Grondelaers, Hannah

Hannah Grondelaers was a research intern at UNU-CRIS. She holds a Bachelor and Master in History from KU Leuven, with a focus on contemporary history. She recently graduated from her second Master in Conflict and Development Studies at Ghent University. For her master’s thesis, Hannah studied the context-specific solidarity and support practices emerging between Ukrainian refugee mothers living at an emergency reception centre.

Before undertaking her thesis research there, Hannah already worked at this reception centre as a job student, mainly for SOS Children’s Villages at the Child Friendly Space of the centre. In this way, she gained practical experience and discovered her passion for working with refugees.

At UNU-CRIS, Hannah interned under supervision of Ine Lietaert as part of the Migration and Social Policy Cluster. In line with one of the cluster’s main research topics, she worked on return migration of Ukrainian refugees from Belgium to Ukraine, again with a specific focus on Ukrainian mothers, and on the effect of changes in the Temporary Protection Directive on these patterns of return migration