Sine Plambech
Primary research areas
Sine Plambech's research focuses on international migration, human trafficking, smuggling, border politics, refugees, women's migration, sexual violence, deportations, sex work, marriage migration, documentary film, and visual anthropology. Sine Plambech conducts fieldwork in migrant and border communities in Nigeria, Thailand, Italy and Denmark.
Current research
Plambech heads the project "Women on the Move" with Open Society Foundations which engages with the contemporary ‘European migration crisis’ in relation to the urgent issue of women as refugees, migrants and trafficked. The project examines women's undocumented migration routes from West Africa to Europe, with fieldwork in Nigeria, North Africa and Sicily.
Sine Plambech is an awardwinning filmmaker and as part of her research she continously explores alternative forms of representation and research dissemination through creative writing, film and visual anthropology. In her upcoming film, she explores violence and everyday life among female migrants on Europe's Southern border.
Plambech is part of the ‘Gender, Justice and Neoliberal Transformations Research Network’ at Columbia University in New York. This transnational research team explores questions of gender and justice in the current geopolitical and economic moment. The team includes researchers working across sites ranging from New York City to Detroit, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Madrid, Amsterdam and Copenhagen.
As a Visiting Professor at Yale University's Ethnicity, Race and Migration programme Sine Plambech is working on developing new research on migration, race, gender and border control in a comparative US-EU perspective.
In her forthcoming ethnographic book, Sine Plambech takes the reader on a global journey into the world of sex in the age of migration. Drawing on over 17 years of ethnographic research the book explores the contemporary transformations of labor, feminism, border politics through the prisms of sex, gender and migration.
Previous Projects
In the project Women, Sex & Migration: Seeing Sex Work Migration and Human Trafficking from the Global South, Sine Plambech explored how sex work migration and human trafficking are practiced, perceived and have impacted two communities in Thailand's Isaan province and Nigeria’s Edo State where migration has become a familiar social phenomenon with many families having a female relative in Europe.
The project was awarded the Sapere Aude Elite Grant by the Danish Research Council.
Read more on Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond
MIGMA: Transnationalism from above and below: Migration management and how migrants manage (MIGMA) examined European attempts to return Nigerian migrants back to their home country.
Read more on University of Oslo's webpage
Managing Migration: Risks and remittances among migrant Thai women
Women from Asia are increasingly traversing borders to marry men in the Western world. This project presented ethnographic research focused on Thai women married to Danish men. The films Fra Thailand til Thy and Heartbound are based on this research.
Expertise
Research and activites
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Journal Article2022Indebted deportation among undocumented migrant sex workers from Thailand and Nigeria in Europe.Sine Plambech
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DIIS Report2022Trafficking, sex work and reproductive health among West African migrant womenSine Plambech, Ahlam Chemlali & Maria Chiara Cerio
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Book Chapter2022Elizabeth Bernstein, Sealing Cheng, Sine Plambech & Mario Pecheny
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Book Chapter2022Thinking Migration, Sexuality, and Precarity in a Neoliberal AgeSine Plambech, Mark Padilla, Sealing Cheng & Svati Shah
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Photo/illustration by Christian ViumDIIS Report2021Knowledge and needs of West African migrants en route to EuropeIda Marie Savio Vammen, Sine Plambech, Ahlam Chemlali & Ninna Nyberg Sørensen
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DIIS Report2019Human trafficking, migration, and gender in the Danish media 2010-2019Sine Plambech & Maria Brus Pedersen
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DIIS Report2019When human welfare meets the political and security agendasNinna Nyberg Sørensen, Sine Plambech, Paolo Cuttitta, Gioconda Herrera, Ulla Dalum Berg & Sealing Cheng
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Web Article2018Sine Plambech & Dy Plambeck
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Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright licenseBook2018Sine Plambech & Denise Brennan
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Journal Article2018Examining the vulnerability of victims of human trafficking before and after returnErlend Paasche, May-Len Skilbrei & Sine Plambech
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Article2018Sine Plambech & Denise Brennan
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Web Article2017Sine Plambech
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Book Chapter2017The Post-deportee Life of Nigerian Migrant Sex WorkersSine Plambech
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Literature Review2017Sine Plambech & Sofie Henriksen
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Journal Article2017Economies of Migration among Nigerian Sex WorkersSine Plambech
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Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright licenseJournal Article2017Sine Plambech
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Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright licenseJournal Article2016Making Films on Sex Work, Migration and Human TraffikingSine Plambech
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Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright licenseJournal Article2016the business of sex, deportation and rescue among Nigerian sex worker migrantsSine Plambech
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DIIS Report2016From local grievances to violent insurgencySigne Marie Cold-Ravnkilde & Sine Plambech
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Working papers etc.2014The Fate of Local InterpretersSine Plambech & Matilde Skov Danstrøm
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Journal Article2014Rescue, Deportation, and Everyday Violence Among Nigerian MigrantsSine Plambech
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Literature Review2011Book reviewSine Plambech
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Book Chapter2010Transnational migration in the global care economySine Plambech
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Report2009A synthesis report on the trends and experiences of returned trafficking victims in Thailand and the PhilippinesAnders Lisborg & Sine Plambech
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Photo/illustration by Maria Chiara Cerio, DIISDIIS Comment2022Sine Plambech, Ahlam Chemlali & Maria Chiara Cerio
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Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright licenseDIIS Comment2022Sine Plambech, Ahlam Chemlali & Maria Chiara Cerio
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DIIS Blog2021Images of women migrants in global migrationSofie Henriksen, Ahlam Chemlali & Sine Plambech
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Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright license
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Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright licenseDIIS Comment2020Poor immigrant neighbourhoods in New York are being hit the hardestSine Plambech
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Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright licenseDIIS Comment2019a lesson in Othering the terrorists, not the migrants!Sine Plambech
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Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright licenseDIIS Comment2018We need more researchers to make films or to collaborate with filmmakersSine Plambech
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DIIS Longread2018The new film Heartbound documents 15 years of migration researchSine Plambech, Maria Brus Pedersen & Troels Jensen
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DIIS Policy Brief2016Jihadist violence in Nigeria continuesSine Plambech & Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde