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Migration Issues Group

Migration Issues Group (MIG) acts as a network of faculty, researchers and graduate students in the Cornell community who work on migration issues. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of migration study, the MIG network is open to scholars from all disciplines and already includes demographers, economists, historians, geographers, lawyers, political scientists, and sociologists. MIG’s goal is to serve as an information resource about upcoming CU migration events, CU migration courses, and CU migration research.

Contact: Mary M. Kritz at mmk5@cornell.edu, Doug Gurak at dtg2@cornell.edu

MIG Coordinating Group Members:
Maria Cook, International and Comparative Labor, mlc13@cornell.edu
Doug Gurak, Development Sociology, dtg2@cornell.edu
Michael Jones-Correa, Government, mj64@cornell.edu
Daniel Lichter, Policy, Analysis and Management, dt128@cornell.edu
Stephen Yale-Loehr, Law, swy1@cornell.edu

MIG Membership

MIG Activities:

    • 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
  • Polson Institute Events

Course Information

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

  • The German ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius is calling for applications for "Settling Into Motion" - The Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarships in Migration Studies. The scholarship program seeks to address the ongoing transformations in societies where migration is just one factor among others generating change. For 2008, applications relating to migration and urban transformations are especially welcome. The Scholarship deadline is 31 March 2008. Click here for more information.

Other Migration-Related Programs at Cornell University

Immigration Reports and Statistics

Related Sites:

International and Regional Research and Policy Groups

University Study Programs on Migration