Migration studies are a hallmark of demography and one of the PSTC’s signature research themes. To help foster interest in this sub-field, PSTC faculty associates Assistant Professor of Education (and PSTC alum) Andrea Flores and Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies Kevin Escudero, regularly convene the PSTC Migration Working Group. For PSTC community members with scholarly interests in migration – whether predoctoral trainees, postdocs, or faculty – the group provides a more informal opportunity to discuss work in progress and receive feedback.

Both Escudero and Flores are engaged in research addressing timely migration issues that are part of national political conversations. Among other projects, Flores is studying the role of education on immigrants’ sense of self and social belonging, and Escudero has a forthcoming book about activism and organizing in communities of undocumented and formerly undocumented activists around the US. 

Of the Migration Working Group, Flores says, “The group has been able to foster intellectual community around migration and build on strengths in migration studies through productive exchange of work. These works have ranged from survey instruments, to grant proposals, to policy reports to articles.”

Nicole Kreisberg, a PSTC Predoctoral Trainee in Sociology, credits the group for helping her revise an article that is forthcoming in the journal Social Forces. “The Migration Working Group has been an invaluable space to get feedback from students and scholars across Brown campus whom I otherwise wouldn’t get to see through regular coursework,” Kreisberg says. Her article explores the relationship between the legal status of immigrants in the U.S. and their success in the labor market.