Studied Social Sciences and holds a PhD from Germany. He has worked as a lecturer and researcher at universities in Brazil, United States and Mexico. He has also held a chair at universities in Mexico and various universities in Germany. Since 2001 he has been director of the postgraduate course in Sociology: “Organization, Migration and Participation” at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. His areas of research include: sociology of labor, sociology of organizations, migration and transnational studies.