2022 Summer Institute in Migration Research Methods

Summer Institute in Migration Research Methods 2022

July 25 - August 2, University of California, Berkeley

The UC Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative hosted the Summer Institute in Migration Research Methods (SIMRM) at the University of California, Berkeley campus from July 25-August 2, 2022. The Institute was organized and directed by Irene Bloemraad (UC Berkeley) and Jennifer Van Hook (Pennsylvania State University). Funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Russell Sage Foundation made the institute possible.

The 10-day workshop trained 29 graduate students, early-career researchers, and beginning faculty in best practices and methodologies especially relevant to studying immigration and migrant populations. The 2022 program focused on understanding and modeling migrant flows, with particular attention to forced and climate migration, as well as their intersections with health and development. We tackled research on migrant flows from multiple data and modeling approaches, such as the use of big data, social network models, agent-based models, and mixed-method team projects. The Summer Institute also included sessions on research ethics – from data ethics to best practices for international partnerships – and professionalization.

Agenda

2022 Photo Slide Show

Summer Institute 2022 Slides

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The Measurement of Migration & Analytical Strategies to Understand Its (Environmental) Mechanisms

July 26, 2022

Instructor: Fernando Riosema

What are the analytical strategies to model the effect of past environmental shocks on migration flows? Discussion included difference-in-difference models, matching procedures, and using climate as an instrument to predict climate-induced crop loss and then the effect of crop loss on migration.

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Migration and the Media

August 2, 2022

Instructor: Monica Campbell

How can we effectively communicate about our research findings? The morning session \ focused on engaging journalists and speaking to the media. How do you bring evidence-based information and your findings to the general public? The afternoon session focused on academic publishing, that is, writing for a scholarly audience and sharing your work with academic peers.

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Climate & Forced Migration

July 29, 2022

Instructor: Sara Curran

Summary: How do we conceptualize the complex range of mechanisms that link climate change, development, and migration? We considered issues of research design for multi-method, team-based science, and individual research projects.

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Big Data in the Study of Forced Migration

July 28, 2022

Instructors: Lisa Singh and Katharine Donato

How can we use “big data” to study forced migration? How do we draw sound conclusions from messy data? What ethical issues do researchers need to keep in mind when using trace data (e.g., social media information, cell phone data, etc.)

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Climate Migration - How to Model? - Retrospective Understandings

July 27, 2022

Instructor: Mathew Hauer

What are the analytical strategies to model the projected climate migration flows, in the future? Discussion included considering age and migration and using machine learning-like approaches to create and estimate environmental displacement models.

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Introductions, Ethics and Frameworks for Understanding Migration

July 25, 2022

Instructor: Irene Bloemraad

Dr. Irene Bloemraad's presentation covers migration research ethics and establishes frameworks of migration.

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Summer Institute Co-Directors

Irene Bloemraad

Irene Bloemraad, founding Director of the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative (BIMI), is also the Class of 1951 Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley, the Thomas Garden Barnes Chair of Canadian Studies, and co-director of the Boundaries, Membership and Belonging program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. In 2014, Dr. Bloemraad served as a member of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences committee reporting on the integration of immigrants into American society. Her research focuses on the incorporation of migrants into political communities and its impact on politics and understanding of membership.

Jennifer Van Hook

Jennifer Van Hook is the Roy C. Buck Professor of Sociology and Demography and Research Associate of the Population Research Institute at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include the settlement and incorporation patterns of immigrants, demographics of undocumented populations, and the social, economic, and health assimilation of immigrants and their descendants in the United States. Currently, Dr. Van Hook is working on a project that uses linked U.S. Census data to better understand the assimilation process as it unfolded for Mexican immigrants across the 20th century.

Guest Instructors

Monica Campbell

Monica Campbell is a California-based journalist focused on immigration coverage. She has reported globally for more than two decades, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean, including as a senior editor and reporter for PRX’s The World. She has also reported for the BBC, The Guardian, and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. Campbell, a 2010 Harvard Nieman Fellow, is also a journalism lecturer at UC Berkeley.

Sara Curran

Sara Curran is a Professor of International Studies, Professor of Sociology, and Professor of Public Policy & Governance at University of Washington‘s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Global Health, affiliate faculty of the Center for Global Studies, the Southeast Asian Center, the Technology and Social Change Group (TASCHA), and EarthLab. Her research focuses on gender, migration, and environment in many contexts around the globe.

Katharine Donato

Katharine Donato is the Donald G. Herzberg Professor of International Migration and Director of the Institute for the Study of International Migration in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Her past and current research has focused on a variety of topics related to migration, from the economic consequences of U.S. immigration policy, to health consequences of migration, to the great recession and its consequences for Mexican workers, and much more.

Mathew Hauer

Mathew Hauer is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Florida State University. His research centers on the impacts of climate change on society, examining how migration induced by sea level rise could reshape the U.S. population distribution. Previously, Dr. Hauer directed the Applied Demography Program at the University of Georgia where he provided valuable demographic research to local, state, and federal governments. From 2009 to 2018, he directed the Applied Demography Program at the University of Georgia.