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MIG Activities

Upcoming lectures, seminars, and conferences on migration

  • May 2, 2008, Zhenchao Qian, Sociology Department, Ohio State University
    "Status Exchange? Marriage to a U.S. Citizen (and Access to Green Card)"
    • 153 MVR Hall
    • The Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center Spring 2008 Colloquium Series, Co-sponsored by the Cornell Population Program

      For temporary immigrants, access to green card is an important key to success in the United States. Some receive the green card through employment while others are sponsored by U.S. citizens through marriage. In this paper, analyzing data of legal permanent resident immigrants (LPR) and their spouses from 2003 New Immigrant Survey, Qian and his co-author, Guillermina Jasso of New York University, attempt to understand how mate selection patterns between citizen/immigrant marriages and immigrant/immigrant marriages differ by gender of the citizen spouse and racial, educational, age, and skin color pairing. They formulate hypotheses based on status exchange theories and make distinctions between whether the citizen spouse is male or female and whether the citizen spouse is U.S. born or naturalized. Compared to educational pairing among immigrant couples, their results do not support the hypothesis that female U.S. citizens are more likely to marry male immigrants with better educational attainment than themselves. Their results, on the other hand, support the hypothesis that U.S. citizen men are more likely to marry women much younger than themselves compared to age pairing of immigrant couples. In addition, their results demonstrate a very strong level of marriages between men and women with identical skin color.

      Zhenchao Qian is Professor in the Department of Sociology and faculty associate in the Initiative in Population Research at the Ohio State University. His research has concentrated in the area of family demography, race and ethnicity, and immigration. In recent years, he and his collaborators published articles on changes in mate selection patterns for married and cohabiting unions, racial/ethnic diversity in marriage, family, and child wellbeing; and immigrants’ incorporation in American society. His current research extends his previous work by examining outcomes in relation to educational, racial and ethnic, and nativity inequality. His other research examines changes in racial identification among children born to interracial couples, premarital cohabitation and marital stability, and changes in family structure and wellbeing.
  • October 3-4, 2008, Immigrant Child: Past, Present, and Future
    • Sponsored by the Family Life Development Center and the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center
    • Cornell faculty and graduate students with appropriate research interests should contact Prof. Joan Jacobs Brumberg at jjb10@cornell.edu. Click here for more information.

Migration Events held at Cornell University in 2006/2007

  • April 12, 2008, Colombian Migration Conference: Transnational, Political, and Cultural Perspectives
    • G08 Uris Hall
    • This conference will include presentations on Colombian Migration to the United States. Topics that will be covered are: transnational perpectives and political participation of Colombian migrants; Colombian youth culture, education and religious organizations; and representations of Colombians in the media.
    • Sponsored by: Latino Studies Program Latin American Studies Program City and Regional Planning International Living Center
    • For more information, visit http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/LatinAmerica/conference/colombian_migration/ or contact Claudia G. Pineda (cgp36@cornell.edu) and Arturo Ignacio Sanchez (as875@cornell.edu)
  • April 8, 2008, Film Screening: Crossing Arizona
    • 4:30 pm, 122 Rockefeller Hall
    • Discussion with Maria Cook, Professor of International and Comparative Labor, will follow the screening
    • Presented by the Cornell Farmworker Program Student Association and cosponsored bt eh Cornell Farmworker Program
  • April 1, 2008, KRISTEN MAHER, Professor of Political Science, San Diego State University
    "Folk Economics at the Border: Image, Ideology, and Asymmetry"
    • 12-1:30 p.m., ISS Conference room (146 Myron Taylor Hall)

      The economies of neighboring cities San Diego and Tijuana are deeply interdependent, and yet many residents on the San Diegan side of the border imagine the relationship as much more asymmetric, even parasitic. Using photographs from the two cities as prompts for conversation in qualitative interviews, this study examines the "folk economics" underlying popular perceptions in San Diego. What ideological commitments or identity projects are at work, and what do they make possible politically?

      Kristen Hill Maher's research examines the complex positions international labor migrants occupy in relation to state policies, economic forces, and social attitudes. In particular, she analyzes how the rights and claims to equality that migrants formally hold are hard to claim in practice. This phenomenon is especially true among female migrants working in the service sector, or in jobs that have traditionally been relegated to women.

      http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/polsciwb/people/faculty/hill-maher_k.htm
  • December 6, JOHN KNODEL, University of Michigan
    “The Impact of Migration on Rural Elderly in Northern Thailand”
    • December 6, 12:00 noon
    • Southeast Asia Brown Bag Session, Kahin Center
    • Co-sponsored by Southeast Asia Program and Polson Institute for Global Development
  • November 16, MAI NGAI, Columbia University
    “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America”
    • Friday, November 16, 3:00 PM
    • Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall,
    • Co-sponsored by City and Regional Planning, Development Sociology, Polson Institute for Global Development
  • October 19, KEN JOHNSON, Loyola Univeristy - Chicago
    • Friday, October 19, 3:00 PM
    • B32 Warren Hall
    • Co-sponsored by the Bronfenbrenner Center, the Cornell Population Program, Development Sociology, and the Polson Institute for Global Development
  • October 12, 2007, SASKIA SASSEN, Columbia University
    "Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages"
    • Friday, October 12, 3:00 PM
    • Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall
    • Co-sponsored by City and Regional Planning, Development Sociology, Polson Institute for Global Development
  • October 9-10, 2007, Addressing the Needs of Multicultural and Immigrant Communities
    • Cornell University Campus
  • September 21, 2007, GRACE DELGADO, The Pennsylvania State University
    "Transnational Chinese Networks Inside/Outside the U.S. Mexico Borderlands, 1874-1905"
    • Friday, September 21, 4:30 PM
    • 142 Goldwin Smith Hall,
    • Co-sponsored by Department of Development Sociology, Latin American Studies Program, American Studies Program, Department of History, and Polson Institute for Global Development
  • September 10, 2007, GIOCONDA HERRERA, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales FLACSO Ecuador
    “Stories of Inclusion and Exclusion. Eduadorian Migrant Domestic Workers”
    • Monday, September 10, 2007 4:30-6:00 pm
    • ILR Conference Cener
  • September 7, 2007, ARISTIDE R. ZOLBERG, New School for Social Research
    “A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America”
    • Friday, September 7, 3:00 PM
    • Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall
    • Co-sponsored by City and Regional Planning, Development Sociology, Polson Institute for Global Development
  • September 7, 2007, SAHANA ROY COUDHURY, Indian Statistical Institute
    “Migration in a Model of Occupational Choice”
    • Tuesday, September 7, 4:00-5:30 pm
    • Uris Hall, Room 498
    • Co-sponsored by Development Economics Workshop, Co-Sponsored by the Department of Economics and the Program on Comparative Economic Development
  • August 27, 2007, GEORGE BORJAS, Harvard University
    "Immigration and African-American Employment Opportunities: The Response of Wages, Employment, and Incarceration to Labor Supply”
    • 115 Ives Hall, 4:15 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
    • Sponsored by the Labor Economics Workshop joint with Public Economics and Cornell Population Program
  • Cornell International Law Journal 2007 Symposium "Immigration Policy: Who Belongs?"
    • February 23-24, 2007
    • This conference aimed at providing an interdisciplinary theoretical foundation through exploring labor and immigration practices, legal structures, and economic realities. Check this website for more information http://organizations.lawschool.cornell.edu/ilj/symposium/

Polson Institute Memorial Lecture

  • November 17, 2006, MARTA TIENDA, Princeton University
    "Hispanics and the American Future"