Prior to joining C3S, Natalie worked as a postdoctoral researcher in international teams at the University of Amsterdam, the Hertie School and the University of Duisburg-Essen. She holds a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Amsterdam and a Double-Master degree in Political Science and International Relations from Sciences Po Paris and Freie Universität Berlin. She is founding member of the grassroots thinktank Polis180 and serves on the board of the German Network for Forced Migration Studies (Netzwerk Fluchtforschung).

Topics:

• International political sociology
• Migration and refugee governance
• International security
• Social inequalities, gender and intersectionality
• Digitisation and automation in mobility governance
• EU politics
• International organisations
• International practice theory

Research Group: Technological Transformations in Migration and Asylum Governance funded by a Change! Fellowship of the Volkswagen Foundation (2026-2031), in cooperation with International Rescue Committee Germany

Role: Principal Investigator (PI)

While technological advancements promise enhanced efficiency in public administration and improved access to services for migrants, concerns about data protection, discrimination and inequalities persist. Existing digitisation initiatives often overlook the perspectives of frontline bureaucrats and migrants, hindering inclusive change. With a transdisciplinary team of social scientists and experts on participatory approaches, the project seeks to generate cutting-edge scholarly knowledge and concrete solutions for inclusive technological transformations. Combining insights from Political Sociology, Science and Technology Studies and interdisciplinary Migration Studies, it investigates digitisation projects in governing migration pathways, reception and long-term integration with a focus on co-creation and co-development of new technologies.

Speculative Futures: Examining Data-Driven Models in European Security Policies (FUTURESEC) (2024-2026)

Aurora Seed-Funding, together with Dr. Tasniem Anwar (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and Prof. Dr. Andreas Oberprantacher (University of Innsbruck)

Role: Co-PI

New technologies, including generative AI promise to better calculate security risks and anticipate future security challenges such as terrorist attacks, climate catastrophes, armed conflicts, or large-scale migratory movements. FUTURESEC focusses on data-driven prognostic models as a new form of knowledge at the centre of European security governance. Within this project we conduct exploratory research into three security domains, namely: (a) terrorism (b) migration and (c) armed conflict. Using a triangulated qualitative research approach, the goal of this project is to scrutinise how these technologies impact the design of future security scenarios, to better understand how our policies are shaped by data-driven prognostic models and how to formulate critique against the lack of transparency.

Selected publications

Monograph

Welfens, Natalie. 2025. Unequal Access. Categorising Refugees in European Resettlement and Humanitarian Admission Programmes. McGill Queens University Press. https://www.mqup.ca/unequal-access-products-9780228024606.php?page_id=122035&

Peer-reviewed articles

Sosa Popovic, Lara, and Natalie Welfens. 2024. “Same, Same but Different? The EU’s Framing of Refugee Arrivals in 2015 and 2022 Compared.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 51 (3): 609-632. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2024.2431053

Darshan, Vigneswaran, Nora Söderberg, Natalie Welfens, and Saskia Bonjour. 2024. “Capitalizing on a Crisis: The Example of the European Trust Fund for Africa.” European Journal of International Relations. https://doi.org/10.1177/13540661241260606

Natter, Katharina, and Natalie Welfens. 2024. “Why Has Migration Research So Little Impact? Examining Knowledge Practices in Migration Policies and Migration Studies.” International Migration Review 58 (4): 1669-1700. https://doi.org/10.1177/01979183241271683

Welfens, Natalie. 2023. “Promising Victimhood: Contrasting Deservingness Requirements in Refugee Resettlement.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 49 (5): 1103–1124. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2022.2117686

Special Issues

Hoijtink, Marijn, Hanna Muehlenhoff, and Natalie Welfens (eds.) (2023). Whose (In)Security? Gender, Race and Coloniality in European Security Policies. Special issue in European Security 32 (3).

Muehlenhoff, Hanna, van der Vleuten, Anna, and Natalie Welfens (eds.) (2020). Slipping Off or Turning the Tide? The EU’s Gender Equality Promotion Abroad in Times of Crisis, Special Issue in Political Studies Review 18 (3).

Please find a full list of publications on ORCID and GoogleScholar.

Summer term 2026

• EU Migration Governance in the Digital Age
• Qualitative computational methods