Areas of Responsibility
Vita
Since October 2024
Professor of Social Work and Diversity at HAWK University of Applied Sciences and Arts
January 2024
Doctorate (summa cum laude) from the Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences at the University of Osnabrück on the topic of Policy Change in Turkey's Local Migration Regime. Published as Open Access (Nomos Publishing)
2012-2024
Head of Social Affairs and Commissioner for Integration, City of Osnabrück
2022-2024
Lecturer at the University of Osnabrück and University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück
February-September 2022
Research Associate, University of Oregon, Eugene, USA
2009-2011
Program Manager for KAUSA (Coordination Office for Training in Self-Employed Businesses with a Migration Background) at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), Bonn
2003-2009
Research Associate and Project Manager at the Central Agency for Continuing Vocational Education in the Skilled Trades (ZWH), Düsseldorf
2001-2002
Educational Staff Member at the Regional Office for the Promotion of Children and Youth from Immigrant Families (RAA) in Aachen
1995-2001
Studies in Political Science, Economic and Social History, and International Economic and Technical Relations at RWTH Aachen University, graduated with a Master of Arts (M.A.)
Research profile
My research asks how local migration societies regulate belonging and participation through categories, administrative practice and discourse, how power operates in these processes, particularly where it appears neutral, technical or caring, and when institutional change is substantive or remains symbolic. In the SATURN project, I compare social work and participation in rural migration societies in Lower Saxony, Oregon (USA) and Çanakkale (Turkey). Further work addresses local migration governance in Germany and Turkey, return narratives in parliamentary debates, and diversity in curricula, elder care and homelessness services. Methodologically, I combine text mining and corpus linguistics in R with QCA and interviews. My perspective is shaped by more than twenty years of practice in education, integration and public administration, ranging from work with children and young people from immigrant families and vocational training to apprenticeship programmes in migrant-owned businesses and, finally, heading a municipal social administration where I shaped integration policy myself.
Teaching and research areas
- Migration and gender studies
- (Municipal) social policy and administration
- Diversity-sensitive social work and organisational development
Research methods: text mining and corpus linguistics in R, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), and triangulation
Memberships
- German Society for Social Work (DGSA) e.V.
- German Association for Political Science (DVPW) e.V.
Awards and Scholarships
Awards
- HAWK Gender Research Prize 2025
- Manfred Rommel Scholarship from the City of Stuttgart 2023
-
Publication Grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the Open Access publication of the dissertation
Current Research Project
SATURN - Social Work and Participation in Rural Migration Societies. Glocal Perspectives from the State of Lower Saxony (Germany), the State of Oregon (USA), and the Province of Çanakkale (Turkey), in the program "Professorinnen für Niedersachsen", Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture (MWK) and Volkswagen Foundation (funding volume: 300,000 EUR; 2024-2029).
Publications
Monograph
Rass-Turgut, S. (2024): Policy Change im lokalen Migrationsregime der Türkei. Baden-Baden: Nomos. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783748949152
Journal Articles
(2026): Coerced Voluntariness: Parliamentary Narratives on Return Migration in Germany and Turkey, International Migration 64, no. 5, Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.70218
Rass-Turgut, S. (2026): Pathways to Inclusion: A Comparative Analysis of Turkish Municipalities. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Collection: Migration, poverty and inequality, Springer (Nature Portfolio), https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-09125-4
Rass-Turgut, S. (2026): „Happy Points" ohne Transformation: Migration und Diversität in den Curricula deutscher Sozialarbeitsstudiengänge. Femina Politica - Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft, 1/2026, pp. 51-66. https://doi.org/10.3224/feminapolitica.v35i1.05
Rass-Turgut, S. (2026): Diversitätsforschung unter Neutralitätsdruck. Professions- und demokratietheoretische Überlegungen zur Hochschullehre. Sozialmagazin 6/2026, S.16-23, 11.06.2026, Beltz Juventa, Weinheim, ISSN: 0340-8469.
