Current Projects
Immigration to NYC
The Immigration to NYC project began in December of 2024. This study consists of 212-in depth interviews with recently arrived migrants who reside in New York City, including migrants from Ecuador, Senegal, Guatemala, and Venezuela. These interviews shed light on migration drivers, migration journey, and integration challenges related to healthcare access, employment, and housing.
Immigration to DMV
The Immigration to DMV study runs over multiple years and consists of 233 interviews focused on new arrivals from different nationalities, analyzing their motives for migrating, migration journey, and integration to the US (education, healthcare, employment).
Immigration to El Paso
The Immigration to El Paso project focuses on 17 participants who are recent arrivals to the city. They will be interviewed by a charity about their countries of origins, migration journeys, identity, and experiences with accessible resources.
Youth Migration - Un Montón de Sueños (A Mountain of Dreams)
Un Montón de Sueños (A Mountain of Dreams) is a book that highlights 18 different interviews with people who arrived in the United States as minors during the 2019–2022 surge in unaccompanied minor arrivals and are now young adults under the second Trump administration. The book covers everything about their life trajectory, from the period before their migration up until the present day. All participants know each other in the United States and belong to the same social network. The book explores common circumstances through individiual personalities and decisions.
AU Immigration Impacted
The AU Immigration Impacted study is a collaboration with AUWCL’s AU Dream Initiative. Together we have conducted 54 in-depth interviews with undergraduate and graduate students at American University who are children of immigrants or immigrants themselves. This study was created to highlight the experiences of students at American University who are impacted by immigration policies.
Sexual and Reproductive Health Study
The purpose of the Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) study is to better understand the sexual and reproductive health, healthcare access, and knowledge of refugees and immigrants through 20 interviews with migrant women in the U.S. and 10 migrant women in the UK.
Hispanic Health Paradox: Social Determinants of Health Among Latinos in El Paso, TX
We are interested in the Hispanic Health Paradox, where health outcomes among Hispanics seem better than demographically expected based on socio-economic status. We are finishing a book entitled The Hispanic Health Paradox: Social Determinants of Health among Latinos. This book investigates the Hispanic Health Paradox by analyzing existing health disparities among Latinos in the majority Mexican-American city of El Paso, Texas, and draws on data gathered with an NIH grant. We will finish the manuscript in May 2021. We have also published several op-eds and a prescient report about health disparities and how El Paso's Hispanic population was at higher risk of dying from COVID-19.
Reuniting Families: Central American Minors between Family Separation and Reunification
Unaccompanied minors from Central America coming to the border is an increasingly salient topic in the news and media, but little is known about how they fare once they settle in the United States. We have published entitled Reunited: Family Separation and Central American Youth Migration, which catalogs the experiences and narratives of unaccompanied Central American youth settled in the DC area. It follows several individuals from this hard-to-reach population using original data gathered in 2017. We have published op-eds using this data, and we are also working on a book chapter in Spanish on the topic and a journal article on migration and trauma.
Immigration and Health Insights from the DC Area Survey
We will be analyzing the two waves of the D.C. area survey to look at immigrant/non-immigrant perceptions and interactions in the D.C. metropolitan area.
Migration and Migration Status: Key Determinants of Health and Well-Being
We invite you to contribute to our Special Issue titled, “Migration and Migration Status: Key Determinants of Health and Well-Being” in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (Impact Factor: 3.39). We are both migration scholars at American University (AU) in Washington, D.C. serving as co-editors on this Special Issue, which will be open access and subsequently published as a book.
Areas of interest for the Special Issue (non-exhaustive list):
health and social inequities, migrant health, forced migration, immigration/emigration, transnationalism, integration and social inclusion, identity and political inclusion, racism, discrimination, xenophobia, and exclusion, asylum seekers and refugees, climate change and migration, exploitation, trafficking, detention, and deportation, poverty and financial insecurity, trauma, post-migration stress, post-traumatic stress, and mental health, war, violence, and conflict, interpersonal violence and migration, LGBTQ+ identities and migration, social networks, agency/empowerment, resilience, assets, and well-being, labor migration, migrant youth/unaccompanied minors, resettlement and refugees, COVID-19 and migration, HIV/AIDS, other health outcomes, and migration, migration policy and legal status, transnational citizenship, migrants and social determinants of health, transnational families, family separation
Papers representing different disciplines and using a variety of research designs and methodologies are welcome. Original empirical research papers, methodological papers, systematic reviews, and case reports are appropriate. All articles will be peer-reviewed.
If interested, please send us a tentative title, list of co-authors (if any), an un/structured abstract (minimum of 200 words, no maximum) to migrationandhealthspecialissue@gmail.com