Our people

Meet the academic researchers working on immigration studies.

Network coordinators

Ayca Arkilic

Ayca is a Senior Lecturer in Political Science and International Relations at THW—VUW.

Her areas of interest are state-diaspora relations, ethnic and religious minorities, religion and politics (mainly Islam in the West), and transnationalism.

She has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in France, Germany, Turkey, and Aotearoa New Zealand. She is the author of Diaspora Diplomacy: The Politics of Turkish Emigration to Europe (Manchester University Press, 2022) and the co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Turkey’s Diasporas (2024). She serves as associate editor of Diaspora Affairs and Mediterranean Politics. She is the recipient of the Royal Society of New Zealand’s 2025 Early Career Research Excellence Award for Social Sciences and the 2024 American Political Science Association (APSA) Migration & Citizenship Emerging Scholar Award.

Her current project looks at citizenship, identity and belonging of Muslim converts in post-Christchurch attack Aotearoa New Zealand.

Dr Ayca Arkilic

Senior Lecturer

School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations

ayca.arkilic@vuw.ac.nz
MY 506, Murphy Building, 21D Kelburn Parade

Fiona Barker

Fiona is Associate Professor in Comparative Politics and currently Head of School for History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations.

Her research interests span the comparative politics of representation, immigration and electoral politics, immigration policy making, and the intersections of substate nationalism and immigration. Fiona is author of Nationalism, Identity and the Governance of Diversity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), and has recently published on ethnic diversity and candidate selection in mixed electoral systems, the role of ‘ethnic’ media in electoral politics, and multicultural politics on the political left. She is co-editor of the journal Political Science, has been New Zealand contributor for the European Political Data Yearbook, and previously served on the Executive Committee of the APSA Migration and Citizenship Section (2018–2020).

Fiona is currently a member of IPSA RC46: Migration and Citizenship and the APSA Migration and Citizenship Section. In 2024 she was Visiting Scholar at the Centre d’études européennes et de politique comparée (CEE) at Sciences Po, Paris.

AProf Fiona Barker

Head of School

School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations

fiona.barker@vuw.ac.nz
MY 618, Murphy Building, 21D Kelburn Parade

Kate McMillan

Kate is Associate Professor of Politics at THW—VUW.

She has published on a wide range of migration and citizenship-related topics, most recently on the electoral participation and representation of migrants in Aotearoa New Zealand; populism and migration politics in Aotearoa-New Zealand; non-citizen voting rights; the role of the ethnic media in integrating Asian migrants into Aotearoa New Zealand’s parliamentary elections; and ASEAN’s response to forced migration. She serves as an editorial board member on the Journal of Australian, Canadian and Aotearoa New Zealand Studies and as an Executive Committee Member of IPSA RC 23:Elections, Citizens and Parties. She is a former editor of Political Science and past President of the New Zealand Political Studies Association. In 2025 she was a Visiting Fellow at the Migration Policy Centre and the Global Citizenship Observatory at the European University Institute in Fiesole, Italy.

Her current research examines Aotearoa-New Zealand’s engagement with international migration cooperation, at bilateral, regional, and multilateral levels.

AProf Kate McMillan

Associate Professor

School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations

kate.mcmillan@vuw.ac.nz
MY 621, Murphy Building, 21D Kelburn Parade

Julija Sardelić

Julija is Senior Lecturer at the THW—VUW Political Science and International Relations Programme.

Her research interests include the study of citizenship, migration, borders, and nationalism as well as the critical study of human rights. Her research particularly focuses on citizenship exclusions and marginalisation, statelessness and forced migration (including state and international organisation policies on refugee protection). She is the author of two books: The Fringes of Citizenship (Manchester University Press, 2021) and Refugee Protection Crises and Transit Europe (IMISCOE Springer, 2025). She is an external collaborator of the Global Citizenship Observatory (European University Institute) and a member of the IMISCOE Forced Migration and Refugees Standing Committee, and IPSA Migration and Citizenship Research Committee.

She has held positions at the University of Edinburgh (UK), European University Institute (Italy), and was a visiting fellow at Statelessness Centre, University of Melbourne. Before coming to Aotearoa New Zealand, she was a Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow at University of Leuven (Belgium).