Publications

Books & Special issues

Hellgren, Z., C. Rodríguez-Reche, L. Gabrielli & D. Rodríguez-García, eds. (2025). Theorising Race, Racialisation and Racism in Spain. Special issue, Migraciones.

Hellgren, Z., A. G. Page & T. Sealy, eds. (2025). Narratives and practices of migrant and minority incorporation in European Societies: Contested Diversity and Fractured Belongings. London: Routledge

Hellgren, Z. & L. Gabrielli, with preface by Paco Vargas (2024). “Tenemos el alma cauterizada”. Una etnografía del antigitanismo cotidiano y sus consecuencias. Barcelona: Icaria.

Hellgren, Z. (2024). Det andra utanförskapet. En kunskapsöversikt om skuggsamhället i Sverige [The Other Exclusion: A Literature Review of the Shadow Society in Sweden]. Monograph by the Swedish Government's Independent Migration Studies Delegation (DELMI).

Hellgren, Z. & B. Á. Bereményi, eds. (2022). Racialized Citizenship in Superdiverse Europe. Special issue and book, Social Sciences.

Hellgren, Z. (2012). Negotiating Social Membership. Immigrant Claims-Making Contesting Borders and Boundaries in Multi-Ethnic Europe. Stockholm: Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis. ISBN: 978-91-87235-04-7

leGrand, E., K. Halldén & Z. Hellgren, eds. (2008). Ethnicity and Social Divisions: Contemporary Research in Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN (10): 1-84718-470-7, ISBN (13): 9781847184702

Burns, T. R., N. Machado, Z. Hellgren & G. Brodin, eds. (2007). Makt, kultur och kontroll över invandrares livsvillkor. Ett multidimensionellt perspektiv på strukturell diskriminering i Sverige [Power, culture and control over the life conditions of immigrants. A multi-dimensional perspective on structural discrimination in Sweden]. Uppsala: Uppsala University Press. ISBN: 978-91-554-6913-9

Peer reviewed articles & book chapters

Hellgren, Z. (2026). Towards a common research agenda? Addressing political and epistemological tensions around scholarship on racial/ethnic discrimination. In A Research Agenda for Immigration Settlement and Adjustment, eds. K. Bruce Newbold and Mary Crea-Arsenio. Edward Elgar Publishing

Bowman, C. & Hellgren, Z. (2026) Gendered Experiences of Racial Capitalism: Maids and Day Laborers in Barcelona’s Migrant Precariat. Social Sciences, 2026, 15(4).

Hellgren, Z. & L. Gabrielli. (2025). Everyday Antigypsyism and Structural Discrimination: How the Normalization of Racism Shapes Social Exclusion. Migraciones, no 64/2025.

Rodríguez-Reche, C., Z. Hellgren, L. Gabrielli & D. Rodríguez-García. (2025). Introduction: Towards a Racial Turn in Spanish Scholarship on Migration and Diversity. Migraciones, no 64/2025.

Hellgren, Z. (2025). The Absence of Race in the Intercultural Narrative: An Anti-Racist Gaze at the Catalan Education System. In Hellgren, Z., Page, A. G. & Sealy (eds.) 2025. Narratives and practices of migrant and minority incorporation in European Societies: Contested Diversity and Fractured Belongings. London: Routledge

Hellgren, Z., Page, A. G. & Sealy, T. (2025). Introduction: Narratives and Practices of Migrant and Minority Incorporation in European Societies. In Hellgren, Z., Page, A. G. & Sealy (eds.) 2025. Narratives and practices of migrant and minority incorporation in European Societies: Contested Diversity and Fractured Belongings. London: Routledge

Hellgren, Z. (2024). Struggle, Exit, “Resilience” – or How Preca rious Workers Cope with Late Neoliberalism. Individual and Collective Agency of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Spain. International Political Sociology, 18 (3), 1–19.

Zapata-Barrero, R. & Z. Hellgren. (2023). Intercultural Citizenship in the Making: Public Space and Belonging in Discriminatory Environments. In Revising the Integration-Citizenship Nexus in Europe. Sites, Policies, and Bureaucracies of Belonging, eds. Roxana Barbulescu, Sara Wallace Goodman and Luicy Pedroza. Springer: IMISCOE Research Series

Beremenyi, B. Á, & Hellgren Z. (2022). ‘But later you regret it’ Roma youth navigating aspirational dilemmas. Profesorado, Revista De Currículum Y Formación Del Profesorado, 26(3), 151-172.

