Migration and Immigrant Processes

We are living in an era of enormous changes in internal and international migration worldwide. Understanding the origins of these population flows and their consequences for individual well-being constitutes one of the greatest challenges for scientific research in the coming years. Center research in this area is innovative for the use of new data sources to study migration processes in a wide range of national settings, and for exploring new pathways through which the immigration experience affects families and children. MPRC researchers are collecting data to study internal migration in India, and using longitudinal surveys to examine the economic and health consequences of migration in China and Mexico. They are also using restricted data linking US tax records to national surveys to analyze immigrants’ economic assimilation. Building on MPRC’s strength in the area of gender and family, researchers examine how the effect of immigration on children’s health and educational outcomes is mediated by its impact on family practices. The health of immigrant children and adults also builds from the MPRC’s strengths in understanding the broader social, economic and demographic contexts of health outcomes.

Areas of focus include: 

• Social, economic, and environmental causes of migration in a variety of national settings
• Consequences of migration for immigrant families, individual health, and mortality
• Internal migration and population movement within developing countries
• Economic and health impacts of migration across national contexts