Two Sociology PhD students have received funding under the Irish Research Council’s Employment Based Postgraduate Programme. The Programme offers researchers the opportunity to undertake a Master's or PhD degree while employed by a private company or public organisation based in the Republic of Ireland. Pablo Rojas Coppari will work with Dr. Mary Murphy and will be based in the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland while Ann Leahy will work with Dr. Jane Gray while based in Social Justice Ireland.
Their project abstracts are below.
Pablo Rojas Coppari - No Time to Waste: Rethinking labour market policies as a strategy for the integration of migrant families in Ireland. Supervisor: Dr. Mary Murphy
Ireland is at a crucial juncture in its experience of inward migration and still has the capacity to prevent the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage in migrant families: a common feature in European neighbours. Within the extensive academic and policy literature there are clear research gaps. We know little about the experience of labour market progression amongst migrants in Ireland, the sectorial and gender differences in labour market experience or how migrants experience the focus on activation. Nor do we know enough about how restrictive labour market policy and practice impact on mobility of spouses and intergenerational mobility of migrant families.
This project uses a mixed-method approach, utilising MRCI’s case files, focus groups of workers in two sectors (for example Restaurant and Care & Domestic Sector), and qualitative interviews with migrant families to answer three core research questions.
1. Whether and how immigrants experience labour market progression and the degree to which labour market experience is gendered.
2. Barriers to progression and effectiveness of activation policy in fostering Labour Market integration, and possibilities of alternative rights-based approaches as integration strategies.
3. Relationship between labour market experiences of immigrants and experiences of mobility for spouses and intergenerational mobility of migrant family children.
Ann Leahy - Ageing and Disability – Explorations through the Lifecourse. Supervisor: Dr. Jane Gray
In the context of an ageing population, the research examines the experience of older people living with a disability in Ireland, focusing on disability acquired through the lifecourse. It involves empirical research that is both quantitative and qualitative. There is an analysis of public policy, of institutional practices, and of approaches by civil society. Older people affected by disability represent a group at significant risk of exclusion. The research explores what gives their life meaning and what meanings are made of the experience of dependence, independence and interdependence. Although ageing and disability overlap throughout the lifecourse, the approaches of science and of social services tend to restrict themselves to one or the other area (that is, to either disability or ageing). The separate development of theories on ageing and on disability has limited our ability to conceptualise relationships between the two. The research explores sociological theories of ageing including life-course perspectives exploring how they integrate, or could integrate, notions of disability. Thus it makes a significant contribution both to conceptualization and to illuminating the experience of a potentially marginalized group.