Ricard Zapata-Barrero (born 12 November, 1965) is a scholar of

migration studies Migration studies is the academic study of human migration. Migration studies is an interdisciplinary field which draws on anthropology, prehistory, history, economics, law, sociology and postcolonial studies. Origin and development of migration ...

, specializing in migration governance, citizenship, and diversity. He is a full professor at the Department of Political and Social Sciences,

Universitat Pompeu Fabra Pompeu Fabra University (, ; ) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia in Spain. Established in 1990 by the Autonomous Government of Catalonia and named after Pompeu Fabra, it is known for its competitiveness in resea ...

, and the director of th
Research Group on Immigration (GRITIM-UPF)''

Early life and education

Zapata-Barrero was born in 1965 in

Sabadell Sabadell () is a city and municipality in Catalonia, Spain. It is in the south of the ''comarca'' of Vallès Occidental, where it is one of the two capitals, the other being Terrassa. It is located on the River Ripoll, north of Barcelona, a ...

(

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

). He is the son of a political refugee under the Francoist regime. At the age of seven, together with his mother and two sisters, he crossed The Portbou border with a family false passport and spent his childhood in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France. Once there, he helped to organize the Spanish diaspora, learnt from his father political activities against the francoist regime and followed critically the democratic transition. In 1984, he returned to Spain to study philosophy at the Autonomous University in Barcelona. In 1989, he studied in Paris at Ecole des Hautes Etudes, with

Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Bourdieu (, ; ; ; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influ ...

Luc Boltanski Luc Boltanski (born 4 January 1940) is a French sociologist, born in Paris. He is Professor at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (Paris), and founder of the Groupe de Sociologie Politique et Morale, known as the leading figure ...

and

Raymond Boudon Raymond Boudon (27 January 1934 – 10 April 2013) was a sociologist, philosopher and Professor in the Paris-Sorbonne University. Career With Alain Touraine, Michel Crozier and Pierre Bourdieu, Raymond Boudon is one of the leading French sociol ...

, where he obtained a

Diplôme d'études Approfondies A Master of Advanced Studies (MASt or MAS), or Master of Advanced Study, is a postgraduate degree awarded in various countries. Master of Advanced Studies programs may be non-consecutive programs tailored for "specific groups of working professio ...

(DEA). In 1996, he completed his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

at the

Autonomous University of Barcelona The Autonomous University of Barcelona (; Spanish: ; ; UAB) is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola del Vallès, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. , the university consists of 57 departments in the experimental, lif ...

. Afterwards, he went to the
University of Caen
�(with

Luc Ferry Luc Ferry (; born 3 January 1951) is a French public intellectual and voluminous author, who is a proponent of secular humanism. He was Minister of National Education for three years during the presidency of Jacques Chirac. Biography He rece ...

and Alain Renaut) and the
University of Leeds
�(with

David Beetham David Beetham (1938 – 5 July 2022) was a social theorist who made extensive contributions in the fields of democracy and human rights (including in his approach to the role of not only social but also economic rights) who was Professor of Politi ...

). He then spent the next year at the Universities of Political Science in Berlin and Munich and attended courses at the

Otto-Suhr-Institut The Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science (''Otto-Suhr-Institut für Politikwissenschaft'', short ''OSI'') is a prestigious research institute of the Free University of Berlin. It is the leading academic institution for political science in G ...

of Political Science (OSI) of th
Freie Universitat Berlin
In 1996, Ricard completed his Ph.D. at the Barcelona Autonomous University with a research entitled ''Ciudadanía, Democracia, y Pluralismo Cultural: Hacia un Nuevo Contrato Social (Citizenship, Democracy, and Cultural Pluralism: towards a new social contract)'', published by Editorial Anthropos in 2001.

Career

Ricard Zapata-Barrero is a full professor at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. Since 2011, he has been the director of the

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

Migration studies Migration studies is the academic study of human migration. Migration studies is an interdisciplinary field which draws on anthropology, prehistory, history, economics, law, sociology and postcolonial studies. Origin and development of migration ...

at the university. He is a founder and coordinator of the Euro-Mediterranean Research Network on Migration (EuroMedMig), an independent interdisciplinary research network on migration and diversity in the Mediterranean. Since 2017, he has been a board member of the International Migration and Social Cohesion
IMISCOE
in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and the chair of its external affairs committee. Through his publications, his main fields of research are: borders and human mobility, diversity and citizenship, and methodology in

Academia

In the last few years, Zapata-Barrero has been engaged in the normative debate on interculturalism. He is also promoting the development of migration studies in the Mediterranean region, and deepening the research on Urban Migration Governance. Regarding the latter, he has contributed to framing the local turn in migration studies and this track of research from urban politics As an Applied Political Theorist, he is promoting interdisciplinary knowledge on immigration, combining theory and case studies, and following contextual, conceptual, normative, and interpretive approaches. His academic research has often explored the research-policy-society nexus so that his findings can contribute to social and political change.

Selected bibliography

*Zapata-Barrero, R. (2019)
Intercultural citizenship in the post-multicultural era.
London, Sage Swifts Publishing. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781526498465 *Zapata-Barrero, R., & Rezaei, S. (2019)
Diaspora governance and transnational entrepreneurship: the rise of an emerging social global pattern in migration studies
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46(10), 1959-1973. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1559990. Special Issue (2019) and Edited Book (2022). This Special Issue has become an edited Book in 202
(''Routledge Research in Ethnic and Migration Studies''
– ISBN 978-1-032-04953-3). *Zapata-Barrero, R., & Yalaz, E. (2018)
Qualitative research in European migration studies
Springer Nature. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76861-8 *Zapata-Barrero, R. (2018)
Applied Political Theory and Qualitative Research in Migration Studies
in R. Zapata-Barrero and E. Yalaz (eds) Qualitative Research in European Migration Studies, Amsterdam: Springer (IMISCOE Research Series); pages 75-92. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76861-8 *Zapata-Barrero, R., Dähnke, I., & Markard, L. (Eds.). (2018)
''Immigrant incorporation in political parties: Exploring the diversity gap''
Routledge. ISBN 978-0367234935. *Zapata-Barrero, R. (2017)
Interculturalism in the post-multicultural debate: a defence
Comparative Migration Studies, 5(1). DOI:10.1186/s40878-017-0057-z *Zapata-Barrero, R., Caponio, T., & Scholten, P. (2017)
Symposium on Theorizing ‘The Local Turn’ in the Governance of Immigrant Policies: A Multi-level Approach.
International Review of Administrative Sciences, 83(2), 204. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852316688426

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zapata Barrero, Ricard Spanish scholars Migration studies scholars Living people 1965 births People from Sabadell Academic staff of Pompeu Fabra University School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences alumni