Daniela is Head of the Department of Anthropology and Associate Professor at the University of Malta. Previously she was Associate Professor (Docent) in International Migration and Ethnic Relations at the Department of Global Political Studies, Malmö University. She held a Marie Curie COFAS Research Fellowship at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute and was a Research Fellow at the Malmö Institute for the Studies of Migration, Welfare and Diversity. Daniela pursued her PhD at the Sussex Centre for Migration Research. She has conducted long-term ethnographic research on sea journeys across the Mediterranean, border control and management in Malta, Lampedusa and Western Sicily. She also undertook an ethnographic study on deportation from Sweden. In relation to these projects, she has published on irregularised migration in the Mediterranean, hospitality and humanitarianism in the immigration field, on return and deportation from the EU, on citizenship and on children's rights.
Daniela is currently Research Coordinator of the Research Node 'Displacement, Democratisation and Development' at the Mediterranean Institute, University of Malta. She is also an Affiliate of the Malmö Institute for the Studies of Migration, Welfare and Diversity (MIM).
Daniela is the country expert for Malta at the Global Citizenship Observatory, and has authored a series of reports on citizenship law and policy, naturalisation and access to electoral rights.
| Migration Reasearch Hub ID: 2197 | |
| ORCID | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1056-6417 |
| https://www.linkedin.com/feed | |
| X/Twitter | https://twitter.com/@Daniela_DeBono |
| ResearchGate | https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniela-Debono-3 |
Expertise
Migration processes
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Migration drivers
- Poverty and inequality
- Conflict, war and violence
- Political situation, repression and regime transitions
- Civil and political rights
- Migration governance and infrastructure
- Migration policy and other public policies
- Personal resources and migration experience
- Migrant communities and networks
- Migrant aspirations and attitudes
- Cultural norms and ties
- Globalisation and (post)colonialism
Migration governance
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Governance actors
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Immigrant policy and law
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Migration policy and law
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Governance processes
Cross-cutting topics in migration research
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Transversal themes
Disciplines
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Disciplines
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Subject Areas
Methods
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Qualitative research
Geographies
Roles
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Malmö University
University, Malmö, Sweden
Associate Professor -
European University Institute
University, Fiesole, Italy
Marie Curie COFAS Fellow -
University of Malta
University, Msida, Malta
Head of Department -
University of Malta
University, Imsida, Malta
Head of Department -
University of Malta
University, Msida, Malta
Associate Professor -
Malmö University
University, Malmo, Sweden
Associate Professor
Research
Drifting in Dark Waters: Mediterranean boat journeys between (in)visibility and presence
| Authors | Daniela DeBono |
| Year | 2025 |
| Journal Name | Current Issues in Migration Research | Taxonomy | View Taxonomy Associations |
Repression Without Compassion: Forced Migration Governance at the EU’s Southern Frontier
| Authors | Daniela DeBono, Anna Khakee, Anna Khakee |
| Year | 2025 |
| Journal Name | Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies | Taxonomy | View Taxonomy Associations |
Repression Without Compassion: Forced Migration Governance at the EU's Southern Frontier
| Authors | Daniela Debono, Anna Khakee |
| Year | 2024 |
Repression Without Compassion: Forced Migration Governance at the EU's Southern Frontier
| Authors | Daniela Debono, Anna Khakee |
| Year | 2024 |
Criminalizing solidarity: Search and rescue in a neo-colonial sea
| Authors | Ċetta Mainwaring, Daniela DeBono |
| Year | 2021 |
| Journal Name | Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space |
Transgressive Solidarity: From Europe's Cities to the Mediterranean Sea
| Authors | Daniela DeBono, Cetta Mainwaring |
| Year | 2020 |
| Citations (WoS) | 8 |
Transgressive Solidarity: From Europe’s Cities to the Mediterranean Sea
| Authors | Daniela DeBono, Ċetta Mainwaring |
| Year | 2020 |
| Journal Name | Nordic Journal of Migration Research |
| Citations (WoS) | 8 |
The Libya–Italy migration corridor
| Authors | Daniela DeBono |
| Year | 2020 |
| Book Title | Routledge Handbook of Migration and Development |
Narrating the humanitarian border : moral deliberations of territorial borderworkers at the EU's Mediterranean border
| Authors | Daniela DEBONO |
| Year | 2019 |
| Journal Name | Journal of Mediterranean studies, 2019, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 55‒73 | Taxonomy | View Taxonomy Associations |
Plastic hospitality: The empty signifier at the EU’s Mediterranean border
| Authors | Daniela DeBono |
| Year | 2019 |
| Journal Name | Migration Studies |
In defiance of the reception logic : the case for including NGOS as human rights monitors in the EU's policies of first reception of irregular migrants
| Authors | Daniela DEBONO |
| Year | 2018 |
| Journal Name | Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology |
Plastic hospitality : the empty signifier of the EU's first reception system in the Mediterranean
| Authors | Daniela DEBONO |
| Year | 2018 | Taxonomy | View Taxonomy Associations |
'Burning without fire' in Sweden : the paradox of the state's attempt to safeguard deportees' psychosocial wellbeing
| Authors | Daniela DEBONO |
| Year | 2017 |
| Book Title | Zana VATHI and Russell KING (eds), Return migration and psychosocial wellbeing : discourses, policy-making and outcomes for migrants and their families, Abingdon : New York : Routledge, 2017, Routledge research in race and ethnicity, pp. 129-148 | Taxonomy | View Taxonomy Associations |
‘Burning without fire’ in Sweden
| Authors | Daniela DeBono |
| Year | 2017 |
| Book Title | Return Migration and Psychosocial Wellbeing |
Human Rights and Migration: Trafficking for Forced Labour
| Authors | Daniela Debono |
| Year | 2014 |
| Journal Name | Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies |
Migrant Smuggling: Irregular Migration from Asia and Africa to Europe
| Authors | Daniela DeBono, Brigitte Suter |
| Year | 2014 |
| Journal Name | Nordic Journal of Migration Research | Taxonomy | View Taxonomy Associations |
Book Reviews
| Authors | Mari Korpela, Pia Mikander, Kris Clarke, ... |
| Year | 2014 |
| Journal Name | NORDIC JOURNAL OF MIGRATION RESEARCH |
Naturalisations procedures for immigrants : Malta
| Authors | Daniela DEBONO |
| Year | 2013 | Taxonomy | View Taxonomy Associations |
‘Less than human’: the detention of irregular immigrants in Malta
| Authors | Daniela DeBono |
| Year | 2013 |
| Journal Name | Race & Class |
'Less than human': the detention of irregular immigrants in Malta
| Authors | Daniela DeBono |
| Year | 2013 |
Migration and Human Rights: The United Nations Convention on Migrant Workers' Rights
| Authors | Daniela DeBono |
| Year | 2012 |
| Journal Name | Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies |
Plastic Hospitality: The Empty Signifier of the EU's First Reception System in the Mediterranean
| Authors | Daniela DeBono |
| Journal Name | SSRN Electronic Journal |