Hellgren, Z. & Zapata-Barrero, R. (2022). Discrimination meets interculturalism in theory, policy and practice. International Migration, 63(1): 1– 13. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13048

Hellgren, Z. & Bereményi, B. Á. (2022). Introduction: Far from Colourblind. Reflections on Racialization in Contemporary Europe. Social Sciences, 11(1): 21. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11010021

Hellgren, Z. (2021). Representations of Ethnic Diversity: The Role of Public Institutions for Inclusionary Citizenship Practices. GRITIM-UPF Working Paper Series No. 47 Spring 2021.

Hellgren, Z. & Gabrielli, L. (2021). Racialization and Aporophobia: Intersecting Discriminations in the Experiences of Non-Western Migrants and Spanish Roma. Social Sciences, 10(5). https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10050163

Hellgren, Z. & Gabrielli, L. (2021). The Dual Expectations Gap. Divergent Perspectives on the Educational Aspirations of Spanish Roma Families. Journal of Intercultural Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2021.1883569

Hellgren, Z. & B. Hobson. (2021). Welfare Markets and Domestic services: Market mechanisms in two divergent welfare states. In The dynamics of welfare markets: Private pensions and domestic/care services in Europe, ed. Clémence Ledoux. Palgrave MacMillan.

Hellgren, Z. (2021). Myten om det mångkulturella samhället. Teoretiska perspektiv på mångkulturalismen och interkulturalismen [The myth of the multicultural society. Theoretical perspectives on multiculturalism and interculturalism], in Migration och etnicitet: perspektiv på mångfald i Sverige [Migration and ethnicity: perspectives on ethnic pluralism in Sweden], eds. Darvishpour, Mehrdad & Westin, Charles. 3d edition (2d edition in 2015; 1st edition in 2008). Lund: Studentlitteratur. ISBN: 9789144105239

Hellgren, Z. (2019). Book review: Intercultural citizenship in the post-multicultural era by Ricard Zapata-Barrero. Ethnic and Racial Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2019.1696466

Hellgren, Z. (2019). Class, race - and place: Immigrants' self-perceptions on inclusion, belonging and opportunities in Stockholm and Barcelona. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 42(12): 2084-2102.

Hellgren Z. & Serrano, I. (2019). Financial Crisis and Migrant Domestic Workers in Spain: Employment Opportunities and Conditions during the Great Recession. International Migration Review 54(4): 1209-1229.

Zapata-Barrero, R. & Hellgren, Z. (2019). Harnessing the potential of Moroccans living abroad through diaspora policies? Assessing the factors of success and failure of a new structure of opportunities for transnational entrepreneurs. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46(10), 2027–2044.

Hobson, B., Hellgren, Z. & Serrano, I. (2018). Migrants, markets and domestic work. Do institutions matter in the personal household service sector? Journal of European Social Policy, 28 (4): 386-401.

Hellgren Z. & Serrano, I. (2017). Transnationalism and Financial Crisis: The Hampered Migration Projects of Female Domestic Workers in Spain. Social Sciences 6:2, 8.

Hellgren, Z. (2016). Immigrant Integration as a Two-Way Process: Stakeholder discourses and practices in Stockholm and Barcelona. Psychosociological Issues in Human Resource Management 4(1): 143-167.

Hellgren, Z. (2015). Markets, Regimes, and the Role of Stakeholders: Explaining Precariousness of Migrant Domestic/Care Workers in Different Institutional Frameworks. Social Politics 22 (2): 220-241. This paper was selected key scientific article by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and the Board of Governors of Population Europe.

Hobson, B., Hellgren, Z. & Bede, L. (2015). How Institutional Contexts Matter: Migration and Domestic Care Services and the Capabilities of Migrants in Spain and Sweden. FamiliesAndSocieties Working paper series, 46 (2015).

Hellgren, Z. (2015). Immigrant Integration as a Two-Way Process: Translating Theory into Practice. GRITIM-UPF Working Paper Series No. 23, spring 2015.

