Migration and Forced Displacement

Catalog description

This is a graduate level course on the political economy of immigration and forced displacement. The course covers some seminal work, but mostly cutting edge research on the political and economics aspects of the “movement of people” across borders. The course is split into two main sections: The first section covers the political economy of migration in sending countries. Here we ask questions such as, why do people migrate? If migration is beneficial, why don’t more people do it? Who migrates? How do migrants choose a destination? What is the evidence of climate migration? And, what are the effects of migration on sending countries and communities? The second section examines the political economy of migration in destination countries. Here we will analyze potential pull factors (including asylum and refugee policies), survey theories of integration and assimilation, and more broadly, explore the determinants of public opinion with respect to migrants and refugees. We will also explore natives’ behavior toward migrants (including hate crime and hate speech), and whether voting is sensitive to ‘migrant exposure.’ While a political economy approach anchors the course theoretically, we will also touch upon human rights aspects of displacement, including the relationship between migration and conflict as well as human trafficking. Students will be exposed to a wide range of literature focused on both developed and developing countries.