Postdoctoral Researcher Position in Labour Immigration and Institutional Change

Overview

The Employment Relations Research Centre (FAOS) at the Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen, is hiring two fixed-term postdoctoral researchers for 2.5 years, starting on 1 March 2027 or as soon as possible afterwards. The positions belong to the project Labour Migration as a Source of Institutional Change, which examines how companies' use of migrant labour can change the labour market institutions of receiving countries. The project is led by Associate Professor Jens Arnholtz and funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark.

In many Western European countries migrant workers now make up a large share of employment, reaching more than 25 percent in some. The project tests a new theory that companies pursuing deviant business strategies can use labour migrants to overcome institutional obstacles, and that the spread of such strategies can cause gradual institutional change.

The postdoctoral researchers will carry out comparative case studies of migrant labour use in three sectors, manufacturing, construction and hospitality, in two countries, either Austria and the Netherlands or Ireland and Sweden. Tasks include process tracing, interviews with company representatives, trade unions, labour inspectors, authorities and experts, and collecting statistics, archival data, media sources and policy documents. They will compare variation across countries and sectors, write articles for top sociology and political science journals and present at international conferences. The project includes a research stay of one and a half months in each case country. The role is mainly research, with a 10 percent teaching obligation.

Requirements

Applicants need research qualifications at least equivalent to a completed PhD in the relevant field.

What you get

The start salary is from 39,900 Danish kroner, plus an 18.07 percent pension contribution.

Key dates

The application deadline is 30 October 2026 at 23:59 CEST.