Hellgren, Z. (2014). Negotiating the Boundaries of Social Membership. Undocumented Migrant Claims-Making in Sweden and Spain. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 40 (7-8): 1175-1191.

Hellgren, Z. & Hobson, B. (2008). Cultural Conflict and Cultural Dialogues in the Good Society: The Case of Honor Killings in Sweden. Ethnicities 3/2008: 385-404.

Hellgren, Z. (2008). (De)constructing European Citizenship. Political Mobilization and Collective Identity Formation among Immigrants in Sweden and Spain, in Media, Democracy and European Culture, eds. Ib Bondebjerg and Peter Madsen. Bristol: Intellect. ISBN 9781841502472

Hellgren, Z. & B. Hobson. (2008). Gender and Ethnic Minority Claims in Swedish and EU Frames: Sites of Multi-level Political Opportunities and Boundary Making. In Roth, S. (ed.) Gender Politics in the Expanding European Union: Mobilization, Inclusion, Exclusion. New York, Oxford: Berghan Books.

Le Grand, E., Hellgren, Z. & Halldén, K. (2008). Introduction. Social Stratification in Multiethnic Societies: Class and Ethnicity. In leGrand, Elias, Karin Halldén & Zenia Hellgren, eds. (2008). Ethnicity and Social Divisions: Contemporary Research in Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN (10): 1-84718-470-7, ISBN (13): 9781847184702

Hellgren, Z. (2007). Los límites de la solidaridad. Sin papeles y niños refugiados apáticos en la sociedad de bienestar sueca, in La lucha de los sin papeles y la extensión de la ciudadanía. Una perspectiva global, eds. Liliana Suárez Navaz, Raquel Macià and Angela Moreno. Madrid: Traficantes de sueños. ISBN-10: 8496453251, ISBN-13: 978-8496453258

Hellgren, Z. (2007). (De)constructing European citizenship. Political mobilization and collective identity formation among immigrants in Sweden and Spain. Web article, Multicultural Centre Prague, Migration Online: www.migrationonline.cz

Burns, T. R., N. Machado, Z. Hellgren & G. Brodin. (2007). Inledning: Makt, kultur och kontroll över invandrares livsvillkor. Ett multidimensionellt perspektiv på strukturell diskriminering i Sverige [Introduction: Power, culture and control over the life conditions of immigrants. A multi-dimensional perspective on structural discrimination in Sweden], eds. Tom R. Burns, Nora Machado, Zenia Hellgren & Göran Brodin. Uppsala: Uppsala University Press. ISBN: 978-91-554-6913-9

Hellgren, Z. (2007). Att överbrygga klyftan mellan lag och handling. Antidiskrimineringsorganisationernas verksamhet och allmänhetens ansvar [Bridging the gap between law and practice. The task of anti-discrimination organizations and the responsibility of civil society], in Makt, kultur och kontroll över invandrares livsvillkor. Ett multidimensionellt perspektiv på strukturell diskriminering i Sverige [Power, culture and control over the life conditions of immigrants. A multi-dimensional perspective on structural discrimination in Sweden], eds. Tom R. Burns, Nora Machado, Zenia Hellgren and Göran Brodin. Uppsala: Uppsala University Press. ISBN: 978-91-554-6913-9

Research reports & Policy papers

Hellgren, Z, Rodríguez-Reche, C, Gabrielli, L, Habimana Jordana, T. (2026) Detect and Deactivate Systemic Discrimination: Handbook for institutions (ENG, CAT, SPA). Project UNDETERRED: Unintentional discrimination detected and racism revealed and deactivated. Finançat per Horizon Europe, acord de subvenció ID: 101095020.

Hellgren, Z. & L. Gabrielli (2024). REACT: research and action for mainstreaming of antiracism in education - REACT: investigación y acción por una educación antirracista - REACT: recerca i acció per una educació antiracista. GRITIM-UPF Policy Series 13

Hellgren, Z. (2022). The character and consequences of everyday anti-gypsyism: experiences of discrimination among Roma men and women in the Barcelona area. Final project report for the AGREP project. Permanent link: http://hdl.handle.net/10230/54083. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.12698.66242.

Hellgren, Z. & Gabrielli, L. (2022) Everyday Antigypsyism: Diagnosis and Avenues to fight it. GRITIM-UPF Policy Paper Series, No. 11 2022.

