Daniela DeBono is Head of Department and Associate Professor at the Department for Anthropological Sciences where she teaches courses, among others, on refugees, migration and displacement, borders, humanitarian action and human rights. In 2020, she was also habilitated and given the rank/title of Associate Professor under the national Swedish Academic System. She is currently Research Coordinator of the Research Node 'Displacement, Democratisation and Development' at the Mediterranean Institute. She is also an Affiliate of the Malmö Institute for the Studies of Migration, Welfare and Diversity (MIM).

Daniela has held a three year Marie Curie COFAS Research Fellowship at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute and was a Research Fellow at MIM. She was awarded a doctorate from the University of Sussex, where she was based at the Sussex Centre for Migration Research.

Daniela has conducted long-term ethnographic research on unauthorised migration and asylum across the Mediterranean, border control and management in Malta, Lampedusa and Western Sicily. She also led an ethnographic study on deportation from Sweden. In relation to these projects, she has published on mobilities across the Mediterranean, hospitality, humanitarianism and solidarity in the immigration field, on return and deportation from the EU, on citizenship and on children's rights.

Daniela is the country expert for Malta at the Global Citizenship Observatory, European University Institute and has authored a series of reports on citizenship law and policy, naturalisation and access to electoral rights.