Sociology - VUB

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧?

A new article by Tuba Bircan and Anna Triandafyllidou has been published in The Conversation, discussing how artificial intelligence increasingly uses digital data sources - from mobile phone records and satellite imagery to social media activity and administrative data - to analyse migration. These technologies create new possibilities for understanding migration patterns, but they also shape what becomes visible and what remains missing. AI does not observe migration directly; it learns from the data it receives, including the assumptions and limitations embedded in those datasets.

Key messages:

- AI does not observe migration directly; it learns from existing data sources and their underlying assumptions.

- Digital trace data can complement traditional migration statistics but cannot replace information on lived experiences and motivations.

- Responsible AI governance requires combining multiple data sources rather than relying on any single dataset.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧:
https://theconversation.com/how-ai-and-digital-data-shape-our-understanding-of-migration-284932

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐫-𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15562948.2026.2689658

How AI and digital data shape our understanding of migration As Canada advances its national AI strategy, we must ask what digital migration data reveal, and what they leave unseen.

📢 New Publication Alert! What is it like to be an adolescent girl in an indigenous rural community in Bolivia?
A new open-access study co-authored by our BRISPO researchers explores the complex realities of rural Quechua adolescent girls in Cochabamba. Through Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR), the article introduces the analytical distinction between "Working to Do" (unpaid reproductive and agricultural care) and "Working to Be" (the struggle for symbolic and economic recognition through seasonal migration). By centering girls as active laboring subjects, the paper challenges Western developmental biases in youth and migration studies.

📖 Read the full open-access paper here: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/16/7/210

Working to Do and Working to Be: Adolescent Girls’ Labor and Identity in a Rural Migrant Community in Bolivia For rural adolescent girls in the Bolivian Andes, adolescence is not a “protected” transitional life stage but a gendered laboring condition. This article explores the lived experiences of adolescent girls in a rural Quechua community in Cochabamba, drawing on the initial phase of a longitudinal...

💡 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗣𝗢 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁!
It’s time for another project featured in our BRISPO Spotlight series! Each month, we highlight one of the ongoing research projects carried out within BRISPO. This month, we present DynaMIGs, an interdisciplinary project that connects advanced demographic modelling with epidemiological forecasting.
📌 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁: DynaMIGs: How do international migration and internal mobility of migrants shape local populations? Developing a spatial microsimulation model of population dynamics with applications in infectious disease modelling
👥 𝗖𝗼𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿: Karel Neels (University of Antwerp)
𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀: Sylvie Gadeyne (BRISPO, VUB), Niel Hens (Hasselt University), Lander Willem (University of Antwerp).
📅 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: 2025–2029 (funded by iBOF)
🌍 The DynaMIGs project investigates how migration shapes the future of the Belgian population. It has three closely connected objectives:

1️⃣ 𝘌𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘴
The project examines how key life events - such as moving, leaving the parental home, forming or ending partnerships, having children, and mortality - differ between migrants, their descendants, and the native-born population. It also studies where people settle and how they move within a country, providing new insights into the diversity of migrant experiences and residential patterns.

2️⃣ 𝘋𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘰𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘴
DynaMIGs uses these findings to build computer models that simulate how populations evolve over time. By incorporating differences between individuals, households, and places, these models will improve our understanding of how migration and increasing diversity influence the age structure, household composition, and geographic distribution of future populations.

3️⃣ 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨
Because factors such as household size, age, and residential location influence how diseases spread, DynaMIGs develops realistic models that account for the diversity of modern populations. These models will help explain how epidemics affect different communities and how local population characteristics shape disease transmission.

✨ Together, these three objectives form the foundation of the DynaMIGs project. By combining expertise from demography, migration research, and epidemiology, the project generates new knowledge on how migration, population change, and public health are interconnected. Its innovative modelling approach will support better evidence-based policies in areas such as urban planning, healthcare, and population forecasting.

🏆 Congratulations to our former PhD researcher, Dr. Billie Martiniello, on receiving the IMISCOE 2026 Maria Baganha Best Thesis Award.
📖 The award recognises her dissertation, Rather Christophe than Mustapha: Understanding and Responding to Ethnic Discrimination in the Rental Housing Market, which examines the contexts, mechanisms, and responses to ethno-racial discrimination in the rental housing market. More information is available here: https://brispo.research.vub.be/en/imiscoe-2026-maria-baganha-best-thesis-award-for-billie-martiniello

🎓 Billie defended her PhD at VUB in 2025 under the supervision of Prof. Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe. The jury highlighted the methodological breadth of her work, combining field experiments, surveys, in-depth interviews, and document analysis to examine discrimination from multiple perspectives.
👏 Congratulations, Billie, on this well-deserved recognition!

IMISCOE 2026 Maria Baganha Best Thesis Award for Billie Former BRISPO PhD student Billie Martiniello won the Best Thesis Award with her dissertation on rental discrimination at the IMISCOE conference.

It’s now official: BRISPO and BIRMM will be hosting Europe’s largest migration research conference. The IMISCOE 24th Annual Conference is coming to Brussels in July 2027!

Hosting this migration research conference is a big deal for us, and we’re genuinely looking forward to bringing this community of critical and engaged researchers to VUB.

The conference will run 6-9 July 2027 at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, under the theme "United for Human Rights and Global Equity".

Together with IMISCOE - a network of 71 research institutes worldwide - we're planning a 4-day hybrid event with 200+ paper presentations, plenaries, workshops, and numerous side events prepared together with Civil Society Organisations. The conference calls for critical, interdisciplinary work on how human rights are distributed, contested, and denied in a world shaped by racism, colonial legacies, capitalism, and unequal geopolitics.

