Lea Müller-Funk

Lea Müller-Funk is senior researcher and Elise Richter Fellow at the Department for Migration and Globalisation at the Danube University Krems. Her work focuses on diaspora politics, migration processes in displacement contexts, as well as (forced) migration governance with a geographical focus on the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. She holds a joint PhD degree in Comparative Politics and Arabic Studies from Sciences Po Paris and Vienna University (2016) and has previously worked at the Universities of Oxford and Amsterdam and the German Institute for Global and Area Studies.

Lea Müller-Funk has led and been involved in various research projects on displacement (Marie Curie: SYRMAGINE (Syrian Imagination of Europe, 2017-2019), Horizon2020: MAGYC (Migration Governance and Asylum Crises, 2019-2021), FWF: SYREALITY (Syrian Imagination of Europe meet Reality, 2022-2026).

Her current research project SYREALITY focuses on drivers of (im)mobility and migration decision-making processes of Syrian refugees in the Middle East and Europe. It investigates how broader life aspirations influence refugees’ migration decisions; which influence war and displacement have on life aspirations and social class; and how forced migrants’ legal status and the context of reception in four different European cities impact their life aspirations and well-being.

From September 2025, she will lead the ERC Starting Grant RESTATE (Refugees’ Political Participation and State-(Re)Making in Displacement). The project will investigate how refugees perceive and engage with the state throughout their displacement journeys, in particular in the context of state-inflicted violence, and how these perceptions shape their roles as political actors.  

Lea Müller-Funk is also committed to bringing academic knowledge to the public. Her project TIES (Teaching Immigration in European Schools, 2020-2023) developed innovative teaching modules in six European languages to bring migration research into European classrooms in close dialogue with teachers, students and migrants. 

Future, current and recent research projects

Refugees’ Political Participation and State-(Re)Making in Displacement (RESTATE)

• Duration: 01/09/2025–31/08/2030
• Principle investigator for the project: Lea Müller-Funk
• Funding: European Union, ERC Starting Grant

Syrian imaginations of Europe meet reality (SYREALITY)

• Duration: 26/01/2022–25/10/2026
• Principle investigator for the project: Lea Müller-Funk
• Funding: FWF (Austrian Science Fund), Elise Richter Grant
• https://syreality.com/ 

Teaching Immigration in European Schools (TIES)

• Duration: 01/09/2020–31/12/2023
• Principle investigator for the project: Lea Müller-Funk
• Funding: National Geographic, Explorer Grant
• https://teachingmigration.eu/