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Centre for Urban Studies Centre for Urban Studies

Dr. S.A. (Sarah) Adeyinka

Postdoctoral Researcher
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Programme group: Challenges to Democratic Representation
Area of expertise: Human Trafficking, Irregular Migration, Prostitution, Public Policy Implementation, Reintegration Governance, Gender-Based Violence, Structural Violence, Post-Colonial History
Visiting address
  • Nieuwe Achtergracht 166
Postal address
  • Postbus 15578
    1001 NB Amsterdam
Contact details
Social media
  • Profile

    Dr. Sarah Adeyinka is a lecturer and researcher whose work focuses on human trafficking, irregular migration, public policy implementation, reintegration governance, gender-based and structural violence, among other related areas. She currently lectures at University of Amsterdam, where she teaches several courses that critically examine how historical and systemic inequalities shape contemporary social policy and governance. She is also an affiliated post-doctoral fellow with the MIGLOBA network at University of Antwerp.

    She previously led the Nigeria component of the European Research Council-funded Reintegrate Project at University of Amsterdam, focusing on reintegration governance for return migrants and return-migrant victims of human trafficking. Dr. Adeyinka earned her PhD at Ghent University while working on the ERC-funded ChildMove Project, which explored the impact of migration trajectories on the psychological wellbeing of unaccompanied minors, with particular attention to Nigerian victims of trafficking. During her PhD, she also co-led the SWIPSER Study, which examined the wellbeing of Nigerian and Ghanaian women working in prostitution in the Brussels Red-Light District.

    Dr. Adeyinka has over 18 years of humanitarian field experience working extensively with populations in situations of vulnerability, especially survivors of sexual violence and trafficking. She is the founder and board chair of CoCreate VZW (Belgium) and Cocreate Humanitarian Aid Foundation (Nigeria).

    Research expertise

    • Human Trafficking
    • Irregular Migration
    • Prostitution
    • Public Policy Implementation
    • Reintegration Governance
    • Gender-Based Violence
    • Structural Violence
    • Post-Colonial History

    Media appearances

    Other links

  • Research

    Research methods

    • Interviews
    • Ethnography
    • Participant Observation
    • Focus Groups
    • Case Studies

    Current research projects

    Reintegrate Project: Understanding Reintegration Governance. The Study examines reintegration governance, drawing on migration governance to develop new conceptual insights on its implementation and effectiveness.

    Current cooperation

    • European Union Agency for Asylum Consultative Forum (Former chair ad interim, current member)
    • MIGLOBA
    • IMISCOE  Standing Committee Forced Migration and Refugees 
    • European Freedom Network
    • CoCreate Nigeria
    • CoCreate Belgium
    • Women’s Consortium of Nigeria
    • Media Coalition and Aareness to Halt Human Trafficking
  • Teaching
    • Politics of Gender and Race in Post-Colonial History
    • Violence: Structural Violence
    • Interpretive Design and Methods

    PhD Supervision

    • Masters Research Project- Conflict Resolution & Governance
    • Masters Research Project- Political Science
  • Publications

    2023

    • Adeyinka, S., Lietaert, I., & Derluyn, I. (2023). It Happened in the Desert, in Libya and in Italy: Physical and Sexual Violence Experienced by Female Nigerian Victims of Trafficking in Italy. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(5), Article 4309. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054309 [details]
    • Adeyinka, S., Lietaert, I., & Derluyn, I. (2023). She said this might be God’s way of taking care of us: Family involvement in human trafficking. International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, 19(3-4), 157-172. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMHSC-11-2022-0116 [details]
    • Adeyinka, S., Lietaert, I., & Derluyn, I. (2023). The Role of Juju Rituals in Human Trafficking of Nigerians: A Tool of Enslavement, But Also Escape. SAGE Open, 13(4), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440231210474 [details]
    • Adeyinka, S., Lietaert, I., & Derluyn, I. (2023). “You Are Merely a Nigerian Prostitute”: Sexual Stigma and Labeling of Nigerian Victims of Trafficking in Italy. Stigma and Health, 8(3), 279-288. https://doi.org/10.1037/sah0000441 [details]
    • Behrendt, M., Vervliet, M., Rota, M., Adeyinka, S., Uzureau, O., Rasmussen, A., Glaesmer, H., Lietaert, I., & Derluyn, I. (2023). A conceptual study on the relationship between daily stressors, stressful life events, and mental health in refugees using network analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, Article 1134667. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1134667 [details]
    • Orsini, G., Uzureau, O., Behrendt, M., Rota, M., Adeyinka, S., Derluyn, I., & Lietaert, I. (2023). Children's mobility across the EU governance of unauthorized migration as a game of chutes and ladders: Evidence from Libya, Italy, Greece and Belgium. In I. van Liempt, J. Schapendonk, & A. Campos-Delgado (Eds.), Research Handbook on Irregular Migration (pp. 190-201). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800377509.00025 [details]

    2022

    • Behrendt, M., Pfeiffer, E., Devlieger, I., Adeyinka, S., Rota, M., Uzureau, O., Lietaert, I., & Derluyn, I. (2022). The Impact of Daily Stressors on Unaccompanied Young Refugees’ Mental Health: A Longitudinal Study. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 92(6), 681-691. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000644
    • Orsini, G., Rota, M., Uzureau, O., Behrendt, M., Adeyinka, S., Lietaert, I., & Derluyn, I. (2022). Loops of Violence(s) Within Europe’s Governance of Migration in Libya, Italy, Greece, and Belgium. Politics and Governance, 10(2), 256-266. https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v10i2.5183
    • Pfeiffer, E., Behrendt, M., Adeyinka, S., Devlieger, I., Rota, M., Uzureau, O., Verhaeghe, F., Lietaert, I., & Derluyn, I. (2022). Traumatic events, daily stressors and posttraumatic stress in unaccompanied young refugees during their flight: a longitudinal cross-country study. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 16(1), Article 26. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-022-00461-2

    2021

    • Adeyinka, S., Samyn, S., Zemni, S., & Derluyn, I. (2021). Nigerian and ghanaian women working in the brussels red-light district. Taylor and Francis Inc. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003158462

    2020

    • Lietaert, I., Behrendt, M., Uzureau, O., Adeyinka, S., Rota, M., Verhaeghe, F., Watters, C., & Derluyn, I. (2020). The development of an analytical framework to compare reception structures for unaccompanied refugee minors in Europe. European Journal of Social Work, 23(3), 384-400. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2019.1682974
    • Samyn, S., Adeyinka, S., Zemni, S., & Derluyn, I. (2020). Reflections on the interplay between procedural, relational and socio-political ethics in ethnographic research with West-African women working in prostitution in Brussels. Qualitative Research Journal, 20(3), 305-315. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRJ-02-2020-0009

    2024

    2022

    • Adeyinka, S. A. (2022). Sarah Adeyinka's Story. In Our Doctoral Journey: A collection of Black Women's Experiences (pp. 24-32). Xlibris.

    Prize / grant

    • Adeyinka, S. (2024). Best Presentation.
    • Adeyinka, S. (2023). Prize Derine.

    Media appearance

    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
  • Ancillary activities
    • European Union Agency For Asylum
      Member of the EUAA's consultative forum. Was chair ad interim until November 202
    • CoCreate vzw
      Humanitarian aid for people in situations of vulnerability
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