Professor Valentina Mazzucato is a professor of Globalisation and Development at Maastricht University. She studies migration between Europe and Africa from a transnational perspective, by focusing on the linkages that migrants forge and maintain between their societies of origin and destination. She studies the consequences of such linkages for migrants, their families, and communities both at home and abroad. Her research is characterised by multi-sited research designs and mixed-method approaches combining survey and ethnographic methods and working in interdisciplinary teams. She heads several international research projects on transnational families that live between Africa and Europe. She currently heads a 5-year project on the Mobility Trajectories of Young Lives in Global South and North (MO-TRAYL) funded under the ERC Consolidator Grant scheme.
Before joining the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in Maastricht, Prof. Mazzucato lived and worked in various African countries for over twenty years, focusing on West Africa (Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana).
Selected Publications
Geel, van J. and V. Mazzucato (2020) Building educational resilience through transnational mobility trajectories: Young people between Ghana and The Netherlands. Young [1.160]
Mazzucato, V. (2020) Mixed-method Social Network Analysis for multi-sited transnational migration research. Global Networks-a Journal of Transnational Affairs
Mazzucato, V. and B. Dito (2018) Transnational families: Cross-country comparative perspectives. Population Space and Place 24(7) Doi: 10.1002/psp.2165 [2.279]
Caarls, K., K. Haagsman, E. Kraus, V. Mazzucato (2018) African transnational families: Cross-country and gendered comparisons. Population Space and Place 24(7) Doi: 10.1002/psp.2165 [2.279]
Geel, van J. and V. Mazzucato (2018) Conceptualising youth mobility trajectories: Thinking beyond conventional categories. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 44(13): 2144-2162. Doi: 10.1080/1369183X.2017.1409107 [2.297]
Cebotari, V., V. Mazzucato and E. Appiah (2017) A longitudinal analysis of well-being of Ghanaian children in transnational families. Child Development DOI:10.1111/cdev.12879 [3.791]
Cebotari, V., V. Mazzucato, M. Siegel (2016) Gendered perceptions of migration among Ghanaian children in transnational care. Child Indicators Research DOI: 10.1007/s12187-016-9407-x [IF 1.011]
Cebotari, V. and V. Mazzucato (2016) Educational performance of children of migrant parents in Ghana, Nigeria and Angola. Journal of Ethic and Migration Studies 42(5); 834-856. DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2015.1125777 [IF.1.536]
Cebotari, V., Mazzucato, V. and M. Siegel (2016) Child development and migrant transnationalism: The health of children who stay behind in Ghana and Nigeria. The Journal of Development Studies 53(3): 444-459. DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2016.1187723 [0.896]
Mazzucato, V. and V. Cebotari (2016) Psychological well-being of Ghanaian children in transnational families. Population, Space and Place. DOI: 10.1002/psp.2004 [IF 1.781]
Dankyi, E., V. Mazzucato and T. Manuh (2016) Global social protection as a reciprocal process: The work of caregivers in providing care for migrants’ children. Oxford Development Studies 45(1): 80-95. DOI: 10.1080/13600818.2015.112407
Poeze, M, E. Dankyi and V. Mazzucato (2016) Navigating transnational childcare relationships: Migrant parents and their children’s caregivers in the origin country. Global Networks. DOI 10.1111/glob.12135 [1.586]
Dito, B., V. Mazzucato and D. Schans (2016) The effects of transnational parenting on the subjective health and well-being of Ghanaian migrants in The Netherlands. Population, Space and Place. DOI: 10.1002/psp.2006. [IF 1.781]
Mazzucato, V., B. Dito, M. Grassi, J. Vivet (2016) Transnational parenting and the well-being of Angolan migrant parents in Europe. Global Networks. DOI: 10.1111/glob.12132 [1.586]
Haagsman, K., V. Mazzucato, and B. Dito (2015) Transnational families and the subjective well-being of migrant parents: Angolan and Nigerian parents in The Netherlands. Ethnic and Racial Studies 38 (15): 1-20 DOI:10.1080/01419870.2015.1037783 [IF 0.888].
Mazzucato, V. (2015) Guest editor: Transnational families and the well-being of children and caregivers who stay in origin countries. Social Science and Medicine 132 (2015): 208-214. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed. 2014.11.030 [IF 2.558].
Mazzucato, V., V. Cebotari, A. Veale, A. White, M. Grassi, J. Vivet (2015) International parental migration and the psychological well-being of children in Ghana, Nigeria, and Angola. Social Science and Medicine 132 (2015), 215–224. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.10.058 [IF 2.558].
