Aleksandra Koluvija

Department of History
Doctoral researcher

Contact details

PhD title: The human rights-based approach to refugee integration: Understanding the role of civil society organisations in refugee integration in Berlin, Germany
SupervisorDr Julian Pänke and Professor Nando Sigona

Research

In my dissertation research, I am investigating the inclusion of human rights values in refugee integration practices from the bottom up – from the perspective of refugee integration practices on the local level performed through CSOs in Berlin, Germany. The research is divided in a mapping process and subsequent case studies with semi-structured interviews. Interviews are performed with employees of two different groups of CSOs working in the refugee integration sector in Berlin. The two groups (previously defined in the working process) are those CSOs in Berlin that appear to use a human rights-based approach (HRBA) and those that do not use such an approach in their refugee integration measures. A particular focus of my research is to find out how refugee integration measures are planned, implemented, and performed in the CSOs and how these steps are connected to the use of a HRBA. Furthermore, it aims at uncovering descriptive data on the subjective experiences of the interviewees with the HRBA and insights on how they regard the importance and usefulness of incorporating human rights-values in refugee integration measures.