By A&S Staff

Ana Liberato, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology has been awarded a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation, and she will be a visiting fellow at the Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies at the University of Neuchâtel (SFM) this summer.

“The Forum is a great fit given its commitment to support multidisciplinary migration research and research that examines the cultural, political and economic outcomes of migration and globalization,” Liberato said.

Liberato is working on a book project about the settlement and incorporation of Dominican immigrants in Switzerland. The study explores different aspects of Dominican migration to Switzerland, including the socio-demographic characteristics of Dominican immigrants, their motivations for and pathways of migration, and personal stories of migration. The study also explores classifications of identity, notions of belonging and citizenship, patterns of adaptation to Swiss society, experiences of inclusion, exclusion, and stigmatization, and struggles for gaining access to rights in the Swiss context. 

This book project is part of a larger research agenda on Dominican migration, which also includes the case of Dominicans in Spain and a comparative study of Dominican migration to the United States and Europe.

Liberato augurs one or two co-authored papers with a colleague from the SFM, and is developing ideas to develop liaisons between SFM the Department of Sociology at UK and beyond.

There are a number of scholars from the Forum that focus on immigrant populations other than Dominicans, and Liberato sees important opportunities to develop comparative case studies and also to do follow up research on second and future generations of Dominican immigrants in Switzerland in the future.