Zakaria Sajir is a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Economy, Geography and Demography (IEGD) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).

He holds a PhD in Migration Studies from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom (June 2018), and a Master in European and International Studies from the School of International Studies (University of Trento) in Italy (March 2011) and a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Milan-Bicocca (December 2007).

He is currently a member of the GEPS-CSIC Research Group, research project examiner for the Spanish State Research Agency (Agencia Nacional de Evaluación y Prospectiva - ANEP) and member of the Spanish Federation of Sociology (FES).

Throughout his academic career, he was involved in different international research projects, like Voices of African Migrants (funded by the Ford Foundation), Minority women’s activism in tough times (funded by the British Academy) and Pathways to Power (funded by the Economic and Social Research Council). 

He was also teaching assistant at the University of Leicester and American University, visiting researcher at the Institute of Economics, Geography and Demography (IEGD) at CSIC in 2018 and 2021, as well as responsible for the British team at sub-national level and Substitute Member of the directive committee in the COST Action ETHMIGSURVEYDATA (International Ethnic and Immigrant Minorities’ Survey Data Network). 

His main research interests include: 

• Local policies on migration/ethnic issues
• Local democracy and political participation of migrant/ethnic minorities
• Organisational and transnational networks of migrant/ethnic minorities
• Migration of migrant/ethnic minorities (focusing on unaccompanied minors and economic migrants) and human trafficking
• Discrimination, racism and Islamophobia
• Radicalisation and security
• Survey design and methods

Selected publications:

(2021) Acuerdos comerciales, migratorios, de seguridad y de empleo centro-periferia. Un análisis de ecología-mundo. Relaciones Internacionales – FECYT Q1. https://cutt.ly/wYZruo7 

(2020) A Socio-historical Analysis of the 2020 Corona Pandemic: Between Old and New Virtues and Vices. Dialoghi Mediterranei (con Rafael Ruiz Andrés). https://cutt.ly/ZYZrhQu 

(2020) Il “marocchino” che non è marocchino: un linguaggio che conviene.Il caso dei lavoratori migranti ambulanti in Italia. In G. Avallone & D. Niang (Eds.), Vivere non è un reato. Lavoro ambulante, socialità e diritto alla città. Verona: Ombre Corte. https://cutt.ly/hYZrROo 

(2020) Un linguaggio a geometria variabile: la comunicazione intra/inter-generazionale nella comunità marocchina d’Italia. Dialoghi Mediterranei. https://cutt.ly/bYZrFQu (2019) Solidarity, Social Media, and the ‘Refugee Crisis’: Engagement beyond Affect. International Journal of Communication – Scopus Q1 (con Miriyam Aouragh). https://cutt.ly/xYZrBsv