Tuba Bircan

• PhD
• Head of AIMS Lab: AI Migration and Society at Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Following Turkey’s 2020 decision to revoke border controls, many individuals journeyed towards the Greek, Bulgarian, and Turkish borders. However, the lack of verifiable statistics on irregular migration and discrepancies between media reports and actual migration patterns require further exploration. The objective of this study is to investigate t...

This article provides an interdisciplinary exploration of the complex dynamics between artificial intelligence (AI) and inequality, drawing upon social sciences and technology studies. It scrutinises the power dynamics that shape the development, deployment, and utilisation of AI technologies, and how these dynamics influence access to and control...

As the field of migration studies evolves in the digital age, big data analytics emerge as a potential game-changer, promising unprecedented granularity, timeliness, and dynamism in understanding migration patterns. However, the epistemic value added by this data explosion remains an open question. This paper critically appraises the claim, investi...

This paper aims at exploring the dynamic interplay between advanced technological developments in AI and Big Data and the sustained relevance of theoretical frameworks in scientific inquiry. It questions whether the abundance of data in the AI era reduces the necessity for theory or, conversely, enhances its importance. Arguing for a synergistic ap...

This paper examines an often overlooked yet significant threat to survey validity and epistemic justice: the unequal communication of opinion. We discuss research that signals the presence of this threat when studying public opinion about AI. Furthermore, we apply Bourdieu’s theoretical framework as a potential explanation of the inequality in comm...

Genetics has long been an area of substantial scientific and clinical focus. In the UK in the last decade initiatives such as the 100,000 Genomes Project and the creation of Genomics England have pioneered the incorporation of genomics into clinical care, while Our Future Health forms a cornerstone of the UK’s industrial life sciences strategy. A k...

We introduce a novel machine learning model to explain and predict climate-induced refugee migration. Through a case study of Somalis seeking asylum in the EU, we demonstrated three key features of our approach. First, by combining lead-lag analysis and Elastic Net regularization, our model can efficiently extract important predictors and their opt...

Rapid climate changes bear significant consequences on various aspects of our lives, notably by deteriorating living conditions in certain areas to such extent that inhabitants have no choice but flee. Despite recognition of this issue, the dynamics of the relationship between the environmental factors and the human mobility have yet to be thorough...

Following Turkey's 2020 decision to revoke border controls, many individuals journeyed towards the Greek, Bulgarian, and Turkish borders. However, the lack of verifiable statistics on irregular migration and discrepancies between media reports and actual migration patterns require further exploration. The objective of this study is to bridge this k...

Based on 20 countries across Europe, North America and North Africa, this report synthesises key trends and patterns of national policy approaches towards migrant irregularity, highlighting commonalities and differences across various contexts. In particular, this report examines three key research questions: how have irregular migration policies e...

This working paper seeks to utilise mortality data, when linked to population register data, to assess the potential of such data in developing robust estimators for hard-to-reach groups, specifically undocumented migrants. Recognising the gaps in current migration statistics, the study proposes this novel approach as a means to offer more accurate...

International migration statistics suffer from extensive gaps and shortcomings. Recently, national statistical institutions (NSIs) have started using big data to complement traditional statistics, including on migration. Although these are promising developments, we still lack answers on the extent to which NSIs are currently using big data for mig...

To gain a better understanding of migration patterns and trends, policymakers, researchers, and analysts require high-quality data on migration, including the number of migrants, their characteristics, and the reasons for migration. This information is crucial for developing effective migration policies and programs, and for monitoring and evaluati...

To gain a better understanding of migration patterns and trends, policymakers, researchers, and analysts require high-quality data on migration, including the number of migrants, their characteristics, and the reasons for migration. This information is crucial for developing effective migration policies and programs, and for monitoring and evaluati...

Understanding the careers and movements of highly skilled people plays an ever-increasing role in today’s global knowledge-based economy. Researchers and academics are sources of innovation and development for governments and institutions. Our study uses scientific-related data to track careers evolution and Researchers’ movements over time. To thi...

Google Trends (GT) collate the volumes of search keywords over time and by geographical location. Such data could, in theory, provide insights into people’s ex ante intentions to migrate, and hence be useful for predictive analysis of future migration. Empirically, however, the predictive power of GT is sensitive, it may vary depending on geographi...

As detailed in its flagship report, Genome UK, the UK government recognises the vital role that broad public engagement across whole populations plays in the field of genomics. However, there is limited evidence about how to do this at scale. Most public audiences do not feel actively connected to science, are often unsure of the relevance to their...

