Dr. Seçil Paçaçı Elitok is an Economist from the University of Marmara, Istanbul, Turkey (2002). Secil received her Ph.D in 2008 from University of Utah (USA), where she specialized in economic growth, development economics and international trade. She had received the Higher Education Teaching Specialist (HETS) designation from the same university 2006 and she worked as an instructor throughout her graduate studies at the Economics Department. She joined the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI) in June 2009 as Marie Curie research fellow in the context of the EU Marie Curie Research Training Network TOM (Transnationality of Migrants) and worked as a senior researcher at MRG (Migration Research Group).

From 2009 to 2011 she worked for the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI) as Marie Curie Fellow as part of the EU Marie Curie Research Training Network TOM (Transnationality of Migrants) and worked as a senior researcher in the Migration Research Group (MRG). In 2012-2013, at the Istanbul Policy Center (IPC) and as a Mercator-IPC Fellow she worked on the role of migration in EU -Turkish Relations. Her main research interests are international migration with a specific focus on migration from and to Turkey as well as high-skilled migration and remittances.

She is now a Lecturer at Sabancı University in Istanbul, a Consultant for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the World Bank and has participated in numerous conferences like the IMTC, the International Money Transfer Conferences.