Short Biography

I received my PhD in Sociology from the University of Umeå, Sweden. My dissertation analysed the challenges which African migrants face in their local Swedish context and the transformations they and their communities underwent.

My current research seeks to build on this previous work, exploring further the immigration experiences of African migrants in different parts of the world. Since my previous research examined this issue in Sweden – a country renowned for its progressive immigration policies, I will now shift the focus to a country which offers a clear contrast to Sweden. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is of particular interest here because of its exclusivist policies towards migrants. The goal of the study is to employ autoethnographic and intersectionality approaches to analyse the interaction between diverse positions of marginality and dominance in the everyday experiences of African migrants in the UAE. Furthermore, the study seeks to compare different migration regimes (and forms of citizenship) and to show how they affect migrants.

Research Project

Jonathan Ngeh is currently collaborating with Prof. Dr. Michaela Pelican in an on-going research project on trafficking in persons from Cameroon to the Arab Gulf States.