Assaf Shapira’s research examines the mass immigration to developed democracies, with a unique focus on the politics of citizenship and immigration in Israel. In his dissertation, Assaf examined the measures taken by Israel to facilitate immigrants’ access to formal citizenship since the early 1990s. At the Davis institute, he explores Israel as a case-study for ethnic democracies, with two main goals: to describe and explain the characteristics of immigration and citizenship politics in ethnic democracies in comparison to liberal democracies; and to show how this kind of politics shapes immigration and citizenship regimes. The research focuses on the case study of asylum seekers who have arrived in Israel since 2006. Assaf teaches in the department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and has worked in the Israel Democracy Institute.