Research topic:

Migration-related Identities, Sense of Belonging and Labour Market Outcomes in the UK

Before starting her PhD, Ivelina held a range of roles analysing topics such as skills, employment, labour market inequalities, international migration, ethnic integration and growth. She worked at the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, consolidating analysis to support the Brexit negotiations. She also did research for the LSE Growth Commission to inform the UK’s post-Brexit growth strategy. Previously in Bulgaria, she worked as an analyst in the teams of the President, and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Policy. 

Ivelina has studied in five countries – the UK, Germany, Spain, Bulgaria and the US. She holds an MSc with Distinction in International Migration and Public Policy from LSE. For that degree, she was awarded the Hobhouse Memorial Prize for best overall dissertation in the Department of Sociology Masters’ programmes. Before that, she studied business, finance and economics in Germany (German Academic Exchange Service scholarship), Spain (Erasmus scholarship) and Bulgaria (Dean’s award for academic excellence), and completed an entrepreneurship training course at the University of California, Berkeley (funded by the Institute for International Education, New York). Her PhD research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). 

Research interests

Ivelina’s PhD research looks at multidimensional ethnic identity among the whole UK population and separately – the white UK majority, associated labour market outcomes, and how people understand the relationship between their identities and labour market experiences. Her wider research interests are in economic migration, ethnic and migrant integration, social identities, social cohesion and persistent structural inequalities. 

Supervisors: Professor Lucinda Platt, Dr Isabel Shutes