Melissa Weihmayer is a Researcher with the Global Exchange on Migration, the knowledge exchange arm of Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford. Drawing on innovation within local and regional government, she is managing a 2-year project bringing together local authorities in England to build capacity in welcoming and integration work and to inform central government action.
Melissa studies the governance of international and internal forced migration in diverse contexts. Her research examines the intersection of urban governance and migration challenges, most recently focusing on how local authorities develop responses to asylum in the UK. She is interested in the governance processes and practices that shape decisions on migration responses at the local level, including capacity-building initiatives, innovation, the use of evidence, and coalition-building and partnerships. In addition to multi-year engagement with London local authorities responding to asylum through the Asylum Welcome programme, she developed in-depth research projects on the multilevel governance of Colombia’s state responses to internal displacement and the building of local social contracts in displacement-affected eastern Ukraine.
Previously, Melissa worked with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees through its interagency project the Joint IDP Profiling Service (JIPS). In her work, she partnered with a variety of UN, humanitarian, development and government stakeholders to build a trusted evidence base on internal displacement, especially in Central America and the Middle East.
Melissa completed her PhD in Urban Planning in the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she is also a Visiting Fellow. She holds an MA from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She is a Research Affiliate of the Internal Displacement Research Programme, and a frequent contributor to the network Researching Internal Displacement.
| Migration Reasearch Hub ID: 6227 | |
| ORCID | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7767-3022 |
| https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-weihmayer-75a7a358/ | |
Expertise
Migration processes
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Migration drivers
- Urban/Rural development and living standards
- Poverty and inequality
- Public infrastructure, services and provisions
- Climate change and environmental conditions
- Conflict, war and violence
- International relations and geopolitical transformations
- Migration governance and infrastructure
- Migration policy and other public policies
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Migration forms
Migration governance
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Governance actors
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Immigrant policy and law
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Migration policy and law
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Governance processes
Cross-cutting topics in migration research
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Migration research and theory
Disciplines
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Disciplines
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Subject Areas
Methods
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Other
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Qualitative research
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Quantitative research
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Types of study
Geographies
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Scope
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UN Countries
Roles
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University of Oxford
University, Oxford, United Kingdom
Researcher, Global Exchange on Migration -
University of Oxford
University, Oxford, United Kingdom
Research
Proactive local government: How London borough councils build capacity to respond to asylum
| Authors | Melissa Weihmayer |
| Year | 2026 |
| Journal Name | Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space |
Analysing the local governance of internal displacement: an emerging (local) social contract in eastern Ukraine since 2014
| Authors | Melissa Weihmayer |
| Year | 2024 |
| Journal Name | Environment and Urbanization |
Multilevel governance ‘from above’: Analysing Colombia’s system of co-responsibility for responding to internal displacement
| Authors | Melissa Weihmayer, Melissa Weihmayer |
| Year | 2023 |
| Journal Name | Journal of Refugee Studies |
| Citations (WoS) | 1 |
Suggested Research
Multilevel Governance 'from Above': Analysing Colombia's System of Co-Responsibility for Responding to Internal Displacement
| Authors | Melissa Weihmayer |
| Year | 2023 |
| Citations (WoS) | 1 |