Independent Study

I am still taking students for independent study. I am gathering a group to study the dynamics of immigration. Let me know if you are interested.

Project Summary

This project will collect data for a dyadic global immigration dataset that will cover all countries (nation-states) in the world from 1950 until 2005. The goal of this research is to account for and collect data regarding global immigration trends since 1950. Immigration is a “hot topic” throughout the world; the problem is that the issue has not been studied in a systematic way. No researcher has collected data as to the levels and trends of immigration for the entire world, instead all focus on individual countries and short time periods. It is hoped that with this new dataset researchers will be able to systematically answer questions regarding the causes and consequences of immigration patterns in the modern interstate era.
Dyadic inflows and outflows of peoples for every country in the world will be collected from the years 1950 to 2005. We will begin with 1950 since this represents the stabilization of the international system after World War II. Future research would extend the dataset back till 1815, but we must first focus on the modern era. The data will be extended as far into the present day as possible.
Collection of data is a very labor-intensive project. This is probably why there is currently no dataset in existence to cover this issue. Each person collecting data needs to check sources by hand to find inflow and outflow data for individual countries. This information is usually not located on the internet and must be obtained by archival research. Another particular problem is authorized versus unauthorized immigration. Unauthorized immigration includes refugee flows and illegal immigration. Authorized immigration includes work based and family based immigration, as well as accepted refugee inflows. Both unauthorized and authorized data will be collected, but I anticipate unauthorized immigration data will be the most incomplete variable in the study, therefore the focus will be on authorized immigration flows.
Each researcher assisting on the project will take five countries and code dyadically all interactions for their country in an excel file. Undergraduates are suitable for the project in that it does not require any advanced skills (besides possible language abilities). The main requirement is the ability to hunt for data in the archives. I am confident the data is out there, it just has to be found by researchers.