Rass-Turgut, S. (2025): Transnational dynamics in local migration governance: a typology of policy change in Turkish municipalities. Turkish Studies, Volume 27, Issue 4, 2026, London: Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.1080/14683849.2025.2588368
Rass-Turgut, S. (2025): „Aktuell kaum Nachfrage und somit kein zusätzlicher Bedarf!"(?) - Diversitätsorientierte Altenhilfe in der Migrationsgesellschaft. In: T. Middendorf & A. Parchow (eds.), Ältere Menschen in prekären Lebenslagen. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa. https://doi.org/10.3262/978-3-7799-9123-6
Rass-Turgut, S. (2025): The Production of Gendered Belonging in Turkish Municipalities: Modelling Inclusive Citizenship for Refugees. In: S. Kenner, M. Kleinschmidt, D. Lange, F. Reichert & C. Schröder (eds.), Inclusive Citizenship (Citizenship. Studien zur Politischen Bildung). Wiesbaden: Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-45757-0_16
Rass-Turgut, S. (2026): Housing First für alle? Kommunale Wohnungslosenhilfe in der Migrationsgesellschaft. Migration und Soziale Arbeit. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa (forthcoming).
Rass-Turgut, S. (2026): Das Paradox kommunaler Konvergenz. Gouvernementale Transformation der Integrationspolitik durch Policy-Diffusion. sub\urban. zeitschrift für kritische Stadtforschung (forthcoming)
Conference Presentations 2025/26
Solidarität unter Peripherisierungsdruck? Lokale Governance und Soziale Arbeit in ländlichen Migrationsgesellschaften: Eine transnationale Mehrebenenanalyse, Workshop auf der 6. Konferenz des Netzwerks Fluchtforschung "Entsolidarisierung? Flucht, Schutz und Teilhabe in einer Welt ohne Ordnung", vom 28.-30. September 2026 an der Universität Hildesheim
Zwischen Ressourcenlogik und Anerkennung. Diversität als Versprechen und Wirklichkeit für Frauen in der Migrationsgesellschaft, Vortrag auf der Tagung "Gender und Migration. Arbeitsmarktintegration und Perspektiven für Frauen mit Migrations- und Fluchtgeschichte" in Kooperation mit dem Netzwerk „Migrantinnen und Arbeitsmarkt Niedersachsen“ (NeMiA), 27.04.2026 - 29.04.2026, Evangelische Akademie Loccum
Die (post-)migrantische Stadt? Die Kategorien, Räume und Effekte migrationsbezogener Daten, Panel im Workshop: Die Produktion von Wissen über Migration in der Stadt, am Freitag, 16.01.2026, organisiert vom Institut für Migrationsforschung und Interkulturelle Studien (IMIS) und Sonderforschungsbereich 1604 (SFB), Universität Osnabrück
"Transnational Policy Transfers in Return Migration Governance: Parallels Between German and Turkish Return Narratives" at the International Conference "Navigating Return Migration: What Next? Diplomacy, Infrastructures, and Pathways Beyond", January 22–23, 2026, at Akdeniz University in Antalya, Turkey. GAPS-Project: Decentring the Study of Migrant Returns and Readmission Policies in Europe and Beyond (Horizon Europe Research Programme)
"Diversitätsorientierte Altenhilfe in der Migrationsgesellschaft. Eine quantitative Befragung bei den niedersächsischen Senioren- und Pflegestützpunkten", at the 12th statewide network meeting of senior and care support centers in Lower Saxony, October 9, 2025, in Hanover
"Discursive Anchoring of Diversity in Higher Education: A Mixed-Methods Text Analysis of Social Work Curricula in Germany", International conference "Resisting the Backlash: Defending Intersectional, Decolonial, and Postcolonial Feminisms", October 1–2, 2025, at TU Dresden.
"Housing First for Everyone? Challenges and Strategies for an Inclusive Approach in Municipal Homelessness Services", 19th European Research Conference, September 18-19, 2025, European Observatory on Homelessness, at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, Netherlands.
Keynote: "Vielfalt als Ressource. Arbeitsmarktintegration von Migrantinnen zwischen Anspruch und Wirklichkeit" at the NeMiA conference "WÜRDE! Migrantinnen gestalten Zukunft und Teilhabe am Arbeitsmarkt" in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Hanover, June 19, 2025.
"Diversitätsforschung unter Neutralitätsdruck – Zur wissenschaftstheoretischen Positionierung Sozialer Arbeit (Workshop)", at the conference "Rechte Positionen, Themen und Kategorisierungen identifizieren – Was sind rechte Landnahmen in der Sozialen Arbeit?" at TH Cologne, February 21-22, 2025, organized by the Forum gegen Demokratiefeindlichkeit und rechte Landnahme in der Sozialen Arbeit as a joint working group of DGSA and the Commission for Social Pedagogy of DGfE.