Momtaj Monwara is a PhD researcher in the Department of People, Work and Employment at the University of Leeds Business School. Her research examines the transition of international students into the labour market, with a particular focus on how migration infrastructures, organisational practices, and policy regimes shape South Asian international graduates’ study-to-work transitions in the UK and Germany. Her work engages with debates in migration studies, labour sociology, and international business, exploring how institutional and organisational dynamics influence graduates’ access to employment, workplace integration, and long-term settlement pathways.
Momtaj completed her MSc in Migration, Mobility and Development at SOAS, University of London, as a Commonwealth Shared Scholar in 2023. Her dissertation explored questions of citizenship and belonging among Bangladeshi immigrants in the UK. Prior to this, she earned both her BSc and MSc degrees in International Relations from the University of Dhaka.
Before starting her PhD, Momtaj worked for more than six years as a lecturer in International Relations, where she taught courses on global politics, migration, and public policy. Her broader research interests include migration governance, labour-market integration of migrants, and the politics of belonging in contemporary migration regimes.