Research and Teaching Interests

Agency, Communications, Comparative Politics, Humanitarian Action, International Relations, Leadership Theory and Practice, Migration, Political Inclusion, and Social Capital.

Biography

Dr Daniel William Szabo’s research examines how migrants have sought to develop and use network social capital as a survival strategy on high-risk migration routes and to facilitate integration into their host society. This is all while operating in an environment of increasingly securitised migration policies and barriers to migrant integration by states.

Daniel’s research, in part, challenges and responds to forms of anti-migrant rhetoric and other disingenuous framings of migrants. He provides a counter-narrative showing how migrants exercise agency in navigating various migration and integration experiences.

In this phase of his long-term research into high-risk migration, Daniel interviewed 101 individuals at three stages of their journey. All had the experience of travelling routes from countries in West Africa and through the Sahara Desert to reach Europe.

The outcomes make four distinct contributions. These are to:

1) Advance our understanding of the fragmented nature of contemporary migration journeys from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe.
2) Examine how European Union policy changes have increased the risks to migrants both on their journeys and their precarity within Europe once they arrive.
3) Reframe and add to our comprehension of agency by investigating migrants as resilient survivors.
4) Strengthen our perception of how migrants develop and use network-derived social capital during and after their journeys.

Daniel now looks to expand and upscale his research. He wants to strengthen his dataset and delve deeper into the migration experiences on these high-risk routes and individual efforts at integration in host communities.

In addition to his dedication to academia and practice teaching, Daniel advocates for civil service. A skilled professional at the UN level for eleven years, most of that time supporting the Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) media and communications efforts in humanitarian responses at International Organization for Migration (IOM). Activities involving DTM monitor and track human mobility, including displaced populations' evolving needs and journeys in one hundred countries. Meanwhile, IOM is the leading intergovernmental organisation in the field of migration. Fully integrated into the UN system, IOM helps advance a comprehensive and coordinated response assisting migrants in numerous contexts.

Daniel developed his initial research on high-risk migration at Griffith University (Queensland, Australia) and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (Germany). His journey as a political scientist began at Capilano University (North Vancouver, Canada).