Leyla Kerlaff

Leyla Kerlaff joined IGHD in January 2019 as a Research Assistant (now a Research Fellow) on the Family Reunion Integration Service Project (FRIS). Leyla has a background in anthropology and social development, and a specialist research interest in refugee integration and in participatory research methodologies.  

Leyla has worked in a variety of contexts in academia, the voluntary and public sector including: running a volunteer befriending service for children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties for Barnardo’s; coordinating a volunteer project with street children in Mexico; and researching the impact of HIV on public health workers in Cape Town.

As an MSc student at IGHD, Leyla also worked with the Institute on the Indicators of Integration Project, to inform understanding of integration from the perspectives of refugees and settled communities in Glasgow and London. After graduating in 2003, she went on to work as a social researcher in the Scottish Government.

Over her ten year career at the Scottish Government, Leyla managed a range of research projects to inform policy development in Equalities, Environment and Public Sector Reform. These included an audit of refugee and asylum seeker skills and aspirations; an evaluation of the Multiple and Complex Needs Programme; and designing a review of the Climate Challenge Fund. Latterly, she has been working as a freelance researcher on commissions including a social history of the Royal Blind, and a review of international policy approaches to migration and integration of refugees. She also practices as a freelance life coach.