Hellgren, Z. (2021). REPCAT: The Role of the Ethnic Majority in Integration Processes: Attitudes and Practices towards Immigrants in Catalan Institutions. Project funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship under Grant Agreement: 747075 — REPCAT — H2020-MSCA-IF-2016/H2020-MSCA-IF-2016. 2018-2020. Final project report. DOI 10.13140/RG.2.2.22344.24320

GRITIM-UPF (2020) Covid 19's impact on migration and migration studies. GRITIM-UPF Policy Paper Series, No. 9, 2020. Collective publication.

Hellgren, Z. & Gabrielli, L. (2018) Promoting realistic expectations: Roma inclusion in the Catalan education system. GRITIM-UPF Policy Paper Series, No. 8, 2018.

Hellgren, Z. & Gabrielli, L. (2018) Roma inclusion in education: Fostering constructive attitudes and good practices in the Barcelona area (VAKERIPEN). Final report for the research project, co-funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) Programme of the European Union under Grant Agreement JUST/2015/RDIS/AG/DISC/9372

Hellgren, Z. (2016) Immigrants' perceptions on integration in two institutional contexts: Sweden and Spain. Final project report, postdoctoral research project financed by the research foundation Ahlströmska.se/Stockholm University.

Franco-Guillén, N. & Hellgren, Z. (2016) La política anti-discriminació a Catalunya: estat de la qüestió i recomanacions polítiques. Expert note within the Catalan government's (Generalitat de Catalunya) report on the integration of immigrants in Catalonia 2015 (in Catalan and English).

Hellgren, Z. (2005): Overcoming the discrepancy between EU Anti-discrimination directives and persisting discrimination at the national level. Report on anti-racism organizations in Sweden, within the EU project CIVGOV, WP 3.

Conference panels & papers

Bowman, C. & Z. Hellgren (2025). Gendered Experiences of Racial Capitalism: Maids and Daylaborers in Barcelona’s Migrant Precariat. 3rd International Conference on Aporophobia. Barcelona, October 23-24, 2025. IQS School of Management/Universitat Ramón Llull, Barcelona (online).

Hellgren, Z. & D. Rodríguez-García (2025). “Gypsyness” and the Race-Migration Nexus: Racialization, Identity and Agency Among Intermarried and Multiethnic Spanish Roma. Conference: Romani Racialization Beyond Majority-Minority Narratives Transnationalism, Activism and Solidarity. The Czech Academy of Science, Prague, May 21-23, 2025.

Hellgren, Z. (2024). How can we talk about racism if we can’t agree what it is?’ Consensus Building on Anti-racism in Education through Transformative Action Research. Paper/research project (REACT) presentation at the IMISCOE Standing Committee RACED’s meeting How to talk about racism and race? at INED (Institut national d'études démographiques) in Paris, 14-15 November 2024.

Hellgren, Z. (2024). Chair of the panel Visibilizing Roma People in the Debate on Race and Racialization in Europe: Empirical Evidence and Policy Challenges (w. Dan Rodríguez-García) at the Annual IMISCOE Conference 2024. Presented the paper “Our souls are cauterized”: The Individual and Societal Consequences of Everyday Antigypsyism" (w. Lorenzo Gabrielli).

Hellgren, Z. (2023). Struggle or Exit? Openings and Barriers for the Political Mobilization of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Spain. Paper for the panel "Mobilizations in Dystopian Temporal Landscapes: Opportunities and Barriers for Making Change". The Twenty-Ninth International Conference of Europeanists. University of Iceland, June 27-29, 2023.

Hellgren, Z. (2021). Exit, Struggle or Resignation? Participation, self-organization, and non-agency among migrant domestic workers & the book panel Social Partners, Gender and Intersectionality in the European Union. Council of Europeanists 27th International Conference (online), 25 June, 2021.

Hellgren, Z. (2021). Interculturalism, Public Space and Citizenship-Making: Overcoming the Detachment caused by Discrimination. Presentation of the book chapter (with Ricard Zapata-Barrero) at the 18th Annual IMISCOE Conference (online). 7 July, 2021.

Hellgren, Z. (2020). Tired of being “The Others”: Coping Strategies against Discrimination and Racialized Inequalities. Paper presented within a panel on discrimination at the virtual 17th Annual IMISCOE Conference on 2 July, 2020.

