Dr Lea Sitkin

Dr Lea Sitkin


I received my DPhil in Criminology from the University of Oxford in 2014, joining the team at the University of Westminster the same year. I am a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Course Leader for the Criminology program.

My teaching and research interests include: immigration and (the politics of) immigration control; labour market exploitation and precarity; industrial relations; social policy; political economy; the sociology of punishment; neoliberal feminism; regeneration and gentrification; state crime; and corporate crime. My monograph, 'Re-thinking the Political Economy of Immigration Control: A Comparative Analysis' was published by Routledge last year.

I am a member of the European working group on Organised Crime (European Society of Criminology) and the British Society of Criminology's Green Criminology Research Network.


My research interests include: immigration and (the politics of) immigration control; labour market exploitation and precarity; industrial relations; social policy; political economy; the sociology of punishment; neoliberal feminism; regeneration/gentrification; state crime; and corporate crime. 

My monograph 'Re-thinking the Political Economy of Immigration Control: A Comparative Analysis' used data from 20 OECD countries to interrogate existing theories on the political economy of immigration policy and in particular, on the relationship between immigration control and the labour market exploitation of immigrant workers. I am also currently carrying out research on how technological progress is reshaping the politics around immigration control.


  • Centre for Social Justice Research

In brief

Research areas

political economy, borders, immigration control, exploitation, gentrification and housing