Background and Previous Experience
Sonila Danaj is a doctoral student at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She has been part of the European Research Consortium funded project ‘Transnational Work and the Evolution of Sovereignty’ and is also involved in the Academy of Finland funded project ‘Labor Mobility in the EU: a Migrant Centered Study of Estonia-Finland and Albania-Italy’ with Principal Investigator Professor Nathan Lillie. She holds an MA in Contemporary European Studies from the Sussex European Institute and another MA in Political Science from Central European University in Budapest. A native of Albania, before moving to Finland, she worked as a university instructor for five years at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tirana, and another three at the European University of Tirana. She also worked as a researcher and research consultant for various non-governmental organizations such as the International Organization for Migration, UN Women, Open Society Foundation/Albania, and the Center for Economic and Social Studies.
In her doctoral studies, she examines the effect on industrial relations at the member state level when a company or employment agency from one European Union country posts workers in another European Union country for a definite period of time regulated by the EU Posted Workers Directive (96/71/EC). More specifically, she looks into how work fragmentation via subcontracting to EU subcontractors and employment agencies has affected the conditions, rights, and representation of workers in the British labor market, its implications on the role and practices of British trade unions and their relationship with migrant workers, and how the workforce is responding to the challenges of subcontracting capitalism in the construction and food packaging industries in the United Kingdom. During her doctoral studies, Sonila Danaj has served as a visiting fellow at the Centre for Employment Relations Innovation and Change in the Leeds University Business School (CERIC-LUBS), Leeds, UK (2014-2016).
Current Research at ILR
During her stay at the ILR School, Cornell University, she intends to continue her research work on trade unions and migrant labor and foster research cooperation with ILR School scholars in the field of industrial and labor relations. Furthermore, she is one of the contributing authors to the book project ‘Reconstructing solidarity: Labor unions, precarious work, and the politics of institutional change in Europe’, edited by Virginia Doellgast (her ILR sponsor), Nathan Lillie, and Valeria Pulignano to be published by Oxford University Press. She is presenting her chapter ‘Labor Markets Competitive Norms and Trade Unions: Cases of Albanian Migrants in Italy and Greece and of Estonians in Finland (co-authored with Erka Caro, Laura Mankki, and Markku Sippola) at a workshop organized by the editors on June 17th.
Sonila Danaj
