November 07, 2023 | News | New faces at MPIDR

Welcome, Yvette Young!

Yvette Young joins the Lab of Migration and Mobility. © MPIDR/Schulz

The Laboratory of Migration and Mobility welcomes Yvette Young as a new member. Yvette came from the University of Utah and obtained her PhD in Sociology. The title of her dissertation is: “‘Making Do’ in the Land of Opportunity: An Exploration of the Economic Integration of Refugees in Utah”. After completing her dissertation, Yvette was a postdoctoral research fellow for the Vietnam Health and Aging Study, focusing on the long-term effects of conflict and migration. While working for us during the next three years, Yvette wants to focus – among other topics – on refugee reception and integration.

What’s your job at MPIDR? 
I am a Research Scientist (post-doc) in the Migration and Mobility Lab. I’ll be at MPIDR for three years.

What is your motivation to work in this field of research?
I got interested in refugee integration when I volunteered with a refugee resettlement organization while in graduate school. I made connections with several refugee organizations, starting analyzing their employment data for them, and ended up using their data for part of my dissertation. My interest just expanded from there.

Why did you choose MPIDR as your new employer?
I was really excited to work with such a talented group of researchers using such interesting methods. Having the opportunity to live in Germany and near the ocean didn’t hurt either.

Where are you from? What do you miss most about home (and maybe: what don’t you miss at all)?
I grew up in the northeastern United States, in Maine, but have lived for quite a while in Utah. What I miss the most are my dog, my VW camper van, and weekends in the mountains. What I won’t miss is the poor air quality in Salt Lake City in the winter.

What is your favorite part about work?
My favorite parts of work so far are the lab talks and the group lunches. I love the camaraderie!