
Welcome to my website. I am a tenured senior researcher at GESIS – Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences in Mannheim (Germany), where I am part, and deputy head, of the GESIS Panel team. Furthermore, I am a project consultant in survey methodology, focusing on online surveys and survey sampling through social networking sites.
Since 2018, I am also a corresponding member of the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS, University of Osnabrück, Germany).
I hold a master’s degree in International Migration and Intercultural Relations and a doctoral degree (Dr. phil.) from the University of Osnabrück.
I have been a visiting researcher at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario (Canada, 2022) and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock (Germany, 2019).
Since early 2024, I serve as co-chair of the IMISCOE Standing Committee Methodological Approaches and Tools in Migration Research, which I founded in 2019 together with great colleagues.
My research interests include survey methodology, migration research methods, voluntary and forced migration, mobility, and transnationalism.
Many of my recent and ongoing research endeavors investigate the possibility of using social networking sites, Facebook and Instagram in particular, to survey otherwise hard-to-reach populations.
Migration Research in a Digitized World: Using Innovative Technology to Tackle Methodological Challenges
This open access book explores implications of the digital revolution for migration scholars’ methodological toolkit. New information and communication technologies hold considerable potential to improve the quality of migration research by originating previously non-viable solutions to a myriad of methodological challenges in this field of study. Combining cutting-edge migration scholarship and methodological expertise, the book addresses a range of crucial issues related to both researcher-designed data collections and the secondary use of “big data”, highlighting opportunities as well as challenges and limitations. A valuable source for students and scholars engaged in migration research, the book will also be of keen interest to policymakers.
Pötzschke, S., & Rinken, S. (Eds.). (2022). Migration Research in a Digitized World: Using Innovative Technology to Tackle Methodological Challenges. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-01319-5
News
-
Submit your contribution for the 5th Annual Meth@Mig Workshop (March 30-31, 2026 in Doha)
Since earlier this week, we are accepting contributions for the 5th Annual Meth@Mig Workshop Methodological Approaches in Cross-Cultural and Cross-National (Migration) Research. This event is jointly organized by IMISCOE’s Methodological Approaches and Tools in Migration Research Standing Committee and the Sociology and Anthropology…
-
Just out: Magic bullet or questionable remedy? Discussing the use of Meta advertising to recruit hard-to-reach migrants for surveys
I’m excited to share a new article co-authored with Howard Ramos, just published in the Journal of Refugee Studies: “Magic bullet or questionable remedy? Discussing the use of Meta advertising to recruit hard-to-reach migrants for surveys” Collecting timely data on…
-
New open access article: Surveying Emigrants Worldwide – Using Facebook and Instagram to Recruit Respondents in Cross-National (E)Migration Research
The article Surveying Emigrants Worldwide – Using Facebook and Instagram to Recruit Respondents in Cross-National (E)Migration Research has just been published in Comparative Migration Studies. In this piece, Bernd Weiß and I demonstrate that global survey sampling via Meta’s advertising…
