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Divya Balan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at FLAME University, Pune, Maharashtra. She teaches courses on Migration, Diaspora, and Refugee Studies at FLAME. She is UGC-NET qualified in International and Area Studies and has twelve years of teaching experience. Dr. Divya taught as Assistant Professor (ad hoc) at the Department of Political Science at Delhi University (Shri Ram College of Commerce and Kamala Nehru College) and the Department of International Relations at the Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod.

Divya holds a doctorate in European Studies from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. Her doctoral research investigated the immigrant integration measures of the British Government during the post-multiculturalist phase of 2000-2010, taking the Indian diaspora as a case study. She has visited the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the University of Derby, the UK, on a short-term Europe Area Studies Programme Grant to complete her doctoral thesis.

Divya served as an international visiting fellow of the Institute for European Global Studies at the University of Basel, Switzerland, in 2018. She has also been a migration policy consultant for government, civil society and international organisations. She is a recipient of several scholarships and grants and a member of several academic organisations. Divya has published monographs and research papers in edited books and reputed journals and authored several timely opinion pieces in English and Malayalam for international, national and regional newspapers and magazines, including the Routed Magazine, The Wire, Scroll.in, The New Indian Express, Times of India, Telangana Today, The Aidem, Truecopy Think, etc.

An active public speaker, Divya has presented her works in several public fora, national and international conferences, workshops, and symposiums held at various places, including the University of Basel, Switzerland; WageIndicator Foundation, The Netherlands; Erasmus University, Rotterdam; Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Aligarh Muslim University, Uttar Pradesh; Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi; Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar; Central University of Kashmir, Srinagar; Manipur University, Imphal; Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana; Manipal University; Kerala University; Mahatma Gandhi University; Kannur University, Kerala; etc. Her research interests span international migration, immigration & integration policies of the European countries, the global Indian diaspora, the India-Gulf migration corridor, Non-resident Keralites, migration and refugee governance in India, and internal migration in India.