Basak Bilecen

Basak Bilecen is a Professor in the Department of Sociology/ICS at the University of Groningen's Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences. Her research focuses on migration, social inequalities, and transnational networks, exploring how mobility shapes welfare access and inequality across borders. She employs qualitative interviews and network analysis to examine mechanisms like trust and reciprocity in contexts like healthcare, education, and family life.

Key research interests include transnational social protection, migrant integration, and the intersectionality of gender, ethnicity, and class. She has conducted comparative studies on Chinese international students in Germany and the US, Turkish migrants' networks, and Syrian refugees' educational challenges. Her work contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals addressing inequality and global justice.

Recent research highlights include analyzing pandemic impacts on migrant care workers, transnational care practices, and loneliness among international students. She leads projects like the Volkswagen Foundation-funded MIG-AGE study on aging among migrants and the PROMISE initiative to reduce loneliness among older migrants.

• Educations: Recipient of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellowship (Harvard, 2017) and Rosalind Franklin Fellowship (Groningen, 2018)
• Grants/Projects: Leads six active projects on migrant health, diaspora institutions, and social inclusion
• Labs/Teams: Collaborates internationally on transnational migration studies through mixed-methods research frameworks

Awards include the Karl Arnold Prize (2022) for contributions to social science research. Her work bridges academic theory with policy-relevant insights to address global inequalities.