Main address
Faculty of Social Work
+49/5531/126-209
Haarmannplatz 3 (Room HOA_219 )
37603 Holzminden

Areas of Responsibility

Professorship in Diversity and Social Work

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 examines how local migration societies (communities fundamentally shaped by migration) regulate belonging and participation through categorization, administrative practice, and discourse. I am especially interested in how power works in these processes, above all where it appears neutral, technical, or caring, and in whether institutional change is substantive or merely symbolic. In the SATURN project, I compare social work and participation in rural migration societies in Lower Saxony (Germany), Oregon (USA), and Çanakkale (Turkey). I have also written on 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 qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) and qualitative interviews.

Before entering academia, I spent over twenty years in education, immigrant services and public administration, most recently as Head of Social Services and Commissioner for Integration of the City of Osnabrück. I worked with children and youth from immigrant families, was involved in vocational training and apprenticeship programs in immigrant-owned businesses, and eventually led a municipal department for integration and social services, where I was directly responsible for shaping local integration policy. This experience continues to inform the questions I ask as a researcher.

 

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

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

Rass-Turgut, S. (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 

2027

Diversity in Social Work Curricula Under Neutrality Pressure: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of German Programs and Its Relevance for Transatlantic Debates, Oral Paper in the session „Social Justice, Equity, and Institutional Pressures in Social Work Education“ at the 31st Annual Conference of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR), January 20-24, 2027, San Francisco, CA, USA.

Sanctuary in the Record: Registers of Local Migration Governance in Eugene and Lane County, Oregon, Research Paper at the International Conference on Urban Affairs (ICUA) of the Urban Affairs Association, April 14-16, 2027, New York City, NY, USA.

2026

Vielfalt als Stärke, aber wie erkennt man sie?, wissenschaftlicher Impulsvortrag auf dem NeMiA-Fachtag der Begegnung, 27. Oktober 2026, DGB-Säle Hannover

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)

2025

SATURN- Soziale Arbeit und Teilhabe im ländlichen Raum von Migrationsgesellschaften: Untersuchung lokaler Rahmenbedingungen in Niedersachsen, Oregon und Çanakkale, Vortrag beim HAWK-Festakt, 13.11.2025 in Göttingen

Diversitätsorientierte Altenhilfe in der Migrationsgesellschaft. Eine quantitative Befragung bei den niedersächsischen Senioren- und Pflegestützpunkten, beim 12. landesweiten Netzwerktreffen der Senioren- und Pflegestützpunkte Niedersachsen, am 09.10.2025 in Hannover

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, 18.-19.9.2025, European Observatory on Homelessness, at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, Netherlands.

Vielfalt als Ressource. Arbeitsmarktintegration von Migrantinnen zwischen Anspruch und Wirklichkeit, Impulsvortrag auf der NeMiA- Fachtagung „WÜRDE! Migrantinnen gestalten Zukunft und Teilhabe am Arbeitsmarkt“  in Kooperation mit der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Hannover, 19. Juni 2025. 

Diversitätsforschung unter Neutralitätsdruck - Zur wissenschaftstheoretischen Positionierung Sozialer Arbeit, Workshop auf der Tagung „Rechte Positionen, Themen und Kategorisierungen identifizieren – Was sind rechte Landnahmen in der Sozialen Arbeit?“an der TH Köln, 21.-22.2.2025, veranstaltet vom Forum gegen Demokratiefeindlichkeit und rechte Landnahme in der Sozialen Arbeit« als gemeinsame Arbeitsgruppe der DGSA und der Kommission Sozialpädagogik der DGfE.