Purpose Based on the social penetration theory and affect theory of social exchange, this study aims to examine the relationship between authentic leadership (AL) and workplace loneliness (WL), as well as the mediating effect of interactional justice (IJ) on this relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic in the US higher education sector. Design/m...

As detailed in its flagship report, Genome UK, the UK government recognises the vital role that broad public engagement across whole populations plays in the field of genomics. However, there is limited evidence about how to do this at scale, particularly for public audiences who are not especially interested in the science, are unsure of the relev...

Irregular migration, the movement of people outside legal regulations, is largely viewed either as a security threat or a moral, humanitarian impetus to help the vulnerable. The lack of data on irregular migration obscures the contribution of migrants without legal residence in the farms and factories of Europe. It also makes invisible their skill...

With the rise of Big Data use, deployment of earth observation and remote sensing has gained popularity also for migration studies. Not only the impact of environmental factors, but also of conflict zones and disaster emergence for human mobility and migration can be investigated through analysing different types of remote sensing data by computati...

Objective: Vaccines are an effective means to reduce the spread of diseases, but they are sometimes met with hesitancy that needs to be understood. Method: In this study, we analyzed data from a large, cross-country survey conducted between June and August 2021 in 43 countries (N = 15,740) to investigate the roles of trust in government and science...

Migration models have evolved significantly during the last decade, most notably the so-called flow Fixed-Effects (FE) gravity models. Such models attempt to infer how human mobility may be driven by changing economy, geopolitics, and the environment among other things. They are also increasingly used for migration projections and forecasts. Howeve...

Based on a national survey funded by the TÜBİTAK SOBAG Program, conducted with 1,957 respondents in 12 cities during 2013‐2014, this article examines the political memory of the 1960, 1971, 1980, and 1997 coups by describing the memories and accompanying emotions of Turkish adults. It then explains how differences in remembering and not remembering...

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data analysis algorithms is complementary to theory-driven analysis approaches and becoming more popular also in social sciences. This paper describes the use of Big Data and computational approaches in social sciences by bibliometric analyses of articles indexed between 2015 and 2020 in Social Scienc...

Human migration is an important societal issue with wide-ranging implications, and timely and accurate insights are increasingly needed for understanding the key factors to ensure the well-being of populations. New data sources, such as usage data from mobile phones and applications, remote sensing and satellite images, social media, event and news...

Despite this being the era of migration, no systematic theory of international migration has emerged, nor is there an academic or political agreement on ways in which migration is a ‘gendered’ process. Both theoretically and as inputs in the policy‐making process, gender‐blind approaches have actually rendered the gender dimension of migration more...

During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVIDiSTRESS Consortium launched an open-access global survey to understand and improve individuals' experiences related to the crisis. a year later, we extended this line of research by launching a new survey to address the dynamic landscape of the pandemic. this survey was released with the goal of a...

Undocumented or unregistered immigrants are part of European society, particularly in Belgium. However, adequate and reliable data on this population is scarce as it is not always easy for data-collecting authorities to have access to and gather information on them. In this report, we estimate the number of undocumented migrants from Sub-Saharan an...

Understanding the careers and movements of highly skilled people plays an ever-increasing role in today's global knowledge-based economy. Researchers and academics are sources of innovation and development for governments and institutions. Our study uses scientific-related data to track careers evolution and Researchers' movements over time. To thi...

Although human activity constantly generates massive amounts of data, these data can only be analysed by mainly the private sector and governmental institutes due to data accessibility restrictions. However, neither migrants (as the producers of this data) nor migration scholars (as scientific experts on the topic) are in a position to monitor or c...

Family reunification is one of the main channels for migration to the EU, yet little is known about the skills and labour market trajectories of family migrants. Family migration continues to be seen within a gendered and binary paradigm of the male economic migrant and female dependent. Related policies disadvantage migrant women and limit their p...

Migration is one of the key aspects of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To understand global migration patterns, develop scenarios, design effective policies, focus on the population’s needs, and identify how these needs change over time, we need accurate, reliable and timely data. The gaps in international migration data have persisted si...

The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173 429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, copin...

this N = 173,426 social science dataset was collected through the collaborative COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey-an open science effort to improve understanding of the human experiences of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic between 30th March and 30th May, 2020. The dataset allows a cross-cultural study of psychological and behavioural responses to the Coronavir...

This study explores the relationship between ECEC participation for young children (0-2-year-olds) and ECEC policies using multilevel Tobit modelling. At the micro-level, the socio-ecological model is employed to control for the individual- and family-related circumstances, using the EU-SILC data from 2014; and at the macro-level, policy measures r...