Mazzucato, V., D. Schans, K. Caarls, and C. Beauchemin (2015) Transnational families between Africa and Europe. International Migration Review 49 (1): 142-172 [0.812].
Beauchemin, C., J. Nappa, B. Schoumaker, P. Baizan, A. Gonzalez-Ferrer, K. Caarls, and V. Mazzucato (2015) Reunifying versus living apart together across borders: A comparative analysis of Sub-Saharan migration to Europe. International Migration Review 48 (4): 173-199. [0.812]
Haagsman, K. and V. Mazzucato (2014) The quality of parent–child relationships in transnational families: Angolan and Nigerian migrant parents in The Netherlands. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 40(11), 1677-1696 doi: 10.1080/1369183X.2013.871491 [1.085].
Mazzucato V. (2011) Guest editor: Researching the effects of transnational families on children’s wellbeing. Journal of Marriage and Family 73 (4) [IF 1.849].
Mazzucato, V. and D. Schans (2011) Transnational families and the well-being of children: Conceptual and methodological challenges. Journal of Marriage and Family 73 (4): 704 – 712 [IF 1.849].
Books and book chapters
International publisher
Mazzucato, V. & J. van Geel (2020). Transnational young people: growing up and being active in a transnational social field. In B. Yeoh (Eds.) Handbook of Transnationalism. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Haagsman, K. & V. Mazzucato (forthcoming). Gendered transnational parenting. In N. Piper & C. Mora del Valle (Eds.), Palgrave Handbook of Gender, Sexuality and Migration. London: Palgrave.
Haagsman, K., & V. Mazzucato (2020). The Well-being of stay behind family members in migrant households. In T. Bastia & R. Skeldon (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Migration and Development, p. 181-190. London: Routledge.
Beauchemin, C., K. Caarls, and V. Mazzucato (2018) Senegalese families between here and there. Beauchemin, C. (Ed.) Migration between Africa and Europe, p. 423-453. Dordrecht: Springer Open.
Beauchemin, C., K. Caarls, J. Nappa, V. Mazzucato, B. Schoumaker, J. Mangalu (2018) Migration and family life between Congo and Europe. Beauchemin, C. (Ed.) Migration between Africa and Europe, p. 239-261. Dordrecht: Springer Open.
Caarls, K., V. Mazzucato, D. Schans, P. Quartey, C. Addoquaye Tagoe (2018) Transnational families between Ghana, the Netherlands and the UK. Beauchemin, C. (Ed.) Migration between Africa and Europe, p. 319-360. Dordrecht: Springer Open.
Mazzucato, V., D. Schans, K. Caarls, and C. Beauchemin (2018) Migrant families between Africa and Europe: Comparing Ghanaian, Congolese and Senegalese migration flows. Beauchemin, C. (Ed.) Migration between Africa and Europe, p. 149-185-79. Dordrecht: Springer Open.
Schans, D., V. Mazzucato, B. Schoumaker, and M.L. Flahaux (2018) Changing patterns of Ghanaian migration. Beauchemin, C. (Ed.) Migration between Africa and Europe, p. 265-289. Dordrecht: Springer Open.
Schoumaker, B., M.L. Flahaux, C. Beauchemin, D. Schans, V. Mazzucato, and P. Sakho (2018) African migration: Diversity and changes. Beauchemin, C. (Ed.) Migration between Africa and Europe, p. 35-79. Dordrecht: Springer Open.
Poeze, M. and V. Mazzucato (2016) Transnational mothers and the law: Ghanaian women’s pathways to family reunion and consequences for family life. Kilkey, M. and E. Palenga-Möllenbeck (Eds.) Family Life in an Age of Migration and Mobility: Global Perspectives through the Life Course, p.187-211. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mazzucato, V. (2014) Child well-being and transnational families. In Michalos, A. (ed) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-being Research, p. 749-755. Dordrecht: Springer.
Poeze, M. and V. Mazzucato (2014) Ghanaian children in transnational families: Understanding the experiences of left-behind children through local parenting norms. In L. Baldassar and L. Merla (eds) Transnational Families, Migration and the Circulation of Care, pp. 149-169. London: Routledge.
Mazzucato, V. (2013) Transnational families. In Ness, I. (ed) The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Mazzucato, V. (2009) Bridging boundaries with a transnational research approach: A simultaneous matched sample methodology. In M. A. Falzon (ed) Multi-sited Ethnography: Theory, Praxis and Locality in Contemporary Social Research, pp. 215-232. Hampshire: Ashgate.
Faculty Page: https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/v.mazzucato