The call for papers and all details about the event are available here: https://www.imiscoe.org/events/imiscoe-events/2688-24th-imiscoe-annual-conference

Welcome to Brussels!
Prof. Tuba Bircan & Prof. Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe

🏆ASA Distinguished Scholarly Article Award for Bryan Boyle and Dieter Vandebroeck

We are proud to share that Bryan and Dieter have been named co-winners of the American Sociological Association (ASA) Labor and Labor Movements Section’s Distinguished Scholarly Article Award for their article "The Labor of Distinction: Butlers, Service Work, and the Production of Elite Lifestyles" published in American Sociological Review.

The Labor & Labor Movements Distinguished Scholarly Article Award goes to what is judged by the award committee to be the best article in the sociology of labor unions, the working class or working class movements, work, or the labor process, published between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025.

The article introduces the idea of “labour of distinction”, showing how elite lifestyles rely on specialised forms of labour. The study is based on ethnographic research on the revived profession of butlering, including fieldwork where Bryan himself trained and worked as a butler in the UK.

Congratulations to both authors on this achievement!

You can read the article here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00031224241305357

📚 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗙𝗪𝗢 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗱𝗼𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 awarded to Marloes Hagenaars!

Marloes will lead the project “𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗣𝘂𝗽𝗶𝗹” (2026-2029), which examines how representations of social identities in primary school textbooks are created, interpreted and experienced by pupils.

The project follows the journey from publishers, to teachers, to pupils, using an intersectional approach to better understand how educational materials shape children's perceptions of themselves and others.

Congratulations to Marloes on this achievement! 👏

💡 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗣𝗢 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁!
It's time for another project in our BRISPO Spotlight series. Each month, we present one of the ongoing projects carried out within BRISPO. This month, we feature DE-CONSPIRATOR a Horizon Europe project focused on combating Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI).
𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁: DE-CONSPIRATOR: Detecting and Countering Information Suppression from a Transnational Perspective
𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀: Tuba Bircan, Sabina Imatova (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: 2024-2026

How do foreign actors manipulate information to influence public opinion and democratic processes?
DE-CONSPIRATOR investigates Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) by actors, such as Russia and China, not only the tactics they use, but also why these campaigns succeed and how their societal impact can be understood and measured.
Its multidisciplinary approach focuses on three key areas:
🔍 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 the disinformation tactics and strategies behind FIMI campaigns
🗺️ 𝗠𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 the networks that spread and amplify them across Europe and beyond
🧰 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀, including psychometric scales to assess susceptibility to disinformation and a multilingual FIMI incidents database to track and analyse real-world impacts
📅 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 - 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗕𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘀:
• 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲: Joint policy event with sister projects from the EU’s FIMI cluster
• 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲: DE-CONSPIRATOR Final Conference
🌐 Learn more: https://deconspirator.eu/
Stay tuned, more details and registration information will be available soon.

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘂𝗺 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀: Özyeğin University; AdCogito; Center for the Study of Democracy; CIDOB (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs); EDAM - Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies; Heidelberg University; IAI - Istituto Affari Internazionali; University of Groningen; Rīga Stradiņš University; University of Amsterdam; White Research

𝗡𝗲𝘄𝗩𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝘃𝗲𝘆: 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗹𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀 𝗔𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱!

We have just announced the results of the first-round NewVoices survey raffle. The survey was conducted among newcomers in Belgium between March and May this year.

The winning codes are now available on our website: https://brispo.research.vub.be/newvoices-survey-first-round-raffle-results-announced

If you took part in the study, please check whether your code appears on the list of winners and follow the instructions on the BRISPO website for information on how to claim your €200 voucher.

NewVoices survey: First Round Raffle Results Announced The winning numerical codes are listed below. If your code appears on the list, congratulations - you have won a €200 voucher.

𝗗𝗲 𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗱: 𝘄𝗶𝗻-𝘄𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗴𝗹𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝗷𝘀?

Uit nieuw BRISPO-onderzoek blijkt dat een belangrijke groep studenten werkt uit financiële noodzaak (om hun studies te betalen of om zichzelf of hun familie financieel te ondersteunen).

Studenten in een dergelijke situatie presteren vaak veel werkuren, een tijdsinvestering die bovendien aanleiding geeft tot werk-studieconflict en zo ten koste lijkt te gaan van hun studietijd.

Die spanning wordt bevestigd door de cijfers, waarbij één op drie studenten aangeeft lessen of contactmomenten over te slaan om te kunnen werken. Dit percentage is nog hoger onder studenten die aangeven te werken uit financiële noodzaak. Bovendien is de uitgevoerde studentenarbeid meestal niet of nauwelijks relevant voor de huidige studie of de toekomstige carrière, wat het beeld van studentenarbeid als middel om rond te komen nog versterkt.

Het onderzoek legt dus een opvallende paradox bloot: een belangrijke groep studenten werkt om te kunnen studeren, maar zet daardoor diezelfde studies op het spel.

Als we gelijke onderwijskansen ernstig nemen, dringt een koerswijziging zich op. Studentenwerk zou een keuze moeten zijn in plaats van een noodzaak en het is dan ook cruciaal om de werkelijke studiekosten onder controle te houden en het systeem van studiefinanciering kritisch te herbekijken.

Het onderzoek verscheen onlangs in de media, waaronder ook:

Studenten die uit financiële noodzaak werken, riskeren hun studies in gevaar te brengen Steeds meer studenten combineren hun opleiding met een studentenjob, maar voor een aanzienlijke groep is dat geen vrije keuze. Vooral studenten die werken om hun studies of levensonderhoud te betalen, lopen een verhoogd risico dat hun job hun studiesucces ondermijnt. Dat blijkt uit onderzoek van de....