From personal experience to a broader curiosity about society
Sabrina was born and raised in Amsterdam. As the daughter of Surinamese immigrants, she had the luxury and challenge of growing up between different cultures. Being raised within a Surinamese context at home while encountering Dutch cultural and social practices outside the home raised profound questions about identity, belonging and cultural difference from an early age. There, the seed was planted for her fascination with migration and, more broadly, with people’s experiences and stories.
In 2007, she started studying migration and immigrant settlement experiences in the Caribbean and Europe. She has examined migration flows, the characteristics and position of immigrants in receiving societies, as well as immigrants’ own experiences of migration, settlement and integration. Her research has explored questions of home, homemaking, social relationships and inclusion, with particular attention to how people experience and negotiate their position within society.
Over the years, her research interests have broadened beyond migration. She has conducted research on diversity, inclusion and inequality, labour market participation, social welfare and the relationship between citizens and institutions. At the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP), for example, she conducted qualitative research into the support provided to people receiving social assistance who face difficulties entering the labour market. Earlier research also addressed diversity and inclusion and the position of vulnerable groups within institutions and society.
Her work combines qualitative and quantitative research. She has extensive experience in ethnographic research, but also has a background in statistical research, survey research and quantitative data analysis. Early in her career, she worked as a quantitative researcher at the Central Bureau of Statistics of the Netherlands Antilles in Curaçao, where she worked on migration and education statistics and contributed to preparations for the 2011 Census.
This combination of perspectives shapes the way she approaches societal questions. She is interested not only in what happens at the level of policies, institutions and demographic trends, but also in how social change is experienced by the people who live through it.
Alongside her academic work, Sabrina has extensive experience in applied policy research, teaching and advising. She has worked for research and policy organisations, universities and public institutions, and currently works as a Senior Advisor at the Social and Economic Council of Curaçao. She is also the author of Post-Migration Experiences, Cultural Practices and Homemaking: An Ethnography of Dominican Migration to Europe and her forthcoming book Making Home in the Euro-Caribbean, which examines regional migration to Curaçao.
Across these different roles and research topics, a common thread runs through her work: a curiosity about people, society and the relationship between individual experiences and wider social structures. She combines academic rigour with a strong interest in people’s everyday realities, seeking to produce research that contributes not only to scientific knowledge but also to a better understanding of contemporary societal challenges.
Education
Sabrina holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Amsterdam, where she conducted ethnographic research on how migrants create a sense of home in receiving societies, focusing on the homemaking practices of Dominican immigrants in the Netherlands.
She previously studied Social and Cultural Sciences at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, specialising in Culture, Organisation and Management. Her education brought together sociology, anthropology, research methods, intercultural communication, organisational culture, globalisation, policy analysis and organisational studies. She also pursued additional coursework in Spanish and Caribbean Studies. As part of her degree, she completed an internship and research project at the Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation in Paramaribo, Suriname, examining organisational culture and the influence of diversity and ethnicity in a multicultural, Caribbean context, and developing recommendations for organisational interventions.
