Dr Nicholas Van Hear

Dr Nicholas Van Hear

Former Senior Researcher at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS)

Emeritus Fellow

With a background in Anthropology (BA Cambridge), African Studies (PhD Birmingham) and Development Studies, Nicholas Van Hear works on forced migration, conflict, development, diaspora, transnationalism and related issues, and has field experience in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, North America and Europe.

Before joining COMPAS in 2003, he held senior research posts at the Refugee Studies Centre in Oxford (1990-2000), and at the Copenhagen-based Danish Centre for Development Research (now the Danish Institute for International Studies, DIIS) between 2000 and 2003. His books include New Diasporas (UCL Press/Routledge, 1998), The Migration-Development Nexus (International Organisation for Migration, 2003), and Refugia: Radical Solutions to Mass Displacement (Routledge 2020, with Robin Cohen).

His main contributions have been on force and choice in migration; migration and development; diaspora formation and engagement in conflict settings, including post war recovery; and migration and class. He is currently developing research on the interplay among geopolitical shifts, mobility, immobility and political unrest, as well as considering migration futures.

Further information on the COMPAS website.