Publications

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles Working Papers Select Conference Presentations Reports and Policy Papers

 

Research Areas

Migration Research

Refugee Economic Integration

This project explores the work-readiness skills and personal characteristics that help shape employment, wage levels, and opportunities for occupational advancement of refugees living in Utah. We engage a three-pronged approach to understanding refugee employment outcomes first, analyzing employer perspectives of refugee employees; second, comparing the employment outcomes of refugees who participated in training programs with those who did not; and third, comparing the job search and employment experiences of refugees from diverse ethnic backgrounds.

This project takes a mixed methods approach, combining administrative data, survey data, and in-depth interviews to generate a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of refugee economic and social wellbeing and mobility after resettlement.

Attitudes Toward Refugees in Europe

The early 21st century influx of refugees into the European Union has generated a new round of speculation about the effect of immigrants on the receiving economies. While refugees may have many positive effects on the receiving nations, it is the perceived negative effects, specifically the burden they place on the receiving economy, that garner the most discussion and attention. In this study, I use the immigration module for multiple waves of the European Social Survey to explore changing attitudes toward refugees. Specifically, I investigate how public perceptions of immigrant threat relate to opinions about whether governments should be “generous in judging people’s applications for refugee status.” I rely on two theoretical perspectives to help explain attitudes toward refugees. Using a political economy perspective I argue that political structure and modes of resource allocation affect attitudes regarding refugees. Using a typology of immigrant threat I explore several different types of perceived threat—economic threat, group size, threat of violence, and cultural threat. Based on this perspective I argue that changing global political circumstances contribute to changes in the types of threat perceived by the public, which in turn, affect attitudes toward refugees.

Consequences of War

War-related Displacement

This research uses survey data from the Vietnam Health and Aging Study to examine how exposure to armed conflict during the American War in Vietnam (1965 - 1975) influenced migration and postmigration wellbeing among older residents of four districts in northern and north-central Vietnam. This research addresses: 1) the effects of war on wartime and on lifetime migration patterns, specifically, how and why war disrupts the traditional life course patterning of migration; 2) how war and migration jointly affect psychological wellbeing and direct and indirect paths of influence; 3) the direct and indirect effects of war and displacement on later life economic and physical wellbeing. These investigations disaggregate migration by the respondent's stated reason for migrating in order to understand how war exposure, life course stage, and socioeconomic factors differentially combine to influence early life migration and later life wellbeing.

War Exposure and Health

Using a combination of survey and biomarker data from the Vietnam Health and Aging Study to investigate a broad spectrum of late life health effects stemming from early life exposure to armed conflict. This body of research explores the connection between war exposure and a variety of physical health conditions, such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, pulminary disorders, and other measured or medically diagnosed conditions. We also examine how war exposure affects overall frailty, subjective age, functional limitations, and mental health, with attention to the roles of military participation and gender.

War and Socioeconomic Mobility

This project uses retrospective survey data from the Vietnam Health and Aging Study to investigate how war affects socioeconomic and occupational mobility. Prior to the 1980s, common pathways to socioeconomic advancement in Vietnam involved joining the military or migration, whether for work, education, or marriage. However, migration for work was somewhat limited in this era due to Vietnam's household registration system (ho khau), and government restrictions on rural-to-urban migration. In the 1980s, in conjuction with Vietnam's shift to a market economy (doi moi), government assigned migration from cities to rural "new economic zones" shifted labor migration patterns. The new migration patterns transferred laborers to new locations where they engaged in their existing occupation in order to promote development in rural areas of the country. This research examines how patterns of mobility, constrained by structural forces such as ho khau and doi moi, and influenced by individual characteristics such as early life economic status, gender, and military participation, were further altered by the historical contexts of war.

Development and Gender

Social Capital and Economic Development

This research examines how social capital varies across nations based upon level of development, polity type, inequality, and corruption. Social capital can be a tool for community development. This research seeks to understand how and why unequal levels of social capital persist by exploring the role of both country- and individual-level factors. It analyzes data from the World Values Survey for thirty-three low- and middle-income countries, finding that even after controlling for a wide variety of country characteristics, social capital varies dramatically between countries. In addition, aggregate levels of social capital are higher in democraties and in highly corrupt countries, revealing a perverse instantiation in corrupt locales that may, in fact, be detrimental to economic development.

Social Capital and Gender

Memberships in voluntary associations can provide access to valuable social resources. Generally focusing on high- and middle-income countries, research has demonstrated that to varying degrees in different societies, women have fewer memberships in voluntary associations than men. This study examines membership in voluntary associations globally and thereby the national characteristics that drive the gender disparity. The national characteristics we examine include development and inequality. We find that macro-level resources such as the level of development, as well as macro-level heterogeneity in the form of economic inequality and indicators of gender inequality, significantly predict membership. Social structures of inequality reproduce and create inequality at the individual level, specifically, inequality in memberships and in the resources afforded to members.