Louise Hantson

Louise Hantson is a doctoral researcher in the Migration, Diversity and Justice Research Centre at the Brussels School of Governance (BSoG) and a FWO (Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) bursary. She is also a member of the Brussels Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Migration and Minorities (BIRMM). In her research on local integration and diversity governance in small and medium-sized cities in the EU,  Louise zooms in on the role of horizontal policy networks in shaping integration policy outcomes.  

Louise obtained a bachelor’s in social anthropology at SOAS University (School of Oriental and African Studies), and a research master’s in social sciences at the EHESS (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales). Previously Louise worked and interned in the field of journalism, media and translation. Between 2021 and 2023 she worked as researcher for the Whole-COMM Horizon 2020 project, after which she published various commissioned research reports on the role of multi-level governance in local immigrant integration policy making, on the access to housing, employment, and the experiences of belonging and exclusion of newly arrived migrants, often with a humanitarian refugee status, in four smaller cities in Flanders and Wallonia (Belgium).

Research interests: politics and governance of integration, diversity and anti-racism, political participation of minorities and citizenship.