IRiS Associates

Dr Marta Foresti

Senior IRiS Associate

Director ODI Europe and Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Global Affairs, LSE

Marta is an established leader with extensive experience in global and national policy making and delivery. As well as being Director of ODI Europe Marta also leads its Human Mobility Initiative, managing the institute engagement on migration at a global, regional and local level.  She is acted as Senior Policy Advisor for the consultation of the Global Compact For Migration, was a member of the Advisory Board of Refugeesdeeply.com, of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Migration Policy and Practice as well as of the Board of PorCausa.org. 

Marta worked as a Senior Advisor to the Italian Treasury, as a Senior Manager at Save the Children and as a Researcher at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations.   Her interests include the political economy of development and reform, sustainable urban development, migration and human mobility, EU and neighbourhood policies, conflict and fragility.  Marta has over 20 years of research policy formulation and delivery, as well as management experience and has an interest in applied social research methodologies and policy evaluation.

Email: m.foresti@odi.org.uk

Dr Lin Fu

Research Fellow, University of Birmingham

Dr Lin Fu is a Research Fellow in the Institute of Applied Health. She conducts quantitative research on the ‘Vulnerability, migration, and wellbeing: investigating experiences, perceptions, and barriers’ project. Lin’s research interests lie in the fields of migration, vulnerability, wellbeing, behaviour economics, and health economics.

Email

l.fu@bham.ac.uk

Dr Marie Godin

British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, 
Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford

Marie’s British Academy project is titled ‘Refugees, social protection and digital technologies in times of the “refugee crisis”’.  The aim of the project is to explore how the development of tech-social protection initiatives led by, with or for refugees, is contributing to a reshaping of the politics of welfare at the local, national and transnational levels.

Marie was a Research Officer on the mobile welfare project at the Oxford International Migration Institute (IMI) investigating the links between social protection initiatives, welfare systems and migration within, towards and beyond Europe. Her work has appeared in a range of journals, including the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, African Diaspora. A Journal of Transnational Africa in a Global World, and Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees.

Email: marie.godin@qeh.ox.ac.uk
Twitter: @MarieGodin001

Hasan Salim Patel

Communications Advisor for United for Global Mental Health

Hasan Salim Patel is a communications specialist, currently working as a Communications Advisor for United for Global Mental Health. Hasan has also worked for the BBC and Al Jazeera as a Broadcast and Digital Journalist, while he also worked as a Communications and Campaigns specialist for Al Jazeera Media Network and the University of Birmingham. He has also advised brands, various organisations, and individuals on strategic communications and crisis communications.

Hasan was also part of the Community Sponsorship programme and through local organisations has successfully helped settle families into the UK, while he works closely with various organisations such as Citizens UK. He also writes and commentates on various issues ranging from communications, trends in media, current affairs, and community issues.

• Twitter: @hasanpatel
• Email: hasan@hasanpatel.com

Professor Jacques Poot

Emeritus Professor of Population Economics, National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis, University of Waikato, New Zealand

Jacques expertise includes the causes and consequences of international migration related to economics of population.  He has had leadership roles in several large multi-institution research programmes, such as the Migrant Diversity and Regional Disparity in Europe, Capturing the Diversity Dividend of Aotearoa New Zealand (CaDDANZ) and the Economic Integration of Immigrants in New Zealand.

Jacques has been working in recent years particularly on international and internal migration, the economics of cultural diversity, local labour markets, regional development, housing markets, and forecasting.

Email: Jacques.poot@waikato.ac.nz

Sarah Taal

Director and Advocate, Baobab Women's Project

The Baobab Women's Project is a Birmingham based community organisation assisting and empowering refugee and migrant women.

Sarah holds a BA in International Relations from the University of Warwick and an MA in Migration and Social Policy from the University of Birmingham. She has professional connections with BIRCH Community Hosting Project, Hope Projects and Coventry Peace House Night Shelter for destitute migrants with NRPF, currently sitting on the former projects steering groups and  the Shelter safeguarding panel.

Sarah is an active trustee of the Asylum Support Appeals Project (ASAP) and Coventry Migrant Women's Houses (CMWH). She has researched info trafficking among Nigerian and Albanian women, and gender-based violence among refugees in Africa alongside IRiS. 

Email: sarah@baobabwomen.co.uk

Dr Marisol Reyes Soto

Research Associate

Marisol has been conducting research at the Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS) since 2018. She has worked on relevant projects such as the interim evaluation of the UK Community Sponsorship Scheme (CSS) directed by Professor Jenny Phillimore, and as a mentor and trainer on the Community Practitioner Research Programme (CPRP), led by Dr Lisa Goodson. Her research has focused on the pro-social behaviour, motivations and experiences of the organisers and volunteers who join sponsorship groups, and the impact of sponsorship schemes in rural communities. Recent research includes policy recommendations for the sustainability of community-led sponsorship programmes in six European countries and the experiences of hospitality and reciprocity of people who have hosted displaced Ukrainians in the UK 'Homes for Ukraine'.

Email:m.reyes@bham.ac.uk