Social Policy Scholar | Migration, Institutional Trajectories & Aspiration Governance
I study how institutions shape life trajectories by governing aspirations.
📍 Fribourg, Switzerland
I am a social policy scholar working at the intersection of migration, policy implementation, and inequality. My research develops a conceptual framework to explain how institutions do not simply allocate opportunities, but actively structure the futures individuals come to see as possible.
I introduced the concept of low ambition equilibrium to show how integration systems can stabilize aspirations at modest, institutionally acceptable levels through everyday policy practices. My work combines in-depth qualitative research with comparative analysis across Switzerland and Canada.
I study how institutions shape life trajectories by governing aspirations. This includes the development of the concept of low ambition equilibrium, which explains how policy systems stabilize aspirations over time — channelling individuals towards institutionally acceptable futures rather than those they might otherwise pursue.
I examine how policies are implemented in practice, with a focus on the role of social workers and street-level bureaucrats. My work analyses the ethical dilemmas that emerge at the intersection of institutional expectations, professional norms, and the situations of the populations they support.
I investigate how transnational family obligations and care practices shape the trajectories of migrants. This work examines how care responsibilities across borders intersect with integration processes and institutional frameworks — a dimension that has been largely overlooked in mainstream policy analysis.
Edward Elgar Publishing · 2026
This book develops the concept of low ambition equilibrium to explain how integration systems shape and stabilize refugees' educational and occupational trajectories. Based on comparative qualitative research in Switzerland and Canada, it shows how institutional processes structure constrained futures over time.
Learn More →