Xabier Aierdi Urraza (Zeberio, Bizkaia, 1957) has a degree in Sociology and Political Science from the University of Deusto (1980), and a second degree in Communication Sciences (Journalism) from the University of the Basque Country’s Faculty of Communication Science (1984).
He has a PhD in Sociology from the University of the Basque Country (1991) and since 1994 has been a tenured lecturer at that same university’s Faculty of Social Science and Communication.
He has held the following posts:
- Director of the Sociology Department at the University of the Basque Country on three different occasions: 1996-1999; 2006-2008 and 2011-2013.
- Chairman of the Basque Sociology Association for six years, and a member of the Executive Board of the FES (Spanish Sociology Federation), of which he was Vice Chairman during a previous term.
- He founded the Basque Immigration Observatory, IKUSPEGI, as the result of a collaboration agreement reached between the University of the Basque Country and the Basque Government Department of Immigration, within the Regional Ministry of Social Affairs. He was the Director of the Observatory from December 2003 to January 2011, working in collaboration with Co-director Cristina Blanco from 2003 to 2006.
He is an expert on migrations and ethnicity, areas on which most of his research work has focused. He has participated in over twenty research projects, has organised or spoken at many conferences and has published a large body of work.
Alongside José Antonio Oleaga, in February 2011 he founded the Immigration Research Laboratory BEGIRUNE, in which he conducted part of his research and of which he served as Director. He is also a member of the research group CIVERSITY, which has been recognised by the University of the Basque Country, and sits on the Hegoa Doctorate Committee.
He has participated as an expert in the recently-established SOCIAL PACT ON IMMIGRATION and helped set up the ANTI-RUMOURS Commission within the Basque Government.
He also took part, as an expert, in one of the groups of the LIVING TOGETHER programme run by Oberaxe (the Spanish Racism and Xenophobia Observatory) and is a member of the ICC, the European Intercultural Cities Network.
From October 2013 to December 2016 he served as an advisor to the Basque Government Department of Employment and Social Policy.