Naiara Rodriguez-Peña
Team
IMI PhD Fellow
Naiara Rodríguez-Peña is Assistant Professor at the University of Deusto (Spain) and a postdoctoral researcher at the University for Continuing Education Krems (Austria), where she works on the PATHWAYS project. Her research examines how people decide whether to migrate or stay, with a particular focus on aspirations and capabilities. She explores what motivates aspirations to migrate or remain, how individuals perceive their capability to move or stay, and how these dynamics operate across different contexts. She is especially interested in understanding when and how immobility becomes a significant phenomenon, examining how immobility practices shape life aspirations, local activities and broader processes of life-making. Her work also bridges theorizations across developmental settings, paying special attention to often-overlooked areas such as precarious contexts in the so-called ‘Global North’.
Naiara holds a PhD in Migration Studies (with distinction) from the University of Kent (UK) and the University of Montpellier (France), as well as a MSc in Migration Studies (Cum Laude) and a MSc in Political Economy (Cum Laude) from the University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands). She has been involved in several research projects on migration (aspirations) and development, including EDJ MOVES (Migration and Modernity, 2019-2023) and the ERC-funded MADE project (Migration as Development, 2015-2020). She currently leads the OeAD-funded AIM project (African Involuntary Immobility: Understanding geographic and social barriers to mobility and their impact on human development in Africa).
Recent publications:
Rodríguez-Peña, N. (2025). Mapping migration capabilities worldwide. Comparative Migration Studies, 13(1), 31.
Rodríguez-Peña, N. (2024). The strength of migration and stay aspirations: understanding harmonious, conflicting and indeterminate aspirations. Comparative Migration Studies, 12(1), 42.
Rodríguez-Peña, N. (2023). Moving across (Im) mobility categories: the importance of values, family and adaptation for migration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 49(3), 618-635.
Recent research projects:
African Involuntary Immobility: Understanding geographic and social barriers to mobility and their impact on human development in Africa (AIM)
Duration: 2026-2027
Principal investigator of the project: Naiara Rodríguez-Peña
Funding: OeAD - KoEF
Development implications of involuntary immobility in Africa (PATHWAYS)
Duration: 2024-2027
Principal investigator of the project in Krems: Mathias Czaika
Funding: FWF and FWO
