Yva Alexandrova Petrova
School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations
PhD Student
Full contact details
School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations
Elmfield Building
Northumberland Road
Sheffield
S10 2TU
- Profile
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Yva Alexandrova is a second year PhD candidate at the Centre for Doctoral Training on New Horizons in Borders and Bordering, University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the datafication of migration and the use of the digital status as a form of biopolitical control over racialised migrants. Prior to this, she held policy and research roles at International Organization for Migration (IOM – UN Migration) in the Middle East. Yva has worked on promoting policy dialogues on migration with a range of stakeholders in government and civil society, as well as promoting the use of migrants’ experiences in policy and research. She has written extensively on migration issues in a policy setting, most recently on the Impact of COVID-19 on Labour Mobility Frameworks in the Gulf countries (ADD, 2021); Migrants’ perspectives on integration in the UK (Asylum Aid, 2018) and Socio-Economic Effects of Public Investments for Roma Inclusion in Kavarna (CSD, 2015).
- Qualifications
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MSc degree in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), United Kingdom;
MA in International relations and European Studies from the Central European University (CEU);
BA in International Relations from the University of National and World Economy (UNWE), Bulgaria.
- Research interests
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PhD Title: Datafication of migration and control of racialised migrants
Synopsis: My research advances critical debates on digital migration governance and racialisation, delivering new knowledge to migration and citizenship studies (MCS), science and technology studies (STS), and the emerging literature on the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS). I focus on how digital status, as a form of immigration control, impacts racialised resident migrants, how its digital nature excludes them by design, and the challenges this creates — including through a gender lens. Empirically, I centre Bulgarian Roma women — a racialised, hard-to-reach group of EU citizens — to analyse the effects of the digital-only EUSS/eVisa on their ability to access and exercise rights post-Brexit.
These topics are significant because they explore the effects of the digital-only immigration status. As datafication expands and intersects with vulnerability, lessons from Roma experiences under the EUSS are critically important for understanding the subsequent eVisa rollout. Since migrants are often used to trial new forms of control, digital status also illuminates the broader societal impact of technology-based governance.