Ilse van Liempt is Professor of Geographies of Migration and Urban Inequalities and Director of Resarch in the Human Geography and Spatial Planning Department. She is also one of the research leaders of the UU wide Focus Area Migration and Societal Change. Van Liempt's research considers the politics of migration with a focus on belonging, citizenship and in/exclusion in the spaces of everyday life in Europe.

Previously, Van Liempt worked at the Institute for Ethnic and Migration Studies (IMES) in Amsterdam and at the Sussex Center for Migration Research (SCMR). Her PhD thesis was published in 2007 as a book called Navigating Borders with Amsterdam University Press. Since then she has published widely on irregular migration, refugee migration, gender, public space, diversity and processes of inclusion and exclusion in cities.

 Ilse van Liempt is leading and involved in the following research projects. 

1. Contributions of Undocumented Migrants to Dutch Society - Seed money project with Dr. Tina Dulam from Economy

This project is an explorative study into the contributions undocumented migrants make to Dutch society. In the Netherlands the dominant narrative around undocumented migrants is aimed at control and return. There is little attention for the essential work performed by undocumented migrants. How can these contributions be mapped? Wat should be part of the definition and how can this help change the narrative? This project is a collaboration between geography (Prof. Dr. Ilse van Liempt), economy (Dr. Tina Dulam) and two NGOs working with undocumented migrants; LOS (Rian Ederveen) and OKIA (Marijke Bijl). 

2. I-Claim (Horizon): Improving Living and Working Conditions of Irregular Migrant Households in Europe.

I-CLAIM focuses on the nexus between irregularity and labour exploitation in different sectors of the economy that rely heavily on the work of irregular migrants: the care and domestic work sector, the agri-food sector and logistics and delivery. Ilse van Liempt is PI on this project and supervises postdoctoral researcher Minke Hajer on her research with undocumented migrants in Utrecht. 

3. RAISE (Horizon): Recognition and Acknowledgment of Injustice to Strenghten Equality

will provide new insights on how xenophobia and racism are institutionalized and made structural in everyday life social encounters, also contributing to raising awareness of structural racism. Within this project Ilse van Liempt supervises the postdoctoral research of Eline Huygens into everyday forms of discrimination around parenting encounters.