Hellgren, Z. (2019). From intercultural discourse to de facto representation? The role of the ethnic majority in integration processes. Conference paper presented at the 16th Annual IMISCOE conference in Malmö, Sweden, on June 26-28, 2019.

Hellgren, Z. (2016). Financial Crisis and Migrant Domestic Workers in Madrid and Barcelona: Employment Opportunities and Conditions during the Great Recession (paper co-authored by Inma Serrano). Presented at the ESSHC Conference in Valencia, Spain, on March 30-April 2, 2016, and (in an earlier version) at the workshop When Families Turn to the Market, November 20-21, 2015, Collegio Carlo Alberto, Turin, Italy.

Hobson, B., Z. Hellgren & I. Serrano (2015). How Private Markets Work in Two Divergent Welfare Regimes: Shaping the Capabilities and Agency of Migrant Care/Domestic Workers in Sweden and Spain. Council for Europeanists’ meeting Contradictions: Envisioning European Futures at Sciences PO in Paris, France, on July 8-10, 2015.

Hellgren, Z. (2015). Stakeholders between States, Markets and Precarious Migrant Workers. Agendas and Discourses on the Private Domestic/Care Services Sector in Spain and Sweden. Paper presented at FamiliesAndSocieties Second Annual Consortium meeting in Madrid, Spain, January 14-16 2015.

Hellgren, Z. (2014). How Institutional Contexts Matter. Experiences of Precariousness and Capability among Migrant Domestic Workers in Stockholm and Barcelona. Paper presented at the international conference Revisioning Gender in Stockholm, Sweden, on June 13-14, 2014.

Hellgren, Z. & Hobson, B. (2011). Do Welfare Regimes Matter? Migration and Care/domestic work in two institutional contexts, Sweden and Spain. Paper presented at the 2011 CES Conference in Barcelona, June 20-22, during a session organized by Professor Margarita Estevez Abé. The paper was also presented at the 4th DEMDI conference in Helsinki, Finland, October 6-7 2011.

Hellgren, Z. (2007). Voices of The Others. Immigrant Struggles over Borders, Boundaries and Social Membership in Multiethnic Europe. Paper presented at the 14th Nordic Migration Conference in Bergen, Norway, November 2007.

Hellgren, Z. (2006). Constructing an inclusive European citizenship? Political mobilization and collective identity formation among immigrants in Sweden and Spain. Paper presented at the Media, Democracy and European Culture conference, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, October 2006.

Hellgren, Zenia (2006). Mobilizations in Fortress Europe: Irregular Immigrants’ and Anti-discrimination Movements challenging the discrepancies between EU Integration and Immigration Policies. Paper presented at the ECPR First Graduate Conference on Contentious politics, University of Essex, UK, September 2006.

Hellgren, Z. & Hobson, B. (2006). Swedish Discourses on Honor Related Violence: Portraying the Other within a Universalist Gender Equality Framework. Paper presented at the second Gender Equality, Cultural Diversity: European Comparisons conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, June 2006.

Hellgren, Z. (2005). The Myth of the Multicultural Society: Immigrant Mobilization contesting the Swedishness of Structures. Paper presented at the Annual Aage Sorensen Memorial Conference, Harvard University, USA, April 2005.

Media articles & Blog posts (sample)

Hellgren, Z. et. al. (2022) Ygemans förslag för tankarna till statlig rasism. Debate article in the Swedish daily newspaper Expressen, published on 11 August 2022. See Spanish translation here.

Hellgren, Z. (2022) The success of diversity policies depends on efficient anti-discrimination practices. Blog post for the PLURISPACE project.

Hellgren, Z. (2020) Quan el confinament és un privilegi. Opinion article, UPF News.

Hellgren, Z. (2019) ¿Qué esperan las familias gitanas de la educación de sus hijos? The Conversation, 20/01/2019.

Hellgren, Z. (2019) Las familias gitanas necesitan apoyo contra el fracaso escolar. El Periódico, 28/01/2019.

Hellgren, Z. (2018) Inmigración: Barcelona es más acogedora que Estocolmo, pero ofrece menos oportunidades económicas. The Conversation, 07/11/2018.