Dominik Hangartner wins the 2019 National Latsis Prize

We are proud to congratulate Prof. Dominik Hangartner, one of our Project Leaders, as the highly prestigious 2019 National Latsis Prize Laureate, awarded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Dominik Hangartner joined the nccr – on the move as a Project Leader in June 2016 for the research project on Asylum Policy and Refugee Integration in Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. Two highly ranked publications generated from this research, co-funded by the nccr – on the move, have resulted on the specific situation of asylum-seekers: “When lives are put on hold: Lengthy asylum processes decrease employment among refugees” (in Science Advances 2.8) and the “Long-term impact of employment bans on the economic integration of refugees” (in Science Advances 4.9).

A few months later, Dominik Hangartner, submitted a funding request to our NCCR, in cooperation with Alois Stutzer (University of Basel), to conduct a study on the effects of non-citizens’ voting rights on a range of economic, political, social, psychological, and health outcomes, based on register data and a survey conducted in Geneva. This initially small-scale project grew, as the research teams expanded the scope of their inquiry within the nccr – on the move to a full-fledged project on Non-Citizen Voting Rights, Naturalization and Integration.

Within this ongoing project, the team led by Dominik Hangartner at ETH Zurich is estimating the effectiveness of various nudges, such as the sending of an encouragement letter by the city authorities to naturalization eligible candidates, evaluating the increasing application rate to Swiss citizenship and its impact on economic success. The first results of this study will be released in the coming months.

“Dominik Hangartner is a driven researcher with a strong curiosity and scientific rigor. He has been one of the pioneers in moving Swiss migration research from single case studies to large-scale experiments allowing for generalizable and applicable findings,” says Gianni D’Amato, Director of the nccr – on the move. Dominik Hangartner has successfully highlighted the positive effects of citizenship acquisition on economic integration as well as the detrimental effects of long waiting periods on the integration of asylum seekers.

His scientific output has been incredibly prolific in the recent years, while at the same time he has been actively involved in NCCR events, teaching classes to the nccr – on the move doctoral students and presenting his key findings at various Expert Exchange Roundtables (EER #2 and EER#4). Through his close collaboration with “migration practitioners” at cantonal and federal levels, he has been able to access data previously not available. Moreover, the federal authorities are currently implementing one of his cutting-edge ideas, the allocation of asylum-seekers to cantons based on a data-driven algorithm.

One of the key conclusions the cantonal and federal policy-makers at the recent nccr – on the move Expert Roundtable in Bern reached was that migration policy-making in Switzerland has become increasingly evidence and fact-based. “Dominik Hangartner has greatly contributed to the adoption of this scientific approach to policy-making,” observes Gianni D’Amato.