Science Association's (APSA) Migration & Citizenship section Best Dissertation Award, and was shortlisted for the 46th G.A. Van Poelje Best Dissertation Award, which is awarded by the Association for Public Administration (Vereniging voor Bestuurskunde) to the best dissertation in Public Administration defended at a Dutch or Flemish university in 2022.

Prior to starting her postdoc and PhD, Laura worked as a junior lecturer in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (University of Amsterdam) and a junior researcher in Social Geography (Utrecht University). She is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, steering board member for IMISCOE's Gender & Sexuality Standing Group, and acts as the secretary of the Dutch Association for Migration Research (DAMR). Her research interests include return migration governance, AVR & deportation policies and politics, (international) bureuacracies, gender & feminist approaches to migration studies, and family migration.

Contact: laura.cleton@maastrichtuniversity.nl 

Find Laura on Twitter, LinkedIn and Research Gate.

	Selected publications by Laura Cleton
Articles (journal, professional, popular)
Cleton, Laura & Petra Meier, 2023, Contesting policy categories using intersectionality: Eeflections for studying migration governance, Ethnic and Racial Studies, DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2023.2171737, More information
Cleton, Laura, 2022, “We have nothing to hide”: Legitimacy narratives, researcher positionality and the ethics of accessing the Dutch deportation apparatus, International Migration, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13065
Cleton, Laura, 2022, Assessing Adequate Homes and Proper Parenthood: How Gendered and Racialized Family Norms Legitimize the Deportation of Unaccompanied Minors in Belgium and the Netherlands, Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, DOI: 10.1093/sp/jxac001, More information
Cleton, Laura, 2021, The time politics of migrant deportability: an intersectional analysis of deportation policy for non-citizen children in Belgium and the Netherlands, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2021.1926943, More information
Wittock, Nathan, Laura Cleton, Robin Vandevoordt & Gert Verschraegen, 2021, Legitimising detention and deportation of illegalised migrant families: reconstructing public controversies in Belgium and the Netherlands, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2021.1965470, More information
Cleton, Laura & Reinhard Schweitzer, 2021, ‘Our aim is to assist migrants in making a well-informed decision’: how return counsellors in Austria and the Netherlands manage the aspirations of unwanted non-citizens, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47(17): 3846-3863, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2021.1935813, More information
Cleton, Laura, 2020, Meelopen met de regievoerders Over de grenzen van participeren en observeren in terugkeertrajecten van ongedocumenteerde migranten, KWALON, 25(1), DOI: 10.5117/2020.025.001.004, More information
Cleton, Laura & Sébastien Chauvin, 2020, Performing freedom in the Dutch deportation regime: bureaucratic persuasion and the enforcement of ‘voluntary return’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46(1): 297-313, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2019.1593819, More information
Book chapters
Cleton, Laura & Elsemieke van Osch, 2022, Voorbij 'illegaliteit' en uitsluiting, in: Jill Coene, Tuur Ghys, Bernard Hubeau, Sarah Marchal, Peter Raeymaeckers, Roy Remmen, Wouter Vandenhole, Gert Van Hecken & Lore Van Praag, Jaarboek Armoede en Sociale Uitsluiting 2022, ACCO Learn, Leuven, More information
Cleton, Laura & Saskia Bonjour, 2022, Feminist Scholarship in Europe on the Politics of International Migration, in: Maria Stern and Ann E. Towns, Feminist IR in Europe. Knowledge Production in Academic Institutions, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Bonjour, Saskia & Laura Cleton, 2021, Gendered Migrations: A Gender Perspective on International Migration and Migration Politics, in: Jeannette Money, Sarah P. Lockhart, Introduction to International Migration. Population Movements in the 21st Century, Routledge, London, More information
Bonjour, Saskia & Laura Cleton, 2021, Co-constructions of family and belonging in the politics of family migration, in: Emma Carmel, Katharina Lenner, and Regine Paul, Handbook on the Governance and Politics of Migration, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, More information
External working papers
Cleton, Laura & Reinhard Schweitzer, 2020, Using or inducing return aspirations? On the role of return counsellors in the implementation of 'assisted voluntary return' policies in Austria and the Netherlands, More information
Other (editorship, media appearance, keynote, etc.)
Cleton, Laura, 2022, Book review: Saving the Children: Humanitarianism, Internationalism, and Empire by Emily Baughan, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Book review: Saving the Children: Humanitarianism, Internationalism, and Empire by Emily Baughan, DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2022.2092528
Cleton, Laura, 2021, Book Review: Deporting Black Britons: Portraits of deportation to Jamaica / By Luke de Noronha, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Book Review: Deporting Black Britons: Portraits of deportation to Jamaica / By Luke de Noronha, DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2020.1837905.
Cleton, Laura, 2021, Book Review: Adam Goodman (2020) The Deportation Machine. America’s Long History of Expelling Immigrants. Princeton and Oxford, Princeton University Press, 322 pp. ISBN: 9780691182155, International Migration, Book Review: Adam Goodman (2020) The Deportation Machine. America’s Long History of Expelling Immigrants. Princeton and Oxford, Princeton University Press, 322 pp. ISBN: 9780691182155, DOI: 10.1111/imig.12928, More information
Cleton, Laura, 2020, Book Review: Deported Americans: Life after deportation to Mexico by Beth C. Caldwell, PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, Book Review: Deported Americans: Life after deportation to Mexico by Beth C. Caldwell, DOI: 10.1111/plar.12348., More information
Cleton, Laura, 2020, Book Review: Policing Undocumented Migrants. Law, Violence and Responsibility, Border Criminologies, Review of Policing Undocumented Migrants. Law, Violence and Responsibility by Louise Boon-Kuo (Routledge, 2018), More information
Schweitzer, Reinhard & Laura Cleton, 2020, How counsellors convince asylum seekers to accept ‘voluntary return’, Rejected asylum seekers are often told they can be deported or go home willingly. But are these really the only options?, More information
Cleton, Laura & Reinhard Schweitzer, 2020, Roundtable on Refugee Aspirations: The refugees who dare to aspire, Refugees dream about their future in order to give shape and meaning to their journeys, yet this often counts against them in public discourse, More information
Cleton, Laura, 2019, Book Review: Governing Irregular Migration: Bordering Culture, Labour and Security in Spain, Border Criminologies, Review of Governing Irregular Migration: Bordering Culture, Labour and Security in Spain by David Moffette (UBC Press 2018), More information
Cleton, Laura, 2019, We’ve got nothing to hide here: reflections on researching the deportation apparatus in the Netherlands, Border Criminologies, It has two aims: 1) to highlight the questions that arose when the state institution I researched did not seem to be characterized by opacity and resistance, and 2) to show that this openness towards me studying deportation practices can be seen as part and parcel of a state project aimed at legitimizing restrictive forced return policies, More information
Cleton, Laura, 2019, From the field : 'We have got nothing to hide here': reflections on researching the deportation apparatus in the Netherlands, Border Criminologies, Guest post by Laura Cleton, PhD candidate at the University of Antwerp, More information