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Dr. Helena Hof
Visiting Researcher
Helena Hof, PhD, is a Visiting Researcher at the Institute of Asian Migrations (IAM), Waseda University and an alumni of Waseda’s Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies. Her work lies at the nexus of mobility studies and migration studies, the sociology of work and transnational labour markets, class and skills in the migration process, gender, ethnicity and race, and global cities and entrepreneurship. In her doctoral and postdoctoral research at Waseda, she focused on the entanglements of physical mobility, career mobility, and social mobility in European migrants’ early-career trajectories in the global cities Tokyo, Singapore, and Sao Paulo. Helena’s home institution is the University of Zurich (see profile), where she is a Senior Research and Teaching Fellow at the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies. She also holds a guest researcher affiliation as Research Fellow with the Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germany (MMG-MPG), where she has just completed the four-year collaborative research project “Qualification and Skill in the Migration Process of Foreign Workers in Asia” (QuaMaFA). Within QuaMaFA, Helena investigated migrant-led innovation in Tokyo’s and Singapore’s knowledge-intensive start-up sectors and focused on the link between foreigners’ involvement in local entrepreneurial networks and the development of their business, as well as their overall embedding in the host society. Helena is the book reviews editor at the academic journal Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration and has worked in mixed-methods projects as well as in mixed qualitative projects including ethnography, interviews, and filming.
Research Projects
Since 2025: Collaboration for Special Issue on the Anthropology of Gender in Asian Migration with M. Wadhwa, R. Achenbach, D. Kim, and A. Muranaka.
Since 2024: Comparative Perspectives on the Transformation of East Asian Labor Markets through International Skilled Migration, funded by Toshiba International Foundation, with Aimi Muranaka, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen and Kikuko Nagayoshi, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo. Workshop Program and Abstract (PDF, 211 KB)
Since 2024: Recalibrating ‘Skill’ in Changing Immigration Regimes: Skilled Migrants and the Nature of Work in Asia (with A. Muranaka, R. Achenbach, Y. Wang, and B.S.A. Yeoh), in collaboration with the Asian Migration Cluster, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.
03/2021-02/2025: Principal Investigator of ‘Foreign entrepreneurs in Tokyo's and Singapore's knowledge-intensive start-up sector', sub-project of Qualification and Skill in the Migration Process of Foreign Workers in Asia (QaMaFA), collaborative project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (with Ruth Achenbach, Aimi Muranaka, Joohyun Justine Park, and Megha Wadhwa).
2019-2025: Tokyo's Attractiveness for Global Talent: A Comparative Study of Tokyo, Singapore, and Sao Paulo, Principal Investigator, Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Early-Career Scientists Award.
Recent publications
Book
Hof, Helena. 2022. The EU Migrant Generation in Asia: Middle-Class Aspirations in Asian Global Cities. Bristol University Press, Global Migration and Social Change Series. Podcast of the book at New Books Network.
Journal articles and book chapters
Hof, Helena. 2025. "‘White Innovation’: Conceptualizing Changing Racial Hierarchies Through Migrant Entrepreneurship in Singapore and Japan." In Migration, Transnational Flows, and the Contested Meanings of Race in Asia, IMISCOE Research Series, S. Lan & M. Debnár (Eds). Springer, pp. 121-140 (Open Access).
Hof, Helena, Aimi Muranaka, and Joohyun Justine Park. 2024. “Employment as an anchor: The prospects of emerging East Asian skilled migration regimes through the lens of migrants’ access to the labor market.” Asia and Pacific Migration Journal. DOI: 10.1177/01171968241292376.
Hof, Helena. 2024. “Pushing Social Norms: Foreign Entrepreneurs Fueling Japan’s Innovation?» Contemporary Japan. DOI 10.1080/18692729.2024.2423969.
Hof, Helena and Jaafar Alloul. 2023. Migratory class-making in global Asian cities: The European mobile middle negotiating ambivalent privilege in Tokyo, Singapore, and Dubai. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Doi: 10.1080/1369183X.2023.2271669
Hof, Helena. 2022. ‘Die mixed embeddedness ausländischer Unternehmer*innen in Tōkyōs Startup-Ökosystem.’ [The mixed embeddedness of foreign entrepreneurs in Tōkyō’s startup ecosystem] In: Chiavacci, David; Wieczorek, Iris. Japan 2022. München: VSJF – Vereinigung für sozialwissenschaftliche Japanforschung, 233-259.
Hof, Helena, Simon Pemberton and Emilia Pietka-Nykaza. 2021. 'EU migrant retention and the temporalities of migrant staying: A new conceptual framework.' Comparative Migration Studies. 10.1186/s40878-021-00225-5 Watch YouTube trailer here.
Hof, Helena and Yen-Fen Tseng. 2020. 'When “global talents” struggle to become local workers: The new face of skilled migration to corporate Japan.' Asia and Pacific Migration Journal 29 (4): 511-531. DOI: 10.1177/0117196820984088.
Hof, Helena. 2020. 'Intersections of Race and Skills in European Migration to Asia: Between White Cultural Capital and ‘Passive Whiteness’. Ethnic and Racial Studies. DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2020.1822535
Hof, Helena. 2020. Opting Out for Getting In: Existential Mobility in European Graduates’ Migration to Asia.' Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies. DOI: 10.1080/15562948.2020.1755761
Hof, Helena. 2020. ‘Locally Embedded Cosmopolitans? European Millennials’ Boundary Work in Singapore and Tokyo’ In Contemporary European Emigration, Brigitte Suter und Lisa Åkesson (eds). Routledge: pp. 39-57.
Hof. Helena. 2019. ‘The Eurostars Go Global: Young Europeans’ Migration to Asia for Distinction and Alternative Life Paths.’ Mobilities. DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2019.1643164.
Hof, Helena und Gracia Liu-Farrer. 2019. ‘Gender, Labour and Migration in Japan.’ In The Routledge Companion to Gender and Japanese Culture, Mark Pendleton, Jennifer Coates und Lucy Fraser (eds). Routledge: pp. 189-98.
Hof, Helena. 2018. ‘‘Worklife Pathways’ to Singapore and Japan: Gender and Racial dynamics in Europeans` Mobility to Asia’, Social Science Japan Journal, Special Issue Winter 2018, 21 (1): 45-65. https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyx035
Asian Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen and Kikuko Nagayoshi, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo.
For the list of Helena Hof's previous publications, please go here.