I am an Academy of Finland postdoctoral fellow at the University of Helsinki. Upon international competition I was granted in 2017 a three-year grant (245.632 euro) from the Academy of Finland for my research project: Whose Interests? A comparative study on trade unions responses to migration and migrants in Finland, Ireland, and Portugal.

My research interests lie at the cross-roads of migration, ethnic relations, and the labour markets. Currently I am responsible for teaching two master level courses at the University of Helsinki that I have set up personally: Politics of Immigration and Sociology of Work. I have also conducted research and lectured on e.g., the following topics: temporary migration, transnationalism, migration and social security, multiculturalism, globalisation, and international student mobility. I hold a PhD in Social Policy from the University of Turku, and a MSc in Sociology from the London School of Economics.

I have worked as a researcher at three Finnish Universities and as a visiting researcher at the University of Lisbon, University College Dublin, Wissenscaftzentrum Berlin (Research Unit Migration, Integration, Transnationalization)
and at the University of Leeds (the Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change CERIC), and the Family Federation, Finland.

I have consulted, co-operated with numerous Finnish and international organisations such as the Finnish Red Cross, International Organisation for Migration IOM, Eurofound, trade unions, The European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control, affiliated with the United Nations (HEUNI) on questions related to my research topics. I have been interviewed on my research numerous times for Finnish media, including the evening news of the three main TV-channels, the largest Finnish newspapers, and radio.

I have worked as main MSc/BSc/Phd thesis supervisor in Sociology/Social policy. I am open for national and international research co-operation (including funding applications) and suggestions of supervising duties at BSc/MSc/PhD levels. Please feel free to contact me (rolle.alho@helsinki.fi)