Realities that count:Going beyond numbers of short-term labour migration in Zurich's hospitality sector.

In his PhD-project Merlin examines the realities of short-term labour migrants in Zurich’s hospitality sector, a group often overlooked in labour statistics, which usually focus on permanent residents.

The project explores how the nexus of borders, labour regulations, and temporality shape their working and living conditions under time-limited residency permits.

The hospitality sector (e.g. restaurants, hotels, cafés) is a labour-intensive sector. Statistics for Zurich show hospitality as a key employer of short-term migrants, while little is known about their lived realities in the often low-skilled and highly demanding jobs. 

This project generates qualitative insights into the factors shaping these experiences. To do so, this study draws on problem-centred interviews with workers, employers, and sectoral experts to capture everyday experiences, institutional dynamics, and the economic rationales behind employing short-term migrant labour. The findings are then re-embedded in and contextualised with statistical social insurance and migration data.

• 2025: PhD Project: Realities that count – Going beyond numbers of short-term labour migration in Zurich’s hospitality sector

  • Project part of DIZH's Public Data Lab

  • Part of the Research Labour Geography

• 2024 - 2025 Research Associate 

  • Research Group Urban and Populational Geographies - University of Kiel

• 2020 - 2024: M.Sc. Urban and Rural Development, University of Kiel

  • 2022: Exchange Semester Universidade de São Paulo - São Paulo 
    • Funded by DAAD - PROMOS
  • Master thesis: Spatial identity constructions by local journalists in the peripheries of São Paulo
    • Field work funded by DAAD - PROMOS

• 2016 - 2020: B. Sc. Geography, University of Bonn

  • 2019: Exchange Semester Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Bogotá
    • Funded by DAAD - PROMOS
  • Bachelor thesis: Touristic spatial imaginations of the Comuna 13 in Medellín Colombia