Purpose This paper aims to explore the relationship between inclusive leadership (IL) and employee work engagement (WE), as well as the mediating effect of procedural justice (PJ) on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach An online, self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. A total of 201 information technology (IT) profe...

Migration is humming with activity and fuelled by the changing nature of typologies, geographies, drivers and, more importantly, changing soceities. At the same time, 'migration' continues to be a key concern of public and policy debates, especially as intersectional issues of labour rights, citizenship, ethnicity and health inequalities. Alongside...

Citizens’ preferences regarding who should provide and finance childcare and whether these preferences are linked to the current policies in place have been understudied. Two sets of multilevel analyses are conducted to determine whether the current governmental involvement in childcare provision and financing is supported by the citizens in Europe...

Using a unique dataset of 17,937 high-value public work construction procurements made between 2004 and 2011 and 5945 firms that won the auctions of these state procurements, this chapter provides systematic evidence of favoritism in public procurement in Turkey. While the yearly total of high-value construction procurements has tripled in 8Â?years...

Work engagement and workplace inclusion become more crucial as the US and global workforce continues to diversify. One of the human resource tools organizations use to encourage this diversity is Employee Resource Groups (ERGs or Associate Resource Groups). ERGs are voluntary groups of employees who share a common interest in organizations. Althoug...

Whereas official poverty rates and related indicators based on EU-SILC are now widely used in national and EU-level policy documents, some of the most vulnerable groups are de facto excluded from such panels. This chapter reports the findings of a pilot of ‘satellite surveys’ to EU-SILC among homeless people, undocumented immigrants and travellers...

Introduction European antipoverty policies are monitored to a large extent by means of harmonised household panels in all member states, such as the EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). Whereas official poverty rates and related indicators based on EU-SILC are now widely used in national and EU-level policy documents, some of the (p...

This article tackles the relationship between Turkish-Belgian families with the Flemish society, within the specific context of their experiences with early childhood education and care (ECEC) system in Flanders. Our findings are based on a focus group with mothers in the town of Beringen. The intercultural dimension of the relationships between th...

Perceptions of users regarding the accessibility of childcare services have been under-researched. The present study addresses this gap by looking into the effect of systemic level characteristics of the ECEC system on the perceived accessibility of childcare at the individual level. Perceived accessibility is composed of perceived affordability, a...

Recent refugee integration policy agendas include education on the lists, despite many other issues to address. Higher education can also be an instrument to prevent a generation of a war-stricken nation from becoming “lost” for not only for Syria but also Europe. Following the drastic inflow of (mostly young) refugees, Belgian higher education ins...

Los autores reflexionan sobre la memoria histórica a partir del recuerdo que ha dejado en la sociedad turca el golpe del 12 de septiembre de 1980, conocido en turco como 12 Eylül Darbesi. Dentro de este ejercicio, cobra especial relieve la figura de su ejecutor, el general Kenan Evren, presidente de Turquía entre 1980 y 1989, fallecido en 2015. El...

Using a unique data set on 49,355 high-value procurements, this chapter provides systematic evidence on favoritism in public procurement in Turkey. The yearly total of high-value public procurements, as the major area of transfers controlled by the government, has tripled in eight years. This development went hand in hand with unceasing legal amend...

In political, social and economic terms, Turkey is the most affected country of the Syrian crisis. More importantly, Turkey as a host country of Syrian refugees has been living a dramatic demographic change. The most marginalized group living in Turkey is children. Refugee education has hence become of top priority. The global report in refugee edu...

In this chapter, we quantitatively analyze the role of network membership in the performance of firms within the public procurement market in Turkey. We use a unique public procurement dataset of all high-value public procurement contracts-those with a contract value worth over TL 1,000,000-awarded between 2005 and 2010. We consider two types of ne...

In this article we investigate the assumed relationship between immigrant concentrations and crime at the community level in Belgium for the period 2001—6. Multivariate analysis shows that unemployment levels have a very strong effect on crime, thus rendering the ethnic composition of the community non-significant. We distinguished various groups d...

Previous research has indicated that various deprivation indicators have a positive impact on crime rates at the community level. In this article, we investigate the impact of deprivation indicators on crime in Belgian municipalities (n = 589) for the period 2001–06. A spatial regression analysis demonstrates that unemployment figures have a strong...

In the debate about the electoral appeal of Green parties, some authors argue that Green voting is a phenomenon typical of the ‘new middle class’ (young, highly educated and urban), while others assume that Green parties are able to reach out to new constituencies. Aggregate level data on the electoral performance of Belgian Green parties in the pe...