Ulrike Bialas
Sociology
International Migration, Ethnography, Bureaucracy, State Classifications, Legal Status, Refugees and Asylum Seekers, Unaccompanied Minors
Ulrike Bialas is a sociologist and has been IMIS member and a researcher at SFB 1604 since 2025. Previously, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen. She studied Social Sciences at Humboldt University of Berlin and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), and earned a PhD in Sociology from Princeton University (areas of focus: Urban Sociology, Science and Technology Studies, International Migration).
Her research explores how state categories shape migrants’ experiences and how migrants interpret and navigate these classifications. Her book, Forever 17: Coming of Age in the German Asylum System (University of Chicago Press, 2023), is an ethnographic study of how the social and legal category of age affects the lives and trajectories of unaccompanied minors in Germany. Ulrike primarily employs ethnographic and qualitative interview methods.
Bialas, Ulrike. (forthcoming) “Legal Status, Categories of Admission, and Bureaucratic Classifications.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Sociology, edited by Lynette Spillman, Oxford University Press.
Bialas, Ulrike. (forthcoming) “Intimate Migration Governance through Constructions of Childhood: The Case of Legal Guardianships for Unaccompanied Minors in Germany.” In Childhood & Governance, edited by Marshall Beier, Bristol University Press.
Bialas, Ulrike. (forthcoming) “Child and Minor Asylum Seekers.” In Politics of Asylum Handbook, edited by Rebecca Hamlin and Daniel Silva, DeGruyter-Brill.
Bialas, Ulrike. 2025. “Forever 17: A Rejoinder.” Ethnic and Racial Studies, 48.8, 1593-1601, https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2025.2466727.
Bialas, Ulrike, Johanna Lukate, and Steven Vertovec. 2025. “Contested Categories in the Context of International Migration: Introduction to the Special Issue.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 48.4, 695-717, https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2024.2404493.
Bialas, Ulrike. 2025. “Who is a Minor? Age Assessments of Refugees in Germany and the Classificatory Multiplicity of the State.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 48.4, 740-762, https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2024.2404483.
Amr, Noor, Madeline Bass, Ulrike Bialas, Elisa Lanari, Katharyne Mitchell, Eric Schoon, Jagat Sohail, and Paladia Ziss. 2024. “Foreclosure, Disclosure, and Political Engagement: A Collaborative Reflection on Scholar-Activism in the Neoliberal University.” Migration & Society 7, 194-205, https://doi.org/10.3167/arms.2024.070116.
Bialas, Ulrike. 2023. “Flüchtige Jugend.” Max Planck Forschung 2/2023, 16-19, https://bc.pressmatrix.com/de/profiles/b3b32e362f93/editions/31f66ba003bd71683b71/pages/page/9.
Bialas, Ulrike. 2023. Forever 17: Coming of Age in the German Asylum System. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Bialas, Ulrike. 2023. “Ambiguous Ages, Ambivalent Youths: How Asylum Seekers in Germany Navigate Age Categorization.” Migration Politics 2.003, 2-24, https://doi.org/10.21468/MigPol.2.1.003.
Bialas, Ulrike and Jagat Sohail. 2022. “Flucht nach vorne (seeking refuge in the future): Trauma, agency, and the fantasy of onward flight among refugees in Berlin.” Ethos 50.4, 480-495, https://doi.org/10.1111/etho.12369.
Bialas, Ulrike. 2022. “The Effect of Offspring Sex on Parents’ Migration Probabilities and Outcomes – A Natural Experiment.” Sociological Inquiry 92.S1, 681-709, https://doi.org/10.1111/soin.12399.